This is an extract from an essay published on Matt Goodwin’s Substack on 9th November.
Why does Britain keep giving in? We surrendered sovereignty over the Chagos Islands while paying for access to Diego Garcia. We entertain endless demands to pay “slavery reparations”.
We refuse to stop paying billions of pounds in overseas aid. We constantly offer concessions to Brussels. We try to accommodate Iran. And we’re soft on Islamists who openly want to destroy our way of life.
On the surface, these things might not seem connected at all.
But according to one deeply experienced government insider who has just written a brilliant essay, they are all part of the same failure within Britain’s political system.A politically weak ruling class whose governing worldview is plagued by anxiety over historical guilt, and views defending Britain’s interests as morally suspect.
Sir John Jenkins, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Libya, who also served as the Foreign Office’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.His report is titled Danegeld and Danegeldism – in reference to the tribute money that the Anglo-Saxons once paid to the Viking raiders on these islands, in their misguided belief that if they just kept making concessions then the external threat would eventually disappear.
But instead, this soft approach and never-ending concessions only encouraged more and more demands, hollowing out the community from within.Now fast forward to today when the same mistaken worldview – what Sir John Jenkins calls Danegeldism – has captured the Westminster class.
In the intensifying debate over slavery, our leaders are similarly considering demands for billions if not trillions in “reparations” payments, turning their elite anxieties over historical guilt into very real pressures on today’s struggling taxpayers.
On foreign aid, our leaders have turned overseas assistance into a permanent moral obligation despite never seriously examining what impact it has on the nations that receive this aid, or what benefits it really brings to Britain.
What unites all these examples and more, argues Sir John Jenkins, is what lies at the root of today’s ruling class in Whitehall and Westminster, which is a deeply flawed worldview.
Whether Labour or Tory, governments have consistently accepted a false and deeply damaging narrative, namely that unless Britain makes yet another concession – to Islamists, Brussels, Iran, international lawyers, Commonwealth nations – then something worse will happen.
Britain needs leaders, in other words, who actually put Britain’s national interest first.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
Why does Britain keep giving in? We surrendered sovereignty over the Chagos Islands while paying for access to Diego Garcia. We entertain endless demands to pay “slavery reparations”.
We refuse to stop paying billions of pounds in overseas aid. We constantly offer concessions to Brussels. We try to accommodate Iran. And we’re soft on Islamists who openly want to destroy our way of life.
On the surface, these things might not seem connected at all.
But according to one deeply experienced government insider who has just written a brilliant essay, they are all part of the same failure within Britain’s political system.A politically weak ruling class whose governing worldview is plagued by anxiety over historical guilt, and views defending Britain’s interests as morally suspect.
Sir John Jenkins, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Libya, who also served as the Foreign Office’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.His report is titled Danegeld and Danegeldism – in reference to the tribute money that the Anglo-Saxons once paid to the Viking raiders on these islands, in their misguided belief that if they just kept making concessions then the external threat would eventually disappear.
But instead, this soft approach and never-ending concessions only encouraged more and more demands, hollowing out the community from within.Now fast forward to today when the same mistaken worldview – what Sir John Jenkins calls Danegeldism – has captured the Westminster class.
In the intensifying debate over slavery, our leaders are similarly considering demands for billions if not trillions in “reparations” payments, turning their elite anxieties over historical guilt into very real pressures on today’s struggling taxpayers.
On foreign aid, our leaders have turned overseas assistance into a permanent moral obligation despite never seriously examining what impact it has on the nations that receive this aid, or what benefits it really brings to Britain.
What unites all these examples and more, argues Sir John Jenkins, is what lies at the root of today’s ruling class in Whitehall and Westminster, which is a deeply flawed worldview.
Whether Labour or Tory, governments have consistently accepted a false and deeply damaging narrative, namely that unless Britain makes yet another concession – to Islamists, Brussels, Iran, international lawyers, Commonwealth nations – then something worse will happen.
Britain needs leaders, in other words, who actually put Britain’s national interest first.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
Photo by: Jay Alexander.
