Are we looking at a return to feudalism?

David Cameron as the villain in Skyfall. Clearly my photo-manipulation skills are poor, but it gets the point across: Is this how the Prime Monster sees himself?

A photofit picture of the real villain in Skyfall. Clearly my photo-manipulation skills are poor, but it gets the point across: Is this how the UK’s Prime Monster sees himself?

Sitting in the cafe yesterday, one of my companions turned to me and said, “You’ve seen Skyfall, haven’t you?”

“The latest Bond movie?”

“That’s the one. You know the sequence where Javier Bardem’s living like a feudal lord on an island that’s been cleared of everyone else, apart from him and his servants?”

“What about it?”

“Did you ever think, that could be a metaphor for what our government wants to do to this country?”

Whoa.

That couldn’t be right, could it?

It sounds crazy. But…

Just crazy enough to have a hint of possibility about it.

Consider this: The UK is currently being run by a gang of Eton posh boys who come from a social class that was known in Ireland as the Ascendancy. In fact, Gideon is a fully-fledged member of that exact group.

The Ascendancy was a minority of landowners, protestant clergy, and members of the professions – all of which are well-represented in the current UK Parliament – who dominated Ireland in political, economic and social terms between the 17th and 20th centuries.

It seems that clashes with the English meant that a large amount of Irish land had been confiscated by the Crown, then sold to people who were thought to be loyal, so English soldiers and traders became the new ruling class, whose richer members were elevated to the House of Lords and eventually controlled the Irish House of Commons.

Now look at what’s happening over here. Iain Duncan Smith’s benefit cuts mean people are going to be forced out of their homes, particularly in the more expensive parts of our cities – and apparently there is a plan now to force the rest of us into using our homes as security to ensure we continue paying our taxes, in a move to extend homelessness into the middle classes.

Those homes wouldn’t go empty for long – they’d be bought up by anyone rich enough to afford it, in an estate-building programme.

Poor people, deprived of their benefits, homes, and ability to support themselves, might be left to survive as best they can in ghettoes filled with squalor and disease, until they are ready to do anything for an improvement in their living conditions. Then they’ll be hired to work on the new estates, servicing their new masters’ needs.

In other words, the UK would split into several ‘islands’, similar to the one occupied by Javier Bardem’s character in Skyfall. There would be a single ‘Lord of the Manor’ with all the power, his family, and their servants – and that’s all. Technological advancements would mean they would not need to support many of those servants – just enough to work the land and maintain the technology that would ensure their continued ‘Ascendancy’.

To my way of thinking, this would weaken the country to the point where it would be ripe for invasion by any foreign nutter with a gun – but then, this government is renewing Trident, isn’t it? And they’re definitely crazy enough to turn anywhere else into a glowing crater, just to keep themselves comfortable.

I know.

It’s crazy. A paranoia-fuelled pipe dream.

But it ticks a lot of boxes.

What do you think is really going on?

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34 Comments

  1. johncresswellplant April 18, 2013 at 12:05 pm - Reply

    Don’t be silly! We became Feudal 30 years ago with the limitations on employment for the Severely Birth Disabled

  2. Alan Matthews April 18, 2013 at 12:08 pm - Reply

    There won’t be riots so much as uprisings and possible revolution before that happens!

    • Ulysses April 18, 2013 at 12:48 pm - Reply

      No there wont.

      X factors on the telly, innit, they cant miss that.
      And some plastic enhanced slapper on TOWIE is gonna have a bayyybeee

      • Michael Angry April 18, 2013 at 12:51 pm - Reply

        We saw what happened to the Croydon protestors.

        I agree that sooner or later some anger will burst out somewhere, probably in a deprived neighbourhood, but the government will use live ammunition and the impact will be short-lived. And the opposition will not oppose them.

  3. Phil The Folk April 18, 2013 at 12:09 pm - Reply

    So the only hope is another outbreak of the black death then MIke, and the reimurgence of the Vilain? Then they’ll start hanging us all over again for refusing to work for their pityfull wages. It does sound paranoid and a bit crazy, but it does also tick a lot of boxes as you say. I think it’s being going on for years now!

