New World Disorder
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Dangerous times: Now is the time to rebuild Britain
My gut said that sanctions would exacerbate the conflict in Ukraine, giving Putin all the excuse he needs to ramp up missile attacks on cities. They also send the wrong message. That we have placed sanctions on a great deal but not Russian gas says we are dependent and we are vulnerable, and Putin calls the shots.
Furthermore, the removal of Russia from SWIFT has caused a pivot to the Chinese system, helping China in its aims to establish its own financial systems as the global standard. It could prove to be one of many suicidal moves on the part of the West.
Meanwhile, the United States is contemplating whether it should impose or waive sanctions on India over its relationship with Russia through the “countering America’s adversaries through sanctions act”. Britain has similar decisions to make over Pakistan.
This crisis is causing an almost overnight global re-ordering, and the balance of power is not in our favour. Still, though, we at least know who our real allies are. We need no longer pretend that India or Pakistan is an ally or even a desirable trade partner.
This should again bring trade policy into sharp focus. With Ukraine being a major exporter of grain and food oils, food prices will skyrocket along with energy. We could be looking at the largest wheat shortage in history. We must rethink our agriculture and trade policy as a matter of urgency. It was already apparent that we needed to promote greater self-sufficiency, and that should have informed our new trade agreements. We might also ask where the wisdom is in paving over our countryside in favour of useless solar panels. Net Zero is not compatible with feeding the nation.
Decades of deindustrialisation and specialisation have left the UK uniquely vulnerable to global shocks, where we rely on China for electronics and consumables, and supply chains spanning the globe. The era of globalisation was based on a relative global stability, but that now ends, and so must all of our working assumptions about trade.
This now demands some grown up choices. We must do away with EU notions of “exporting our values” through trade. Similarly, middle class liberal foibles about the weather will have to go on the back burner. Many households have just enjoyed their last winter in a heated home for the foreseeable future. We must urgently pursue all energy sources available to us, placing the priority on domestic sources.
The policy hobby horses of the “adults in the room” were costly and damaging at the best of times, but now we face an uncertain future, we cannot afford the expensive luxury of a progressive ruling class who think we can run a modern economy on solar panels and windmills. Those “adults” have given us lockdowns, an energy crisis and now the threat of World War Three.
But then we have to be pragmatic about our own sacred cows. The the power plate tectonics shifting and the world becoming more dangerous, it is essential that firm up a functioning trade relationship with the EU. Johnson’s threadbare FTA was suboptimal even before the world turned upside down, but post-Covid, and in what looks to be a new cold war, we cannot afford petty bickering over sausages and customs forms with our nearest markets. We all have bigger concerns. Though it’s bleakly ironic that the EU will allow Russian gas to flow into the EU but not British pork.
Perhaps most importantly, Britain can no longer afford its broken immigration system. In light of multiple security threats, we are not an open port for all comers. Moreover, It’s decision time for Patel. It’s either Ukrainians or the dinghy scum. She can’t have both. She’s used up the tolerance budget. Times are going to get hard. Food, fuel and energy prices are going to shoot up while wages will be depressed. Unless we have a fair immigration system reflecting the wishes of the people, we will see more racial friction on our streets, leading to low level civil unrest.
Though what’s happening is both dangerous and terrifying, it is also an opportunity to rethink and reverse globalisation, and rebuild our domestic food and manufacturing capacity. It’s time to put an end to the hypocrisy of pretending our enemies are our “partners”, and bring our allies closer. If we scrap Net Zero and build nuclear on a war footing, then we secure our energy future and our prosperity for decades to come. These are times of necessity, and we need to break with the thinking that got us into this mess to begin with.
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on behalf of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) both at Henleaze Business Centre, 13 Harbury Road , Henleaze, Bristol, BS9 4PN