Has there ever been a time in living memory when British prestige, at home and abroad, was at a lower ebb?
Not in the 1940s, when the country was bankrupt after the Second World War. Not in the 1950s, when we were humiliated by Suez and decolonisation gathered pace. Not in the 1960s and 70s, when we were the “sick man of Europe”. Not in the 1990s and 2000s, when financial crises rocked the economy. Not even in the last decade, a time of chaos, pestilence and war.
No, the period that began in 2024 has defined a new circle of hell – one in which what is left of Britain’s withered empire looks about to fall apart and nationalist vultures are gathering over the United Kingdom itself.