  4. Sophia April 18, 2013 at 12:20 pm - Reply

    Did we ever leave the feudal system? Or did the first and second world wars just interrupt things for a little while?

  5. Robert Maguire April 18, 2013 at 12:22 pm - Reply

    H.M.P. Island. U.K. Marooned with a despotic prison governor, un -elected, in charge, who taxes us under many guises while he and his warders rake it in!

  6. jenny O'TYoole April 18, 2013 at 12:36 pm - Reply

    Yep I think that there is a plan to make us all servants and to bring back the workhouse etc. I think it is believable.

  7. Michael Angry April 18, 2013 at 12:40 pm - Reply

    The new feudalism is exactly where we are headed. One London council has now introduced minimum wage jobs for benefit claimants in their social housing who cant afford even them… what is that if not a system of bonded slavery with no rights through tied cottages to the landowner ? And their merchant fellows like Asda, Tesco and Poundland – refuse anything they ask you to do and you are made homeless and starving.

    This isnt idle speculation. It is happening, here, now today in the UK (PLC)

  8. Ulysses April 18, 2013 at 12:51 pm - Reply

    Did you see that shadow dancing troupe on X factor….

    • vanillarosetangents April 18, 2013 at 2:13 pm - Reply

      Yes! They were very good! Although, technically, they were on “Britain’s Got Talent”.

      • Ulysses April 18, 2013 at 8:45 pm - Reply

        I wouldnt know, i dont watch TV…

        Society hates a smack head, but doesn’t offer the same sentiment to those addicted to the opiate of the masses

  9. sjamiebuntingtephen Bunting April 18, 2013 at 12:53 pm - Reply

    I have never known the class war get as ugly as it now is, even during the Ding Dong Years. The mindset is rapidly taking us all back to the “Good Old Days” before the Great War when likes of us knew our place ….

    • Beryl Desmond April 18, 2013 at 3:33 pm - Reply

      Right again, so what are we going to do before it goes too far?

  10. Trouble April 18, 2013 at 2:13 pm - Reply

    I’ve been saying this for awhile that this government is pursuing a retrograde agenda.

  11. Skintus Maximus April 18, 2013 at 2:34 pm - Reply

    Agenda 21, which the UK was signed up to in the 1990’s. The ‘people’ will be given 200sq ft ‘homes’ owned by the state, there will be strict limitations on travel, no private property, no private cars, 24 hour surveillance of every move you make and every word you say. The family will be destroyed, children taken at birth and reared by the state. Perfect for rich paedo’s if there are no parents or siblings to kick up a stink when a child goes missing. The vast majority will be kept in huge mega cities (Judge Dredd?), many parts of the country will be classed as ‘wilderness zones’ into which no human is allowed to enter. Good place to build your mansion and do some ‘kiddie fiddling’ secure in the knowledge that no one will ever know. This is also referred to as ‘Sustainable development.’

    I wish it was a conspiracy theory.

    • Beryl Desmond April 18, 2013 at 3:34 pm - Reply

      Your right, and its so scarey

      • Phil The Folk April 18, 2013 at 5:01 pm - Reply

        What is this “Agenda 21” please???

      • Mike Sivier April 18, 2013 at 5:18 pm - Reply

        In this context, the alleged ‘New World Order’ scheme to cut the world population by 80-90 per cent? Or the UN action plan for sustainable development? Not sure.

  12. paurina April 18, 2013 at 2:50 pm - Reply

    You’made concrete a vague image of society in the future that I’ve had in my mind for a while now. I do think that is how ‘they’ see it.

  13. Beryl Desmond April 18, 2013 at 3:28 pm - Reply

    It is well known that Prince Charles is project X and that he wants this country returned to pre Georgian (1830) times, when some were slaves, slavery was not abolished until 1830.
    It is obvious to me he wants to rule without question, like Henry the 8th.
    He has always had his fads on growing foods and plants, wind turbines etc.
    The royals have slowley been taking back power from the goverments and becoming more involved with the running of this country for many decades

  14. beetleypete April 18, 2013 at 3:34 pm - Reply

    I’m kind of with Ulysses on this one. The unemployed masses, and most of the working masses, are no longer politicised sufficiently to think about rebellion, equality, or anyone else’s rights. Give them the ‘bread and circuses’ of take away food, and reality TV, and that will do them nicely, thanks. If any revolutionary activity does occur, it will likely come from the Right. Immigration, anti-Europe, ant-welfare, anti-Socialist, etc, are ill issues and opinions that galvanise the ‘unheard Right’, the middle classes, and many of the working classes seem to agree to some extent on all of these. Racism and Xenophobia, the two pillars of British thinking for centuries, fuelled by Daily Mail tabloid hysteria, will possibly provoke a swing of some kind. It is doubtful we will see barricades in the streets. We will just see a short report about it, on Sky News.

