Once upon a time Britain’s rule stretched from Westminster, across the Indian sub-continent to  South East Asia, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and a large part of Africa. Its military superiority, while constantly under challenge, literally ruled the waves and much of the earth’s surface.

Then came two world wars which, despite Britain and its allies emerging victorious, changed the international political and economic balance of power forever.

While socialist states of the right were defeated in battle, the Soviet Union’s ‘Iron Curtain’ became strong and politically powerful. Masquerading as anti-privilege activists, Marxists successfully infiltrated the British Labour party.

They used this platform to convince war-weary Brits to vote for full employment, affordable housing, social security and health care for all. War hero Winston Churchill’s Conservatives were typecast as championing smaller government and private enterprise. The 1945 election was a comprehensive win for Labour and a pivotal election for Britain, the folly of which has become increasingly apparent over the past 80 years.

What is particularly ironic is that, having just waged a world war against the tyranny of authoritarian and atheistic rule, rather than preserve personal freedoms and uphold Christian values, the new Labour elite pursued a course of bigger government and fewer freedoms. Then prime minister, Clement Attlee, was anti-Christian and favoured the teachings of John Maynard Keynes, not Adam Smith. Government intervention became the foundation of economic and social thought. The welfare state was to be pursued at all costs.

Central dictation began in 1946 with the nationalisation of the Bank of England, quickly followed by the nationalisation of the coal industry, the railways, the steel industry, the oil industry and telecommunications.

Perhaps for a while, the poorest fared better and rather than consumers it was the workers who became the focus. But union-dominated industries failed to prepare for the looming competition coming from abroad.

Which is why British car production is now at its lowest in 66 years and why once-proud shipyards and aircraft manufacturers are virtually no more.

While Britain was intent on socialism, its colonies, starting with India in 1947, began to demand independence, leading to the waning of Britain’s international political and economic influence.

With socialism on the rise, British schools became transmission belts for anti-capitalist propaganda. Teacher unions spread the party line through an officially approved syllabus and required-reading textbooks. Even elite schools were infected, searching for ways to balance privilege and guilt.

Unsurprisingly, today’s students have a largely jaundiced view of their parents’ traditional values.

A 2022 poll commissioned by the Institute of Economic Affairs and Canada’s Fraser Institute found that 43 per cent of Britons and 53 per cent of 18-to-34 year olds believe socialism is the ideal economic system. They actually support the government taking control of businesses and industries so politicians and bureaucrats control the economy rather than individuals and entrepreneurs.

A new ‘look at me’ culture has emerged where social media and body modifications project alienation. It may be a passing phase, but unlike earlier fads, there appears to be a new hostility evident on British streets where respect and tolerance are less obvious.

Adding to social and economic pressure has been immigration. A recent extensive survey found a deep public suspicion of politicians, with many feeling  immigration had been exploited for political ends. Forty per cent believe immigration has ‘undermined British culture’. While recognising the skills many migrants bring, they raised concerns about the refusal of some minorities to integrate. They also noted the double standards applying to law enforcement and the growing burden on public services and housing.

In 1973, as its political and economic influence declined, Britain joined the European Economic Community. Then, after forty-seven years, it decided to determine its own future and free itself from the European Union’s economic and social rigidities. Sadly, Brexit’s considerable promise was sacrificed on the altar of Britain’s own vested interests. Today, it is considering rejoining the EU.

A metaphor for Britain’s deepening economic and social malaise are the railways. The country which invented them now experiences regular service disruptions, industrial unrest and crumbling infrastructure. A new £1 billion fleet of trains has been idle for years after trade unions objected to the  windscreen wipers.

Another metaphor is the National Health Service, also a world first. It now faces financial collapse. As of last June, there were 7.6 million people waiting for procedures and appointments. Ambulance response times are the worst on record.

Food charity City Harvest estimates 25 per cent of London households ‘struggle to put food on the table’. And as many as 2.5 million pensioners will struggle this winter to choose between eating and heating, victims of Britain’s net zero crusade and the withdrawal of government energy subsidies. Kidney UK says older patients running home dialysis machines are at risk. By 2040, the incomes of another three million pensioners will no longer be enough to cover basic needs.

All this when British tax levels are at their highest since records began. As former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher famously prophesied, ‘The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money’.

Still, it appears the British masses have bought the socialist lie and only the lived experience will convince them otherwise. Even a short visit to former Soviet bloc countries is unlikely to persuade them of the error of their ways. But for now they care not about laws criminalising certain opinions and believe ‘this time it’s different’ and that ‘what happened elsewhere couldn’t happen here’.

All believers in freedom should pay attention. Even the once almighty Britain is not immune from the rules of economics. Britons are yet to learn that free market capitalism, with all its imperfections (to borrow from Winston Churchill), is the worst economic system – except for all the others that have been tried.

It is to be hoped in eighty years time, future generations won’t have reason to build a chapel like the one in Vidin, Bulgaria, as a ‘memorial to the victims of communism’.