THE Simmers are simmering. The Simmers are being ignored and unheard, are unrepresented by any political party, fed up, angry, disappointed, worried by the curious lack of common sense in their daily news, critical of the upsurge of strange maladies unknown in their childhood, astonished by the savagery evident in parts of social media, and above all angry about the rundown state of their country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Simmers are the SIlent Majority of Middle England RebelS. (‘Middle England’ is in there because it helps with the acronym, but Middle Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are invited.) It includes all those of us who like me are as described in the first paragraph.
‘Middle’ is meant to include the vast majority of ordinary people. Not the 1 per cent elite, toffs, grandees and left-wing blob persons who seem to be running things at the moment. Not the 1 per cent who stop the traffic, throw paint over buildings, join every protest and are quite certain about everything. We Simmers are the 98 per cent in the middle.
There is no exclusion clause. If you live anywhere in these islands and are simmering quietly about, for instance, being told inflation is going down while you know your food is costing more, you are one of us. If you think that a two-year waiting list to have a new hip is alarming, or 90 minutes of listening to idiotic ‘music’ on the phone before you can talk to anyone about your tax situation at HM Customs & Excise is infuriating, come with us.
We don’t want any of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion nonsense. It’s childish and just not necessary. That narrow way of thinking should be banished, along with any attempt to redefine human biology. Schools should stick to academic subjects and leave explaining the rest of life to parents.
Our kind government is paying the wages (and pension contributions) of 5,870,000 public sector employees. Those working from home should return to their offices immediately and recruitment should cease. WFH may or may not have been necessary during the Covid outbreaks, but now it is unproductive and unnecessary and must stop.
The boat people are being used as a diversion from the real problem. Net immigration (those arriving minus those leaving) was 672,000 for the year ending June. This is like having to provide two extra cities the size of Southampton or Swansea, plus schools, surgeries, hospitals, housing and everything else that goes with modern life, and that’s just for one year. It has to stop. We are a small country.
The strangely unmentioned annual immigration totals over several years have contributed to the severe housing problems, nearly eight million people on NHS waiting lists, schools overcrowding, rising crime figures and a lot else. Nothing seems to have been planned to cope with the influx. It has to stop.
The state of the NHS is high on everyone’s list of complaints. One or other of the incoming governments over the next year or two will simply have to do something about it. Demand for hospital treatment was outstripping capacity even before the onset of Covid. GPs should run morning and evening surgeries, as before, without appointments.
The Race to Net Zero is not a race nor will we ever reach the finishing tape. We are told to go for expensive and less efficient heat pumps and electric cars while other countries are building more coal-fired power stations so that their people can have a constant supply of electricity. Efforts to reduce our paltry contribution to global warming are more than counteracted by increases elsewhere.
We Simmers also need a constant supply of electricity. On windless winter nights there will be no energy available from either wind or solar. Heat pumps won’t work without electricity. There is only one source of constant and emission-free power: nuclear, but that will take time. We need a sensible energy supply plan for the intervening 20-odd years.
Why are we paying farmers to plant trees and to rewild their land? Our farmers should be paid to grow food, more and more food. In this uncertain world that would seem to be essential.
There you have some of the reasons for the way the Simmers feel. You will undoubtedly have others. Whatever existing or future political party takes on these disturbing elements in our lives will get our vote.
Otherwise, increasing anger might turn the gentle simmering into a boiling over.