British Labour and Conservative MPs lash out at Paul Ryan

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If anybody wonders why Britain is no longer a world superpower, please refer to comments of the NHS loving liberals/socialists in this thread.

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Fixed.

You are Correlli Barnett and I claim my five pounds.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That argument was comprehensively debunked, destroyed and generally reduced to the status of a stock joke almost as soon as Barnett published his book. The only people who take it seriously are people who are not to be taken seriously.

Anyway, and to just go over a couple of points that are obvious rather than insightful, Britain's status as a 'superpower' (to use a ridiculous and ahistorical term in this context) was effectively ended by the First World War, even if the Foreign Office continued to believe otherwise. The repeated economic fiascoes and diplomatic humiliations of the 1920s and 1930s are testament enough. That the Empire itself was doomed was obvious to all observers by the 1930s, which is why debates on the issue tended to verge on the hysterical. The stresses and strains of the Second World War merely completed matters. Even if this were not true, of course, talk of 'decline' misses the point and shows what might be thought of as an imperialist mindset; the Post War period was one of unprecedented (and almost unbelievable for many at the time) prosperity for ordinary people in Britain. When Macmillan said that people had 'never had it so good' he was being a paternalistic dick, but he was also quite correct.

Anyway, and if we're talking about Britain in the twentieth century, It really comes down to whether you'd rather live in a slum, work in a job that may well end up killing you, be bow-legged from rickets and shorter than you'd rightfully be because of malnutrition, have no financial security whatsoever and access to only limited medical services but live in a country with vast Imperial possessions overseas, or whether you'd rather have the opposite.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wait, Politico's making an actual argument that people have actually made...?

Yes; Correlli Barnett (a military historian with no background in proper history; and it showed) wrote a load of drivel on the subject in the 1980s in a book called The Audit of War. It was popular with Thatcher cabinet ministers. It is generally remembered as an example of bad history and at Uni level is often introduced to undergraduates as such.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Believe it or not, there are even Britons who clearly articulate the full extent of the costs of Britain's love affair with socialism. Unfortunately, denial is a powerful force. Certain lies have been indoctrinated into generations of British people since primary school. Some eventually grow to accept that the lies were lies whereas most cling to denialism.

Amusing. Are you going to deal with those points I made a few points back, or are you going to continue with your Soviet approach to debate?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'm trying to work out how that post functions as a response to what I wrote, but am struggling. There seem to be some missing pieces.