It Happened Here

Steyn Online ^ | 16 May 2020 | Kathy Shaidle

[Rummyfan]

The COVID-19 lockdown rendered UK celebrations of the 75th anniversary of VE Day this month low key, if not non-existent, prompting many Britons to compare England Then with England Now.

A Guardian writer complained that, "Britain was led by Churchill then – it's led by a Churchill tribute act now." At the increasingly essential upstart UnHerd.com, Gavin Haynes observed:

"Many seem to have been waiting their whole lives to know what they would have done during the Blitz. Now we have our answer: 750,000 NHS volunteers inside a week, ungrumbling financial hara-kiri by small businesses, and fistfuls of notes shoved down the negligée of Captain Tom. We're amazing. But in our heightened state, we're also at the whim of various madnesses of any number of crowds."

A very British sort of "madness," though. In a recent poll, over 80 per cent of Brits were in no hurry to lift the lockdown. "Whatever happened to dissent?" wondered Lionel Shriver as she surveyed this unedifying spectacle of paralysis. To which I'd reply, "What dissent?"

In the roughly 20 years that I've been reading the English press online, the two most frequent comments below the "latest outrage" articles have been, "This political correctness business is getting out of hand!" and "Someone should do something about this!"

[Rummyfan]

[Right_Wing_Madman]

What happened? Is Mark Steyn collecting unemployment? Is he now outsourcing his columns?

[piasa]

Sex change operation

[Sans-Culotte]

I thought it an interesting article. She suggests the British are less about stoic courage and more about adapting to whatever happens so they can relax and enjoy their nice cuppas.

The film she writes about seems interesting. Also interesting is that in the links she provides, all the leftist writers liken the movie (and Sinclair Lewis' novel) to Trump and his followers. As usual, leftists like to scare people by calling conservatives "nazi" or "fascist" when it is the left that always takes the fascist route (cough..Whitmer...cough).