Camp Of The Saints

Something is going badly wrong across Western societies, and the sense of political dislocation is no longer a fringe concern. Trust in institutions has fallen, established political parties are losing support and arguments over immigration and national identity have become sharp dividing lines.

In Germany, the President now warns openly of a return to the political divisions of the Weimar era. In France, a protest movement that began in schools has spread across the country, bringing arson, mass arrests and violent clashes with riot police to cities from Strasbourg to Marseille. Across Europe, insurgent parties of Left and Right prosper on dissatisfaction with political systems that seem increasingly unable to correct themselves. Britain exhibits the same symptoms. The question is why governments confronted by such conditions so often appear to aggravate the problems rather than address their causes.

In the last few days, the titles of YouTube videos about Europe have tended toward the exceedingly agitated: “They’re Destroying France” (October 6);  “France Has Collapsed” (Rubin Report, October 8); “We’re Watching France’s End” (October 9); “France Is on Fire” (Triggernometry, October 9); “The Siege of London” (Bill O’Reilly, October 8); “Germany’s Crisis: Why Living Here Is Impossible Now” (October 3).

What a fascinating moment it is in Western European history. Not a happy moment, not a promising moment, but certainly fascinating. Not so very long ago, Germany, France, and Britain were world powers; now all three of them are basket cases, undergoing parallel crises, at the mercy of immigrants from the worst places on the planet. And the mainstream media, in these countries as well as in the U.S., are doing their best to avoid covering these crises, leaving it to YouTubers and other online news reporters and commentators to fill in the gap.

Nearly all women who attempt to reach the UK in small boats from northern France are raped on their journey, according to the Home Secretary.

In an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast, Shabana Mahmood said sexual abusers would exploit most asylum seekers as long as traffickers continued to decide who came to Britain.

She said: ‘We’re not in control of this border. The sifting of the people that end up in the north of France and are about to get on a dinghy is done by criminal gangs who are also, by the way, people traffickers.