It’s Armistice Day – and not one paper, printed or online, has mentioned it. Oh, most of them sport a poppy somewhere on their masthead, even the lefty Mirror, but the guardian and ’i’ News aren’t. Check it out in the usual place (link).

One might say that this year, 104 years later, isn’t a jubilee year so why make a fuss about it? Well, there are two reasons. One is that there just happens to be a war being fought, with shells and bombs, with soldiers and civilians dying. Our esteemed MSM have been full of ‘war reports’ and thoughts and analyses by former military people and experts. So recalling the end of WWI might be appropriate, no?

If that reason isn’t sufficient, here’s another: inflation. In November 1922 Germany – the Weimar Republic – this was already galloping. Those of us who had proper history lessons in school remember how everything played out in the following ten, eleven years. Remembering this day when the guns went silent, and what followed, therefore ought to be of interest this year.

‘Experts’ economical, military and ‘social’, should have taken this opportunity to inform all of us of this history, not least because we’re again living in days where the saying that ‘those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it’ is playing out before our eyes.

The most pressing lesson is the one about inflation. We’ve already left behind what is called: “low inflation, where the process of rising prices is protracted and not generally noticeable except by studying past market prices” (link). We’ve been living with that for years but things were ticking over comfortably, low interest rates meaning that debts weren’t painful. Now see this (my emphasis):

“Almost all hyperinflations have been caused by government budget deficits financed by currency creation. Hyperinflation is often associated with some stress to the government budget, such as wars or their aftermath, sociopolitical upheavals, a collapse in aggregate supply or one in export prices, or other crises that make it difficult for the government to collect tax revenue. A sharp decrease in real tax revenue coupled with a strong need to maintain government spending, together with an inability or unwillingness to borrow, can lead a country into hyperinflation.” (link)

Doesn’t this ring alarm bells? It ought to, not least because this isn’t occurring in just one country but across the western industrialised nations. One effect not mentioned is that the middle classes are being impoverished. A  huge ‘levelling down’ happened in Germany in the Weimar republic thanks to that hyperinflation. Strangely enough, our financial, monetary and economic experts seem to believe that “we” can bear this because we’re not forced to carry huge stacks of banknotes around, as happened inGermany a hundred years ago.

No, this time it’s far easier for governments and central banks to hide the true state of affairs because money transactions are done digitally, with credit or debit cards being used by the more elderly when not paying cash and ‘online banking’ used by Generation Smartphone where a swipe pays for the latest ‘must-have’.

Moreover, it’s not as if this country hasn’t experienced high inflation before. It’s as if no one in today’s MSM dares to mention the spiral of price rises and wage demands in the pre-Thatcher years. This is especially astonishing since it looks as if we’re on our way into just such an inflationary spiral. The Times, having firmly become Blue Labour, reports in measured voice that “100,000 civil servants vote to strike” (link, paywalled), and that the boss of the public service trade union threatened to coordinate ‘walk-outs’ with other trade unions:

“Staff in the courts, Border Force, the passport office, DVLA and job centres are among 100,000 civil servants who have voted for strike action. Disruption looms for public services ranging from the land registry and the coastguard to the British Museum and Kew Gardens after the PCS union said it would set dates for walkouts unless ministers offered more money by the end of next week.” (link, paywalled)

This is crushing, innit: DVLA, Kew Gardens, passport office workers walking out: how will we cope! I wonder why they’re not mentioning those workers which do have an impact on everybody’s daily lives, such as the rubbish collection workers. The DT has more:

“The union represents workers in 124 different Whitehall departments and arms-length bodies, including those in the Border Force and Passport Office, as well as those working in job centres and processing benefit payments.” (paywalled link)

No bennies coming in – that’s more serious! Some of us would like to know if the Police Forces are also going  on strike. Will the Army be called in, again? They’re not permitted to strike, are they …. There’s more:

“Outlining the forms of co-ordinated strike action that will be discussed, Mr Serwotka [boss of the PCS] explained: “If the RMT and Aslef take action on the trains, then we will look to see whether we can bring action on the Highways Agency and in the Department for Transport that seeks to maximise the impact of people on that day.” He said if industrial action goes ahead in airports, PCS could “enhance” the impact by also getting baggage handlers and UK Border Force officials who check passports to strike on the same day. “People think civil servants are grey suits sitting at their desks – but when they don’t work you actually notice it because the whole country grinds to a halt,” a source said.” (paywalled link)

Yes, well, there’s one snag: next week Mr Hunt will present the Autumn Budget with all those stealth taxes, such as not increasing the personal tax-free allowance. Does any of the union bosses not realise that their demands, if fulfilled, means their wonderful higher income will be taxed away? Does Mr Serwotka not realise that his ‘workers’ will have to pay for their salary rises by higher council taxes next year? And that’s not even taking into account that these demands will accelerate inflation.

One other thing all those trade unions haven’t taken into account is that we, the paying plebs, won’t storm out to support them, simply because we’ve learned how to live in a country where everything has ground to a halt. Even those blessed with the memories of amoebas will remember the Lockdowns. They weren’t that long ago … Moreover, thanks to all those nudges about ‘energy savings’ and preparing for possible blackouts, most of us peasants are prepared for a country grinding to a halt.

Meanwhile trade union bosses and industrialists alike ought to ponder the inescapable fact that an impoverished middle class won’t be able to get the economy going because they won’t have the money to buy things, not when food and home fuel is all they can afford.

I wonder if the Westminster swamp dwellers realise that their situation is far more precarious than they love to believe. After all, they have now become the ruling class, Red, Blue, Yellow: no difference. Richard Littlejohn asks in a plaintive article “Where have all the Tories gone” (link). The ‘Tories’, Mr Littlejohn, are all here, distributed across the legacy parties. Why not ask where all the conservatives have gone, the small ‘c’ conservatives? The ones vilified for decades in the Westminster MSM?

I leave you with a piece of international news. Remember Elon Musk and twitter? He’s now being ‘investigated by the US government: “‘You Heard the President’: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Confirms Administration Considering Musk Investigation” (link) – the swamp critters are fighting back, innit!

Well, Mr Littlejohn, doesn’t it look as if the remaining small-c conservatives are being eradicated, from us insignificant peasants to the mighty Musk? Perhaps someone, somewhere, might recall what and who followed in the wake of the Weimar hyperinflation in the wake of the crushing and impoverishing of the middle classes.

As for me, today I recall the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, especially the last stanza and wonder if we have now become faith breakers.

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email