Fuel shortages, food shortages, daily power cuts, rubbish piled high in the streets, a cost-of-living crisis, an exodus of people fleeing abroad.
When I read Andrew Neil’s excellent column in Saturday’s Daily Mail, I thought it was a nightmare vision of Britain in the not-too-distant future.
Andrew was actually writing about Cuba, collapsing under Donald Trump’s economic blockade, but some of the parallels struck me as uncanny.
Cuba has been a basket case for decades and Trump’s sanctions, which have starved the island of oil from Venezuela and Mexico, may well sound the death knell for the Communist regime in Havana.
No one is suggesting that Britain is about to descend immediately into Cuban-style chaos, but the alarm bells are ringing. Let’s take the symptoms of economic and societal collapse in turn.
The petrol pumps haven’t run dry, yet. But ever since Miliband banned all new drilling in the North Sea, we are increasingly dependent on imports of both oil and gas. If, say, the Russians managed to blow up the undersea pipelines we could no longer survive on our domestic supplies. There would be panic at the filling stations not seen since the OPEC crisis in 1973.
In Cuba motorists are forced to make-do and mend because of a shortage of spares and new models. Here, it’s reported that people are hanging on to their petrol and diesel cars for longer than ever and shunning EVs because there’s no guarantee there will be enough electricity to recharge them. The way things are going, there won’t be any petrol, either.
This is a direct result of the demented dash to decarbonise, just as the rest of the world is turning its back on Net Zero. Energy sources have issued a warning that Miliband will have to abandon his target of getting rid of fossil fuels by 2030 or the Government will be forced to impose blackouts.
Trash is seen piled up on the street in Havana. Richard Littlejohn draws parallels between this and the increase in fly-tipping in the UK, because of sky-high recycling charges and the refusal of most councils to empty the dustbins more than every two or three weeks
The last time we had widespread power cuts was during the miners’ strikes of the early 1970s. Next time it will be as a consequence of deliberate Government policy.
We already have the highest industrial energy costs and second highest domestic electricity bills in the developed world. The prospect of even higher costs and uncertainty of supply is the reason many industries are relocating abroad or shutting down altogether.
Scotland’s once-thriving North Sea and refinery sectors have been devasted by Net Zero targets. Luton’s van factory has closed, and the chemical and steel industries are in serious retreat.
Since Labour came to power 171,000 private sector payroll jobs and counting have been lost, through a combination of crippling energy costs, high taxation and excessive regulation.
Meanwhile, the public sector continues to grow – up to around 10.6 million in total, approximately one-third of the workforce. Not quite up to Cuba’s 50 per cent but well on the way.
Food shortages? Labour’s vindictive inheritance tax rises on family farms seriously threatens our ability to produce enough home-grown food.
As for rubbish piled high in the streets, has anyone looked at Birmingham recently? There’s also been a massive increase in fly-tipping, because of sky-high recycling charges and the refusal of most councils to empty the dustbins more than every two or three weeks.
Andrew Neil reports that the streets of Havana are largely deserted. So, too, are most of Britain’s traditional High Streets, reeling under the burden of taxation and the switch to online shopping.
More than two million Cubans have fled the country, many of them floating across the Florida Straits on old Chevrolets strapped to empty oil drums for buoyancy.
Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband speaking at the Fabian Society. Energy sources have issued a warning that he will have to abandon his target of getting rid of fossil fuels by 2030 or Labour will be forced to impose blackouts
In Labour’s first year, more than 250,000 British citizens left the country. They weren’t just non-doms and the super-rich, escaping this Government’s war on wealth. It’s estimated that £66 billion of investable assets went with them – the greatest single loss of revenue since the Mafia were kicked out of Havana after the revolution.
Three-quarters of those leaving were under the age of 35, convinced, Sex Pistols-style, there was no future here. Never mind illegal small boat, cross-Channel migration. How long before we see British citizens heading in the opposite direction, clinging to makeshift rafts made from Vauxhall Cavaliers balanced precariously on empty oil drums?
I could go on. Cuba’s tourism trade has collapsed, but then Britain’s is also down as a result of high prices and the removal of VAT-free shopping for foreign visitors.
The difference is that while Cuba’s imminent demise is caused by Trump’s blockade, Britain’s problems are home grown, self-inflicted by a sub-Marxist, class war-driven Labour Government with little grasp of economic reality.
None of this should surprise us. Before the Palestinian keffiyeh became the Left’s fashion garment of choice, the agitprop accessories adopted by the wannabe Wolfie Smiths of the Starmer/Miliband student generation were T-shirts and posters featuring the face of Che Guevara, darling of the Cuban revolution. Some of them have never grown out of it.
Welcome to Britain 2026 – Twinned with Cuba.