Politics in Britain is fundamentally broken. Our system no longer serves the public but instead perpetuates a relentless cycle of failure, incompetence, and corruption, marked by hollow promises from every political party. Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats—they are all the same. Each has had their chance, and each has demonstrated that they are absolutely useless at running the country. Taxes rise, freedoms shrink, and the standard of living for the average person steadily declines. This theatre is orchestrated by political class, who manipulate the well-meaning yet naive, ultimately leaving us all to foot the bill.
This is the reality of modern politics in Britain—fundamentally flawed, unaccountable, and unsustainable.
Labour’s Inevitable Failure
This morning, I opened Twitter to yet another hollow slogan from the newly elected Labour Party:
“A Britain that belongs to you. That’s what this Labour Government will deliver.”
How can any government claim Britain belongs to its people when taxes are at their highest sustained level since World War II, regulations stifle innovation, and state surveillance is so pervasive you'd think we were getting an East Berlin reboot.
Like its predecessors, Labour’s failure isn’t just probable—it’s inevitable. They've inherited an economy crippled by stagnation and debt, a crisis that no amount of socialism will fix. With national debt now exceeding 100% of GDP—the highest since the early 1960s—fiscal flexibility is all but gone. Coupled with sluggish productivity, a shrinking skills base, and an ageing population putting strain on public services, the odds of turning things around are slim.
Labour also inherited a political environment that is hyper-fragmented, divided by ideology, and perpetually scrutinised by 24-hour news cycles and social media. Mistakes, even trivial ones, are amplified in seconds. Look at the recent Labour Party conference, where Keir Starmer’s speech was meant to lay out his grand vision for fixing the country. Instead, a simple slip of the tongue—calling for the release of “sausages,” instead of “hostages”—became the story. Within hours, memes flooded the internet, and his entire message was lost in the noise.
How can any party govern effectively under such scrutiny? And how can voters make sense of it all? The mainstream corporate media is politically aligned, the BBC too scared to offend anyone, and social media is awash with ideological echo chambers selling brain pills, mattresses and conspiracy theories.
To make things more confusing, foreign powers like Russia and China, and now even AI-generated disinformation, are manipulating our perceptions. An Oxford University study revealed that nearly one-fifth of all political tweets during the Brexit referendum were generated by bots and politically motivated bots were used to amplify disinformation during the 2019 UK general election.
We’re living in a new information paradigm where the lines between truth and fiction have blurred beyond recognition. Propaganda is everywhere, from the headlines to our newsfeeds, leaving not just politicians struggling to get a message out, but all of us struggling to make sense of a world where the truth has become just another competing narrative.
Government is Broken, Politicians Broke It
This endless noise props up a broken system, where the incompetence of one government simply hands power to an equally inept successor. When Labour inevitably fails, the Tories will return, just as ineffectual as ever. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats remain on the fringe—too timid to capitalise on public disillusionment. In their ineffectiveness, they’ve given up third place to the Reform Party, who are further driving a wedge between voters with their cast of boogeymen.
Reform’s rise terrifies the political establishment. Love him or hate him, Nigel Farage tapped into a widespread sense of disenfranchisement, enough to win 14% of the vote. If we had proportional representation, Reform would hold around 14% of the seats, roughly 90, instead of being stuck with single digits under the current system. Similarly, the Liberal Democrats, who polled around 12%, would have closer to 78 seats rather than their current allocation. This distortion further exacerbates the feeling that voters are not truly represented.
Turnout in the most recent general election was a mere 60%, barely surpassing the historically low turnout of 59.4% in 2001, and reminiscent of post-World War I figures when suffrage was being expanded. With the Conservatives becoming ever more socialist and Labour ever more stupid, fewer people are voting, and those who do feel increasingly unheard. Reform is listening and capitalising on this disillusionment with a typically populist message.
The Partisan Game
The political system isn't just flawed—it's fundamentally broken. UK politics has devolved into a game of tribal loyalty, much like football, where support for your party is overshadowed by a deep-seated hatred for the others. The Tories are 'scum,' Labour are 'communists,' Reform are 'fascists,' and as for the Liberal Democrats—well, does anyone even remember them? Those of us politically homeless watch from the sidelines, bewildered by the absurdity of it all.
That’s politics now—unthinking, partisan, and loyal to the death.
