England’s Last Gasp of Empire

In the year 2100, 15 years after I am dead based on my life expectancy.

less than 10% of the world would be of american and European decent.

50% would be Asian and 40% would be African.

When I first heard it, it took me some time to think about what that means.

Think about what history books would read like in the year 2150. It would be sort of surprising to them that that the world was so eurocentric - they would prolly all be of same skin color and of a darker shade. The anti-immigration stance that is becoming so mainstream must feel to them similar to what reading about slavery feels to us.

There is also something much more profound, when we view historical data about dinosaurs or other species we always look at statistics of their representation - essentially out of factors that is outside their control, their is a peaceful extinction of the European gene pool, so you really cannot fault the reactionary response to it. Extinction is also the wrong word to use here, genetically the best features would get absorbed by the human species of all 'race'. Its inevitable but the recent surge in immigration is making people deal with that fact in a very direct way.

The world has always had less Europeans and people of white color skin then other shades, if you took every person in the world and randomly changed their location, it would be a huge shock to most white people that they are surrounded by non-white people. For everyone else seeing an extra white person a year is not as shocking.

The thing that is happening in england is also happening in america but its not as bad because of the sheer size of america.

In England a change in demographics is a lot more noticeable - either it be age, ethnicity, language or religion.

I disagree with the assertion that the UK has been an empire of any kind since roughly the end of World War II. I agree in part with the article's core assertion, that the UK's days as a major influence on the global political and financial stages are now over.

However, I think this has been a gradual process. I think it has to do less with an internal dissolution of British society's pillars (though I think that is happening), and more with a lack of understanding of just what kind of weight Britain has to throw around. Put simply: Britain is not as important as it thinks it is, and the EU is much more important than people think it is. Britain needs the EU more than the EU needs it.

That's not an easy thing to accept. Who among us wants to be told "you don't matter like you think you do?" Imagine an American's reaction to being told that.

But it's a lesson the UK needs to learn, and fast, if it's to keep its economy and quality of life.

As an Englishman I have first hand knowledge of the country and much of its history. So I can see the article is not very accurate and very simplistic.

Great Britain was the pre-eminent 'empire' in economic, political and military power up until about the first world war. The military power was based mainly on naval superiority for protecting our overseas empire with a mediocre army. But from that point onwards it was in decline. We did not realise it until the second world war when the full industrial power of the United Status make itself felt. Winston Churchill may have sat with Roosevelt and Stalin but even he know that we was the junior partner in the talks.

Even after WW2 we had an outsized political influence because of our special relationship with the USA and influence with many ex-colonies. The UN security council was setup with five permanent seats, the five countries that at the time had nuclear weapons (USA, Russia, China, France, UK). Obviously the UK is not likely to vote itself off of that council and they have veto power.

The Brexit vote is based purely on the issue of immigration. Part of being in the UN is that all people from the EU countries can travel and work freely within any of the countries. Given that English is a very popular second language in the poorer countries you can see that many of them come to the UK to try for a better life. I would do the same in their position. Imagine if the USA joined in union with Mexico and part of that meant the border between USA and Mexico was completely open. Do you think there might be a large number of people moving to America and do you think that would cause stress on the education, health system and resentment from the local population? I think it would and so it has with the UK population. Add on top that the British have never really liked the Europeans very much and that much of the EU is actually controlled by a German/French power block and you have plenty of people who want out.

Is it just me or the author is just building a narrative and not bringing any fact ?

Of course, it is fashionable to bash Leave voters as primarily racists. But HN has recently published several articles that have much more nuanced analysis and certainly better explanation for similar movements across the whole Western World.

The only real point in the article is that there have been some racist violence, but really not that much.

This article really sound like a sore remain voter demonising a bit the other side. If the author need to let off some steam he should talk instead about how the appalling level of the debate during the campaign and how its success opens the door wide for a new generation of unashamed propaganda driven politic.

I've had a strange preoccupation lately with the concept of "empire collapse" - the point at which a once stable empire's governance over it's people begins to fail, and eventually ceases to be able to manage it's territory, until it ultimately dissipates into a number of warring factions and/or outside influencers.

Originally I was attracted to the topic because the ascent of populist outsider candidates to power in the USA was similar to symptoms of political stress in historic empire systems. But after watching Brexit unfold so suddenly, it's become pretty clear to watch history in realtime, the United Kingdom is truly the empire in the very last stages of collapse to follow.

One thing the author of this article kind of misses out on however, is that empires don't just open the doors to immigration for no reason. Usually immigrants are brought in from the frontiers to act as a labor source when the native population becomes majority upper and middle class - too educated and wealthy to keep doing manual labor. This of course leads to accusations of a "foreign invasion", but the foreign labor is necessary to keep the wheels of commerce moving and everything just starts going to hell from there. It's really not an uncommon problem in history. The "barbarians" of Rome were

If an empire was ever in need of dying it would surely be the West's anti-nationalist media cartels. Perhaps the shuttering of the New York Times would be a good start.

Having unelected bureaucrats from other countries making the rules under which your citizens live seems the opposite of "empire".

Oh for goodness sakes.