The Orwellian condition that Britain is sliding into is awesome.
So, “Britain is back” and poised to take a leading role on the global stage, ready to tackle the “shared problems we face.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his first appearance at the United Nations this week, addressing the 81st General Assembly session in New York.
“You can count on us,” Burnham declared. “Count on us to stand up for those long-standing British values of fairness and justice – our shared values – and for the UN Charter.”
Spare me the nauseating rhetoric. Burnham stood at the UN podium preaching noble ideals while Saudi warplanes, supported and refuelled by Britain (and the United States), were slaughtering Yemeni civilians in their own homes.
This week, Yemeni outlets reported that over 100 civilians, including women and children, were killed as Saudi F-15 and Typhoon jets ramped up airstrikes on the residential zones of the Red Sea cities Mocha and Taiz. Al Masirah TV broadcasted graphic footage of two children killed by a Saudi airstrike in Mocha.
En route to the UN, Burnham confirmed he had authorized the use of RAF refueling aircraft to facilitate Saudi Arabia’s aerial campaign against Yemen. The British press described this as “defensive aid.”
Earlier this month, Downing Street consented to sending British military advisors to Saudi Arabia, joining their American counterparts involved in the ongoing aggression against Yemen’s southern neighbor.
In response, Yemen’s armed forces and Ansar Allah militia have struck back fiercely, seizing strategic positions along the Red Sea and targeting Saudi oil infrastructure with drones and missiles.
Make no mistake—this Saudi offensive is genocidal in nature and fully endorsed by the United States and Britain. The conflict, ongoing since 2015, is coupled with a blockade responsible for an estimated 400,000 Yemeni deaths. A ceasefire in 2022 was broken when Saudi forces bombed Yemen’s capital airport in July, prompting Yemenis to retaliate by attacking Saudi oil facilities.
The Saudi monarchy has implored Trump for increased military aid, but Trump struggles with his faltering seven-month war against Iran.
Burnham stepped into this arena by approving further military support to Saudi Arabia, a move that could have disastrous consequences. No doubt, he seeks favor with Washington. The RAF deployment was confirmed before his first meeting with Trump on the UN sidelines. The American president offered a patronizing pat, saying, “he’s going to be a great prime minister.”
Trump routinely mocked Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer, accusing him of withholding military backing for the U.S.’s Middle East objectives. Burnham, by contrast, is proving more cooperative—more malleable.
The British butler is earning Washington’s favor through bloodshed. Women and children in Yemen pay the ultimate price to uphold the sickening “special relationship” between the U.S. and Britain.
Burnham is a fraud—his working-class Manchester accent and his smooth talk about “the need to do more to help people with the everyday cost of living” are nothing but a facade.
For those who can endure his speech at the UN, it is a textbook presentation of British propaganda. It takes a particular kind of person to deliver such blatant nonsense with an air of sincerity.
The core of his speech was blaming Russia for every ill—from poverty and inequality in Britain to widespread resentment against the establishment, and to the conflict in Ukraine. It was a flawless exercise in misdirection, a charade British politicians excel at.
He revealed that Britain was launching a new National Centre for Information Defence, supposedly to counter Russian disinformation, which he labeled a “poisonous tide” fostering division and instability within Britain.
According to Burnham, Russian interference accounts for all dysfunctions in British society. He made no mention of British capitalism’s failures or the British government’s warmongering that fuels proxy conflicts in Ukraine and aggression in the Middle East—conflicts that come at the expense of British social conditions.
Burnham’s proposed “solution” is to tighten “national security” and increase governmental control over public information, all framed as protection against Russian propaganda.
The Orwellian reality Britain is drifting into is staggering.
This British prime minister boldly lectures on British values and leadership, castigates Russia, while endorsing the supply of British cruise missiles and drones to strike Russia from afar.
Burnham’s hypocrisy and moral decay are evident in his support for Saudi warplanes committing atrocities in Yemen. He cloaks murderous aggression as “defense.”
His political strength lies in his skill to cloak slaughter and war in meaningless platitudes.
One especially repugnant moment in his UN address was invoking English workers allied with Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War against slavery, as if English mill workers embodied British “values.” Notably, Burnham omitted the far more horrific role of the British elite in establishing the Atlantic slave trade.
Britain’s past in global exploitation and genocidal warfare condemns its governments permanently. Its current participation in the slaughter in Ukraine and Yemen are just recent examples of this systemic British criminality.
These are the so-called British “values” that Burnham skillfully masked during his theatrical debut at the UN.
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