Michael Blackburn: ‘The unintended consequences of misjudgements can roll on for years years. In the case of Britain’s membership of the European Union, 43 years to be exact. That’s 43 years of deeper entanglement in the European project, increasing loss of control over whole areas of policy and a growing sense of alienation among the electorate. When Ted Heath took us in and signed away our sovereignty, knowing full well what he was doing, and prepared to lie to the British people as he did so, he couldn’t have foreseen that the electorate would eventually turn round and say we want out.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘There’s no doubt that result has been a bigger shock to the political and media establishment than anyone else. Cameron obviously never expected to lose it. He’d pulled this referendum trick with Scotland and won it, so he no doubt thought he could win this one, too. The media, sure of their own invincible cleverness, laid the anti-leave propaganda on by the bucket load. The Remain campaign reached the lowest point when they took advantage of the murder of the Labour MP, Jo Cox, at the hands of a local man with mental problems. ‘
Michael Blackburn: ‘The passions aroused by the referendum, the divisions opened up by it, the fact that Cameron felt he had to give it the go-ahead as a means to lance the boil of discontent, are indicative of a sizable rejection of the political establishment. They are no longer trusted. They prove, day in, day out, that they deserve no trust.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘There’s no reason to assume that the EU couldn’t create a unified military force from a selection of member states with others staying out completely or occasionally working in cooperation. They’ve accepted (for the moment) a situation with the euro, for example, in which some members do not participate.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘inevitably, well supplied with bureaucrats and lawyers working away at one directive after another, one set of regulations after another, one set of proposals after another. Railways, bananas, toilets, light bulbs, driving licences, passports, road tolls, boilers, gas and electricity, television scheduling, fish quotas, postal services, immigration, defence, herbal medicines — you name it, there’s hardly a thing untouched by the EU prodnoses. ‘
Michael Blackburn: ‘In the event of a scrap, therefore, my money would be on Vlad, despite the fact that he cedes the best part of twenty years to young Justin. Trudeau may have the extra height, and the quicker reflexes and energy of youth but Vlad has cunning and a finely-developed streak of viciousness in him. And he’s Russian. And he’s ex-KGB. Justin may land a few wallops on him but Vlad would bite his ears off and turn his model’s face into a moonscape before he knew what was happening. ‘
Michael Blackburn: ‘Brought together for this portrait the group forms a rough triangle whose longest line slopes down from the left to the right, replicating the mirrored mirrors behind them. The most noticeable object that stands in the reflections is a clock. It is there to one side above the Queen’s head. Time is there always, the moments passing irrevocably; but in a continuum, linking past, present and future. This is how the monarchy has survived: accepting the change of tradition, and the tradition of change, cardigans and all.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘You know when you talk about Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet Union and the Cold War, for instance, nobody under the age of fifty has any real understanding of what you’re talking about. If it’s anything to do with politics in general, forget it. The same with history unless it involves Hitler. He’s the one permanent fixture in history teaching these days, it seems. Not Stalin, not Lenin, not Mao. If it’s British history perhaps Churchill. But Pitt, Gladstone, Disraeli, Nelson, Wellington — blank. Hitler trumps all. He sticks as permanently as the words of that awful pop song…’
Michael Blackburn: ‘I’ve had enough of many other things, but you get my drift. I have the feeling I’m not alone.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘Each Islamic atrocity in Europe triggers a predictable avalanche of political posturing and journalistic slop. That has changed in some parts but remains posturing and slop nonetheless. Politicians don’t seem quite as keen to leap up and proclaim that Islam is a religion of peace as they used to be or to preach the message that the actions of the terrorists are the result of a deformed form of Islam. The rest remains the same, however.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘The left is not just a system based on a conspiracy theory, it is a religious one and if you wish to leave you have to go full apostate. There are no half measures. Cohen is stuck with half measures and hence cannot accept that leftism ineluctably merges with antisemitism. He may think his being Jewish experiment will only be needed temporarily. He’s wrong: it’s permanent.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘This is not to dismiss or demean the many personal, cultural and economic links between Britain and the US, it’s just that we need our politicians and media to stop pretending it makes us special. If they don’t we’re always going to be in the “Yo, Blair!” category. It’s embarrassing.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘The unfortunate truth, though, is that “olympicly dim” describes so many modern politicians across the world. Many of them are olympian in all the wrong ways. Just look at them: Cameron, Obama, Hollande, Merkel. Olympians in arrogance, deceit, self-delusion , vanity and ignorance of the real world, all of them. We can’t seem to get rid of them and there seems to be no one on the political horizon who is not a similarly stunted bonehead.’
England as a pelting farm.
Michael Blackburn: ‘This is Labour’s attempt to look like it’s facing up to a problem and intending to fix it. Except it’s a con. The anti-English, anti-patriotic impulse is now so ingrained in the modern left it will be impossible to get rid of it even if they depose the ultra-left, Brit-hating Corbyn currently in charge. ‘