The Weekly Forum - 27 June

One of the most arresting phenomena of modern politics is that politicians believe they can influence the climate and foreign wars, when in fact they cannot even manage their own ministries. FVD has recently demonstrated how the anti-immigrant immigration minister presided over record immigration last year. This week, Pepijn van Houwelingen showed how the Finance Minister, supposedly a liberal, has been unable to limit or reduce state spending and borrowing, or even to respect the rules governing how many  expensive external employees work for the Finance Ministry. The current figure is twice the 10% ceiling. Meanwhile state debt is exploding and, with it, interest payments and the tax burden for future generations. A large part of the problem comes from international organisations which suck ever greater sums out of member states - especially European ones even though they do not have any spare cash – in the name of global governance which, in fact, does not work. Politicians cannot control the things they do, in fact, govern - while they pretend to govern things which they cannot control.

Watch Pepijn’s speech here (translated by AI)

International politics are thus a looking-glass parallel universe in which politicians can escape the hard slog of actual government. It is much more difficult to balance a budget than to attend a summit. This is why international politics has become a stage on which powerless puppets like to strut. President Zelensky of Ukraine spends most of his time abroad, most recently attending the NATO summit in The Hague and addressing the Dutch parliament. FVD was the only party to refuse to attend this latest piece of political theatre. Thierry Baudet explains that the national democratic representation of the Dutch people is not an appropriate forum for political grandstanding by foreign leaders. The near unanimous support for Zelensky’s speech only underlines the unreality of foreign policy – everyone (except FVD) agrees, precisely because it is make-believe.

Watch Thierry’s video here

There are surely few better examples of make-believe in international politics than the recent US bombing of Iran. Trump used this to create a narrative of victory both for his own purposes and as a cover for the Israeli desire for a ceasefire. As the bombs fell, the usual war hawks unleashed a barrage of hatred for the Iranian regime which has been in their crosshairs since 1979. Israel itself promoted regime change by calling its attack on Iran ‘rising lion’, a reference to the old royalist flag of Iran. But, as Stephen Baskerville explains, this is not the way to deal with Iran. Despite its name, the Islamic Republic is not ideologically fundamentalist but instead only the latest incarnation of a very ancient Iranian (Persian) state and nation. The sense of nationhood is stronger than the religious ideology, just as it was in the English and American revolutions. As such, the notion of regime change is ludicrously unrealistic – and indeed, for the time being, seems to have been defeated.

Read Stephen Baskerville’s article here

We discussed Iran on The Forum this week with security and political analyst, Ali Rizk, and former ambassador and human rights campaigner, Craig Murray. If you missed it, listen back.

Watch The Forum here