This tribalism feeds a vicious cycle, where loyalty to your party overrides any willingness to question its actions. You justify your side’s blunders while eagerly condemning the same behavior from your opponents, as if the goal is to ‘win’ rather than seek solutions. But in the end, it’s a hollow victory. The truth is, all parties have become equally ineffective, serving the interests of the elite while leaving the public—the people they claim to represent—forgotten.
Stop Playing
If you are a voter disheartened by all of this, have you questioned yourself? Do you really believe any party can meaningfully improve your life, let alone the country as a whole? History suggests different. The UKs reputation is collapsing internationally and many see us as a crime-ridden hell hole where sexual deviants roam the BBC, gangs roam London with machetes, and granny’s go to prison for posting on Facebook.
Have you considered another option? What if you stopped playing? What if you took a step back and saw the system for what it really is? The politicians need your vote more than you need them. Without it, they lose their power.
Remember, we don’t live in an authoritarian regime like Russia or China—yet so, while we still have the semblance of democracy, we have an opportunity to spark real change. So, politely, fuck them all. Burn it down, reject their game, and wait for genuine leadership and integrity to emerge.
But the first step is opting out. Discard your political loyalties. This isn’t red vs blue anymore—it’s the political class vs the rest of us. This might sound like populist rhetoric itself but we need to establish a movement, one based on liberty and freedom. This is a realisation I’ve come to over the last seven years where I have been discussing economics and governance on my podcast. I believe this is what can bring meaningful change.
People Migrate Towards Freedom
You can observe a society's freedom by looking at its immigration patterns. In oppressive regimes, borders are guarded with snipers and barbed wire to keep people from escaping, while in the freest nations, barriers are built to keep out those seeking opportunity.
You may have been conditioned to resent those trying to enter our country, but think about the risks they take, crossing the Channel in flimsy boats. Hundreds have died making this journey. They see the value in our freedom and want to be a part of it. While immigration does need better control and integration and values are rightfully debated—these are issues for another day—let’s now focus on the signal, that Britain is still viewed as a desirable place to live, even if we worry about its decline. Restoring that greatness is what we should focus on.
A Culture of Liberty
We’re not enemies. We’ve been pitted against each other as a distraction. But at the core, we all want the same things: less crime, lower taxes, and functioning public services. These are achievable goals, but only if we stop letting politicians divide us.
The path forward must be one based on liberty and freedom. Every political decision should be evaluated by a simple question: “Does this make people more free or less free?” Only by creating a culture of freedom can we escape the grip of the political class and the managed decline they have accepted for us.
Use of AI
I use ChatGPT for:
Checking spelling, grammar and language
Research
Support in fact checking
I do not use AI to develop or write my arguments, these are all my own independent thoughts.
Mr Obnoxious Podcast
If you would like more content like this, please checkout my podcast, Mr Obnoxious.
Completely agree and the usual solution most people come to is different people to run government and not less government and more freedom for the individual.
Worth sharing something from Julius Ruechel
https://www.juliusruechel.com/2024/10/the-great-unravelling-why-democracy.html
"With a Robin Hood redistribution system, we begin the process of fracturing our society, fighting to decide who benefits and who gets plundered.
Those who come to depend on the government in some way or another will remain loyal supporters of whichever leader or party is most likely to preserve their government-dependent way of life.
No political party can make any meaningful reform to such a system because if they do, they will upset all the beneficiaries of this gravy train and automatically lose at the polls, which is why their rhetoric may differ but there is remarkable continuity between their governing policies no matter who gets elected.
Politicians can try to gain new supporters by adding more programs to cater to additional special interest groups, but they can't dismantle anything without upsetting the applecart. And so, the system becomes a one-way ratchet towards less freedom, ever greater taxation, ever greater regulation, and ever greater social engineering schemes to keep the beneficiaries of the system happy, while the productive members of society must bear an ever-growing burden. And the permanent propaganda to convince you of the morality and necessity of accepting that burden."
hi Peter, why do you use chatGPT still?!
You've interviewed Erik Vorhees a number of times, he has told you and your audience what chatGTP is - censored & not private. What good is that? Why not use Venice.ai that he created which is both uncensored and private?
It doesn't serve you or the world to default to chatGPT when there are other options like venice.ai which are much more aligned with your spoken values.