Tuesday 25th October

I had a conversation with what I would describe as an ultra-right winger yesterday.  Even though I disagreed strongly with his views I decided to just let him talk; I wanted to understand just what was going on in the right-wing brain.  I should also point out that he is quite a successful businessman.

He started off, as expected, heralding Brexit as the greatest opportunity Britain had ever been given.  He was right behind Mrs. May in wanting to get rid of immigrants, not only that, but he wanted a very quick and hard Brexit, to the point that Mrs. May should simply trigger Article 50 and not bother about any negotiations.  He insisted that we would still be able to trade with Europe because they needed us more than we needed them; we would quickly sign a new trade agreement with them.  Tariffs were of no concern; we could simply devalue our currency to make up the difference.

His main argument was that Immigrants were stealing jobs and opportunities for our kids.  I pointed out that unemployment was pretty low at the moment and that of more concern were the working poor, subject to low wages and high private rents.  That made no headway with him, rents were priced according to the market, if there was high demand rents would be high.  Likewise with wages, if people were happy to work for the minimum wage and have zero-hours contracts that was fine.  I said “But what if they aren’t happy, and can barely make ends meet?”  “Well, then they must find a better paid job, or a second job to make ends meet.” In no way would he even consider it might be unscrupulous employers keeping wages low.  He wanted a society where almost everyone was an entrepreneur and self-employed with individual contracts with their employers.  And anyway once we got rid of Johnny Foreigner there would be a short period of adjustment and then plain sailing.  The whole EU was part of a plan for German Domination which hadn’t changed since World War 1…..

At this point I gave up and politely said I had to be getting on.

What did I discover from this engagement with the right-wing mind.  Absolutely nothing that made any sense at all, no consideration for others, no understanding of other people’s lives, no comprehension of Society at all.  Just self-interest, pure and simple.  It would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that these people are now in charge….