Today’s Problems – Today’s Politicians

May 4, 2021

Last month saw the anniversary of the day Britain sent a task force to reclaim the Falkland Islands after invasion by a dictatorship. 39 years ago, a military junta in Argentina, having seized power in a coup, saw its popularity plummet, as the limits of state power were exposed.

Yet one of the last nations that the UK could see itself in armed conflict with was this South American one. Argentina is a fine country, with wonderful people and a country with links to the UK going back centuries past. But a dictatorship is a dictatorship and desperate to shore up its standing among the people it sought to crush, the junta invaded the Falklands.

The merits or otherwise of Argentina’s claim to the islands – Islas Malvinas to Argentinians – is not for discussion here. The topic is the UK’s politicians and their response to events that happen. In 1982, the UK had leaders with life experience. They had been somewhere, done something and achieved things. Some had fought for their country.

As it had done before, the UK stood alone when the conflict began. Nobody elsewhere in the world really believed Britain would send its armed forces such a distance; when the country did, nobody really believed the UK would actually fight when those forces got there - but it did. The Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force showed what they were capable of and what could be done – with some resolve and a lot of courage.

Could the feat be repeated today? Our view is that it might be possible. We still have the finest armed services in the world. What we don’t have is the same quality of political leadership. The United Kingdom is not alone in this sad aspect to life today.

In 1982, the UK’s politicians showed their own courage, decisiveness and willingness to take the harder path. Today’s flimsy, shallow versions are the opposite. Not for them the hard road but the easy one. Shared by many, many others around the world, the UK’s politicians would rather try and stamp underfoot the rights and freedoms of its citizens, using health as the excuse.

This is why, like the junta of 1982, today’s politicians are desperate for approval; all they have ever done, in one shape or form, is be politicians, assistants to politicians or something closely allied to politics. They jump with alacrity on to any woke, green or other bandwagon that rolls past. They know of no other way because they have no knowledge of real life.

The sooner we can find candidates to stand for election who really do have something to offer, the better we will be.

© KJM Today 2021

Image - Alex Petrenko