Most people, especially the Whitehall WFH crowd, are now on holidays. Thus the customary gossip, a.k.a leaks from ‘sources’, is absent and our MSM don’t have much to write about for their shock-horror-outrage front pages. Here’s the usual compilation by ‘staff’: “Newspaper headlines: EU rejects UK migrant plan, and dissidents have PSNI data” (link). Someone in the Nudge Unit however seems to have dropped a word into a journalist’s ear. More on that below.

First, I ask why the Westminster swamp dwellers are so keen on using illegal immigration as their preferred stick with which to bash the government. Do they actually believe that a Labour government would stop the dinghies from arriving? That Labour would throw them out, or make them content with living in barracks or on yon barges? 

They do live in cloud-cuckoo land, those ‘elites’, and are shamelessly parading their utter disconnect with the lives of us plebs. A staggering example was provided by one of The Times’ more senior commentators yesterday. I suspect though that someone in the Nudge Unit gave her a nudge. Madame Libby Purvis explained in a long piece why taxing home deliveries would be a beautiful thing. Here are the headlines (all emphases are mine):

“Tax on home delivery can help save high street – Despite a rash of shop closures, the public square and social mixing still matter — we need more enlightened approaches” (link, paywalled)

First of all, Ms Purvis seems blissfully unaware of a perfect statement by a former US President regarding taxes: here’s the video clip – which still has not been bettered. Her whole piece shows that she must have led a very sheltered life.

Does she really not recall that ‘the public square’ hasn’t been a happy place of ‘social mixing’ for decades? I remember very well how local papers and even some national ones were full of attempts by helpless police and councils to stop young yobs from drinking all day in said ‘public squares’. And now, ever since Blair, those ‘public squares’ have become meeting places which we, the ‘natives’, are  avoiding for good reasons.

Ms Purvis next describes the lovely High Streets of yesteryear, full of nice shops where we, the peasants, would go to meet each other for a ‘shopping experience’. How quaint! It’s reminiscent of the rose-tinted craze for  chocolate-box cottages – places which only existed in the minds of urban artists.

Even before the turn of the millennium the old-fashioned High Streets were dying thanks to high local business rates, thanks to shops being taken over by national chain stores, changing the face of the High Streets, and by shopping malls built on land outside  the town centre.

Even then, using one’s car to get to town centres was difficult. Now it has become impossible thanks to fewer and fewer car parks being made available. We all know that local authorities, becoming ever more green, are doing their utmost to make us take a bike to go shopping while also curtailing public transport. She proves Ronald Reagan’s words to be correct when she next enthuses:

“[…]  it is the job of national administration to notice changes and mitigate ill effects. Real shops should be helped rather than hindered, simply because the public square and social mixing matter to morale and health. It might even, shock horror, be worth taxing the act of home delivery itself.” (link, paywalled)

This is the cry for ‘government’ – Labour, I assume – to subsidise what has stopped moving, i.e. the High Street. The cry that ‘social mixing matters’  because of ‘morale’ – what ‘morale’?  – and ‘health’ is straight from the Nudge Unit. Are they now trying to retreat from having nudged us into lockdowns for reasons of ‘health’ and morale?

The final sentences show Ms Purvis trying hard to justify imposing home delivery taxes as means of social engineering. Her snobbery is in full flow:

“Active people-facing roles like physical retail and hospitality enliven, educate and bond communities more than the lonely antisocial drudgery of call centre, van-driving or robotically supervised warehouse jobs.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear. At least she refrained from calling these jobs ‘modern slavery’. Never mind that the drudgery of working as ‘sales person’ isn’t alleviated by being an ‘active, people-facing role’, it’s ‘good’ drudgery because it ain’t ’anti-social’! There’s more, and the fat cat is finally let out of the bag:

“Every policy should bend towards healthier, happier humans, and ease us away from the mouse-click isolation of virtual lockdown broken only by the odd angry demonstration or TikTok mob. It should encourage socially competent, flexible, friendly citizens: people of the agora, the timeless market square.” (link, paywalled)

See – we only need to get back to the dreamy, ‘timeless market square’ and all will be well with our society! Using taxation to nudge us into this blissful state is just what is needed. After all, in ye olden days there never were the ‘odd, angry demonstrations’!

Regarding those socially competent, flexible citizens flocking to yon market squares: Ms Purvis must be unaware of the ongoing epidemic of shoplifting in those shops still sitting in High Streets. I’d recommend her checking out the fate of San Francisco’s High Street with shops closed everywhere because the owners can no longer afford the constant thievery. 

That’s all I have for today. Aren’t we lucky to have ‘opinion makers’ nudging us into accepting taxes aimed not just at taking more from our wallets but as instrument of blatant social engineering. Have a good day



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