Arsenal’s woeful display against West Ham at ‘not-so-fortress’ Emirates last week robbed me of my only source of optimism for 2024. Jesus’ two missed headers, Saka’s waning ability to terrify fullbacks, and Declan Rice’s revealed mortality, jolted me out of a blissful, fantastical dream in which the Gunners were unassailable shoo-ins for the Premier League title. And just in case my revived pessimism was unfounded, they were even worse against Fulham on New Year’s Eve. How depressing. 2024 promises to be a tough year.
The rapid Balkanisation of Britain will continue. The weekend’s events in Camberwell testify to that. Eritrean immigrants demonstrating their gratitude for Britain’s hospitality by attacking the Metropolitan Police. They were terribly upset about the Ethiopians, apparently, so took to the streets with sticks and bats, hitting Ethiopian-looking coppers. Meanwhile, a Sudanese terrorist was awarded the right to remain in the UK, his identity withheld to help him murder infidels, presumably. And in Sheffield, a family feud redolent of those usually found in Karachi led to the death of an innocent father and husband.
These follow the ‘pro-Palestinian’ hate-marches that so pointedly expressed the malign consequences of multiculturalism. A utopian patchwork of tolerant and mutually respectful communities we ain’t. Britain’s Jewish citizens, in particular, are under attack, predominantly from those who submit to the Religion of Peace. But also from the radical left that has made common cause with the so-called ‘oppressed’ of the world. The celebrations that greeted the rapes, murders and beheadings of over 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians on 7th October were gut-wrenching. They were also indicative of a profound moral rot that has taken hold in the West – a moral rot that’s being fed, among other things, by mass immigration and identity politics.
The slow death of Britain is set to continue into 2024. And the almost certain election of a Keir Starmer-led Labour government will no doubt accelerate the process. The Pabloist of St Pancras has until now been rather coy when it comes to sharing his plans for office. But we should expect the worst: Net Zero on steroids, gender self-identification, the continuation of mass migration and the cultural assault upon Britain’s history and identity, and the economically stultifying regulatory shadowing of the EU in preparation for our eventual re-entry. These are just some of the treats he has in store for us. But looking at the premiership of Tony Blair, the last Labour leader to conceal his far-left philosophical roots, we cannot discount the demolition of what’s left of our constitutional settlement too. He’s admitted his radical intentions, after all – without, of course, damaging his electoral prospects by explaining what they are.
And as our slow, agonising national suicide continues, we face a perplexing nexus of external challenges. Iran and her proxies threaten our interests, one of them being the survival of the only liberal democracy in the Middle East; Russian troops, armed with Iranian weapons, grow in strength, and continue to execute their barbarous assault upon the Ukrainian people; and the serpentine Chinese premier continues to menace the Indo-Pacific, and, in particular, Taiwan’s independence. This albeit loose alliance of autocratic, totalitarian regimes, represents the most profound challenge the Western democracies have faced since the end of the Cold War. Indeed, the pieces on the geopolitical chessboard are almost in place. And this comes at a time when the West is at its weakest: riven with internal divisions, economically and militarily atrophied, and, most of all, lacking in self-confidence. Do we even want to survive as a civilisation? I have my doubts.
2024 looks bleak. And now, even The Arsenal, my one source of excited optimism, have let me down. Anyway, happy new year!
Joe Baron is a teacher and a writer, published in The Spectator, The Sun, the TES, Breitbart, Conservative Home, The Conservative Woman and The Daily Telegraph. His blog can be found here.
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Russian troops, armed with Iranian weapons, grow in strength, and continue to execute their barbarous assault upon the Ukrainian people…
I was with you 100% up until this. You neglected to mention the murderous Ukrainian attacks on ethnic Russians living in the Ukraine way before the Russians decided enough was enough and did something about it.