    • Beryl Desmond April 18, 2013 at 3:37 pm - Reply

      Or on RT!

    • Ulysses April 18, 2013 at 8:55 pm - Reply

      It was always made clear to me, that for Revolution to occur, the middle classes have to hurt, really hurt.
      No government is naive enough to cause that level of pain i’m afraid
      All we are gonna get is the odd outbreak of localised rioting, further playing in to the hands of Government.
      Emergency powers, armed police or even martial law will be the only outcome

  15. hrafndot April 18, 2013 at 3:48 pm - Reply

    I think the Irish (Eire) bailout came quite soon on Osborne’s agenda, then appointment of Canadian governor of bank of england (Mark Caney http://www.greaterfool.ca/2012/11/26/dear-england/, ex Goldman) and the Quatarari banking Corporation keeps cropping up.

  16. Terry Burns April 18, 2013 at 4:11 pm - Reply

    The peasants will revolt!
    Creating nightmares to frighten can be good fun and possibly educational.
    Believing the nightmare is reality or the shape of things to come is to disarm yourself.
    If you want to be really frightened failure to change the worl into a socialist/ communist/ anarchist commonwealth will result in barbarism, a state that will make slavery and feudalism look like Disneyland ( well maybe that is a model of a modern feudal state).
    But I repeat THE PEASANTS WILL REVOLT.

    • Ulysses April 18, 2013 at 8:58 pm - Reply

      No.
      No they wont.
      The best you can hope for, Terry is the odd outbreak of rioting and then we’re really fucked.
      Empower the oppressors further.

  17. Ulysses April 18, 2013 at 9:07 pm - Reply

    Do ya wanna know whats really scary?
    Talking to my 20 year old niece, that generations idea of a protest vote is gonna be to vote UKIP.

    Where’s my passport.

  18. beetleypete April 19, 2013 at 12:07 am - Reply

    Many years ago, I was in the ‘old’ Communist Party. The one that was pro-Soviet, and full of intellectuals, Trade Union old guard, and pre-war hardliners. They told us to vote Tory. They felt that the only way to ensure revolution, was to bring in an extreme Right government, that would drive the masses down, until they said ‘enough is enough’, leaving the CP to scoop up the power in the resulting vacuum. It didn’t work of course. We didn’t want to vote Tory, for any reason, and they weren’t counting on Jeremy Kyle, and computer games, to ambush the minds of the potential proletariat.
    UKIP is the start of seeing the ‘acceptable face’ of the Right. Even I agree with the anti-EU policies! They will be all things to all men, and nobody will notice the black shirts underneath the grey lounge suits. For UKIP, read British National Party, National Front, and League of St George. It is all the same thing really, they have just discovered how to put on a good disguise. If I was any younger, i would be thinking of getting out. As it is, I am old enough that I doubt I will be around for the worst.

    Ulysses is correct with his information that the youth are seeing the right-wing parties, like UKIP, as the way to revolution and protest. That is probably the scariest statement on this whole post.

    • Mike Sivier April 19, 2013 at 12:29 am - Reply

      I find it impossible to disagree with that last statement! It really is terrifying.

  19. dunelmiandigger April 19, 2013 at 2:11 am - Reply

    There is no chance of reimposing Mediaeval Feudalism. Once all these measures start to bite the deficit will become so unmanageable that they will have to reverse them!

  20. Teesside Solidarity Movement April 19, 2013 at 4:45 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Teesside Solidarity Movement.

  21. Thomas April 21, 2013 at 3:04 am - Reply

    Camaron wants to go back to 1200 AD.

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