Westminster and Washington Battle for the Crown of Absurdity – The American Spectator

On Aug 22, 2023

When Winston Churchill stood in Missouri in 1946 and opined about the special relationship between the U.K. and the U.S., he probably did not have in mind economic incompetence, creeping authoritarianism, and electoral chaos as the golden thread that binds this transatlantic partnership.

Economy: UK Inconstancy and US Rising Rates

In the United Kingdom, the economy has been blighted by almost 13 years of complete mismanagement and incompetence. A revolving door of prime ministers and chancellors has seen the economy plummet to the point of national celebration when inflation reaches the “low” of just under 7 percent. While the potential for warm weather could see minimal boosts in economic activity, the reality remains that rising interest rates, stagnant wage growth, and sheer pessimism are making the risk of recession practically a certainty.

While a spring surge stateside has buoyed markets and the general economic outlook, there are still real reasons to be wary about the prospects of the short-term U.S. economy. Recently, officials at the Fed remarked that there was a need to keep raising rates for fear that the U.S. central bank had not won its fight against spiraling inflation. In line with this, the published job numbers have become nothing more than propaganda to prop up confidence in an ailing system. Given this, growing numbers of people are taking up second and third jobs to make ends meet. (READ MORE: Music Elites and the Oliver Anthony Conundrum)

Entrepreneurialism, productivity, industry. These are the backbone of the relationship that has been developed over centuries between the U.K. and the U.S. However, a failure of governance and policy has seen two once great economies fighting a race to the bottom.

Leadership: UK Dunderheads and Witch Hunts

Is the old adage that the government you elect is the government you deserve correct? Well, in this case, I think the Great British and American public would rather hope not. A succession of scandals, failures, and incompetencies have made a mockery of two once-great democracies that produced the likes of Washington, Thatcher, and Churchill.

In Westminster, the U.K. was locked in the grip of Boris Johnson, a prime minister whose scandals became synonymous with his time in Downing Street. His tenure at the top of the British government included the illegal prorogation of Parliament, a lobbying scandal by one of his MPs, damaging revelations about his behavior during COVID, and sexual misconduct allegations regarding a deputy chief whip.

From one demagogue to another, the 45th president of the United States is not a stranger to courting controversy. It took over 230 years for a president to be indicted, and now Donald Trump faces four indictments and 91 criminal charges across New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. The motivation for these extraordinary events is quite clear — in any other country, the U.S. would have, and has, called similar witch hunts undemocratic in the extreme. Arresting your main political opponent surely only happens elsewhere. However, it is not just enough to look at the past when it comes to awarding the crown of absurdity in our political systems. (READ MORE: Add Larry Elder to the GOP Debate)

President Joe Biden appears not to be embracing old age, but a wave of fragility is passing over his presidency in a way that is clearly impacting the health and prospects of the nation. At the other end of the spectrum, Rishi Sunak, the youngest rrime minister since the 19th century, appears to be out of his depth, pandering to the whims of the “high-spend, high-tax” majority of the public.

Policy: Green Suicide and US Border Crisis

Earlier this year, Sunak and Biden unveiled the “Atlantic Declaration,” an accord seemingly pandering to eco-zealots with agreements focused on solar panels, electric vehicles, and green subsidies. While a promised transatlantic trade deal posed in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto appears to be on hold, the respective administrations seem hell-bent on ensuring that there isn’t anything left of the countries they run once their tenures are complete.

Biden and Sunak are both facing increasing pressure to secure the integrity of their countries’ borders, with record small-boat crossings in the English Channel and southern border failures across the Atlantic leading to unprecedented illegal immigration.

As a cost-of-living crisis bites both nations, the apparent desire to pursue “sustainable” methods of energy production appears to be placing a stranglehold on the working and middle classes. A crippling energy crisis has meant that many have had to choose between heating and eating.

The economy, leadership, and policy performance of both the U.K. and the U.S. is teetering on a cliff’s edge.

While both countries wield immense power on the global stage, it is instead being channeled into efforts to self-implode, with failures of leadership and policy at the forefront of the decline. When it comes to crowning a winner in this gladiatorial battle of failures, it would be impossible to pick a victor.

What we all hope is that things can only get better. What I expect is that they will get worse before they do.

Simon Dolan is the author of Trump: The Hidden Halo and a leading entrepreneur that took the U.K. government to the High Court over its lockdown regulations.

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