I

To expand a bit on a recent letter: the Irish Government that collapsed in early 2011, the Government of the 30th Dáil, was notable for a number of reasons. In the first place, its willingness to lie about things that took no more effort to disprove than a look at the day’s news: as the IMF representatives arrived, and announced their arrival, and were photographed heading into Government buildings, Ministers said that no such thing was happening. Secondly, the private reports—unsubstantiated in any public record that Macdara has seen, but quite credible when one looked at the state of the politicians concerned—that multiple Ministers turned to the drink as the country burned. Thirdly, the total failure of the Green Party to bring down the Government in time or in a way that would reflect well on the Greens themselves, whom Fianna Fáil had been saying were not at all the rank amateurs that you might assume: they solemnly promised to withdraw at a point several months in the future, then, in the wave of anger that followed, they brought down the Government without a stay of Execution. In truth there were many things remarkable about that period, including the Government’s willingness to waste public money on fighting (and losing) a court case taken by Sinn Féin to force them to hold a by-election for a seat empty for seventeen months, but these are some of the points that have stuck in the present writer’s mind. 

It is hard for Macdara to think of a Mature Democracy so evidently run by incompetents—let us leave aside Trump—but the System prevailed inasmuch as the Government did come to an end earlier than its full course. Your correspondent was reminded of this period in 2022, when the London Government entered a period of full chaos—again, after the Pandemic offered a short respite in Westminster pandemonium—under Liz Truss. It seemed inconceivable that the English elites would be able to avoid an election. Surely one major rule of Capitalo-Democracy is that a party incapable of governing must allow the people a Say; it is easy to imagine that this imperative would be ignored in a situation in which there is a redistributive party waiting to take Power, but this was not the case in English politics, wherein a mildly social democratic turn in the English Labour Party was treated as if Satan himself had arrived to entice the electorate to join him in Communistic Hell. But in the case under discussion we saw a disgraced government shamelessly maintaining Power, with the apparent acquiescence of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. 

Five Prime Ministers since 2010, the beginning of this undistinguished reign; ten Ministers for Education, one of whom lasted two days; thirteen Ministers for Prisons, one of whom lasted only six days in her second time in the role within the same government. One undistinguished Minister that this writer cannot bear to name is on his ninth Cabinet role since 2010; then again another is on his ninth Cabinet role since 2018, with six separate portfolios within 2022 alone. There are many examples. And this is leaving aside questions of corruption and bullying, of which there have been many.

The sense that the State itself is collapsing, that there is no governing authority in place in Westminster, is extraordinary. The people appear to have accepted that the Government is not a Government and that everything is getting worse. Macdara witnessed the civil unrest in London in 2011 firsthand. At times he forgets about the linearity of Time and attempts to google the future: he has had the impulse in writing this passage to search for when the next wave of riots will take place. But he has been duly reminded about temporality and he does not care to make a guess: there is, it must be said, a feeling that this demoralisation can carry on indefinitely, though the mind says that this cannot be so. The feeling of a Cabinet collapsed, exhausted and dishonest is one the present writer is familiar with. The feeling of a State without hope is new to him. This hopelessness is substantially driven by the uselessness of the Labour branch of the English Establishment Party: professionally miserable, characterless, craven non-entities who are promising not to do anything at all when it is their turn in Power.

Before looking a bit more at this despicable crowd, it only remains to be pointed out that in London the System proves itself by continuing without recourse to any democratic action, whereas even in a neighbouring State governed by charlatans, it was necessary for a non-functioning Government to call an election. An election would not solve the problems of the Single United-Forever-Divided-Never Kingdom, of course, but one might have thought that it is the least that could have been done. 

II

Macdara listens to podcasts every day. And, regrettably for your correspondent’s wellbeing, certain podcasts think to report on the chaos of England both in itself, and as regards its spread into neighbouring jurisdictions under English control.

On more than one occasion, these reports have involved interviewing some cadaverous representative of the English Labour Party or the English Labour Party in Scotland. The attack line is abundantly clear even from the couple of minutes that Macdara can take before he switches over to some lighthearted True Crime. This fatuous group of people have decided on the cleverest of attacks on the SNP. Their argument is as follows:

The SNP is a Nationalist Party → Brexit was fuelled by Nationalism → Trump as well → Therefore the SNP are the same thing as Brexit and Trump, and ipso facto Scottish freedom is actually also the same phenomenon as Brexit and Trump and is therefore very definitely a Bad Thing.

This from a party that failed to oppose Brexit either before or after the referendum; this from a party that supports the colonisation of Scotland—and what is that but an English Nationalist attitude? They argue that Scotland is too poor and unsuccessful to be free. And this is their argument in favour of Scotland staying in a Union that has caused it to be, in this Party’s view, poor and unsuccessful. 

There is a single dominant strand to these people’s engagement with Scotland: it must remain attached to England. Anything—in fact everything—must therefore constitute evidence in favour of this proposition. Which means that mutually contradictory things must become arguments in favour of Scottish subjugation. With regards to Brexit, you might think that an ELP MP would be informed enough to follow through on their argument as follows: 

Brexit is a catastrophe → Scotland got pulled out of the EU despite a large majority in favour of staying within it → Scotland-within-the-UK has been dragged into a mess not of its own making, without its agreement → The Glorious Union is bad for Scotland → Time to try Independence.

But no, no one does think that an ELP MP would be this informed or self-aware. Or would even care enough about Scotland to think through anything that affects the country, especially when it requires actively ceasing to consider a given issue from the English point of view. While the Conservative side of the English Establishment Party wants to keep Scotland out of a sense of imperial pique, their Labour brethren have a different reason: they view Scottish votes as being the only means through which the party can get to Power. It was easy to see this when Nicola Sturgeon resigned. The coverage in the London media was grotesque; so little could Scotland hold the attention of London journalists, that her resignation was reported on as an event that would surely help the English Labour Party.

Macdara has ever been disgusted to see the unwillingness of the London media to discuss Scotland in and for herself: he recalls a political correspondent for a major London paper venturing that the Scottish Green Party are—he thinks, though perhaps he may be mistaken—a pro-independence Party. The man was correct, but his hedging demonstrated not only his ignorance, but his willingness to own up to his ignorance, as if a party supporting the Scottish Government was not quite worthy of sufficient attention to bring certainty to his statements on the matter. 
This distinguished Celtic State is but a backdrop to the English Establishment, a vague but attractive place that fades into the North Sea. Macdara would like to suggest that Scotland’s leaving the Union might actually help the English, if the Saxons can do the work required to reestablish themselves in the new state in which they will find themselves. But all the evidence is that they will not do so. He has seen first-hand thoughtful and politically-committed English people resile from use of the word English. When they can no longer wear the cloak of Britain, what will become of them?