BY NIGEL FARQUHARSON

“All war is deception” is one of those truisms that resonates through the ages simply by dint of being accurate.

By way of an example, I was privileged to serve under General Mike Rose in his Sarajevo-based Bosnia theatre command. Like every commander ever, he needed hard, clear information upon which to direct his resources and achieve his mission (of stopping the fighting and saving lives in this case). Bosnia was a particularly problematic theatre, not just because of the levels of depravity, which, while abhorrent to most, are typical in civil conflict. In Bosnia, General Mike had to also ‘compete’ with troop-contributing nations’ agendas that were complicating the collective effort. The worst culprits were the French. We used to call them the fourth warring faction, with reference to the accepted sense of the three main warring factions there, the Serbs, Croats and Muslims. It was three-dimensional chess… in space.

Prior to General Mike taking command, these complications had led to the deadly impasse of the UNPROFOR mission. In simple mathematical terms, every day the UN failed to stop the war meant more deaths and a corresponding failure for those serving in it. While it is fair to say that some contributing nations (no names, no pack drill!) didn’t really care about ‘winning’, this dynamic of failure or drift sits uncomfortably with the British Army, especially with a certain highly regarded British general. To combat this effect General Rose called upon his former colleagues in the SAS that were to deploy as what were termed Joint Commission Observers (JCOs). The Joint Commission being the UN Special Representative (Yasushi Akashi) led diplomatic and military clearing process for managing the UN efforts. The JCOs were General Mike’s strategic sensors reporting real-time ground truth across the breadth of Bosnia. This caused not a little consternation in the then FCO that had opposed such employment on the basis that it believed it was an inappropriate application of the Regiment’s skill set. All this opposition did, though, was to reflect the misunderstanding of what the Regiment was all about. General Rose, of course, knew that the main capability of the Regiment was/is, in conjunction with its ability to endure conditions most could not, which is an inherent ability to translate information gathered into strategic level intelligence and act accordingly. Easy to state, slightly more difficult to deliver.

In any event, General Mike’s strategic brilliance, assisted by ‘his’ JCOs, in being able to define the actual situation in Bosnia, created the conditions for delivering the first meaningful ceasefire on New Year’s Eve 1994, which in turn began the process of ending that truly dreadful conflict.

And that experience, or curse, of being able to accurately read the strategic runes leads me to suggest that the “All war is deception” proverb is apposite today in the UK. I do not mean to imply that the UK is in any way as conflicted as Bosnia was. What is undoubtedly true, though, is that the UK is in a state of social instability that is ripe for extremist intervention that could easily lead to a serious deterioration in the situation. The disconnection of our national political parties from voters and the balkanisation of our political process is the daily narrative of those not cowed, yet, by this increasingly authoritarian UK government. Say that out loud to understand the full enormity of what is happening to our country. All politicians of the last 25 years are culpable for the sorry state this country is now in. Those politicians who claim otherwise are guilty by association. It is extraordinary what is happening in UK politics. The resulting ‘war’ we are in is a conflict of ideologies. Marxism, in its cuddly form of socialism, against capitalism and traditional freedom. And of course, the effect is upon all of us, especially the traditionally silent, stoic majority.

In perfect concert with the feebleness of the last Tory government, the Left deceived the UK population in the run-up to the General Election by omitting to tell anyone what its plans were. Producing an offer to voters that was arguably worse than the Trump versus Biden offering to our American cousins. Starmer’s socialist planners substituted plans in his manifesto (political contract) with detail-lite utopian aspirations. It was a clever deception by omission; hardly a manifesto in the accepted sense of the term. No, details of their actual plans would have been dangerous if revealed. My active radar senses Blair’s influence in this tawdry exercise. And in the ‘success’ of this major deception, we begin to see the contours taking a firmer shape of how this most socialist, class warrior political cohort are about to change this country for the worse. It is never better. The socialists always leave a mess when they are finally sussed out, as we have just witnessed with the faux socialist, Cameron-inspired Tory Party that took the term ‘useless’ to new levels.

To assist anyone not keeping up, the biggest deception of socialist power is the lie that Labour represents the working class. It never did. Socialism is the catnip of the university class, not the ‘working man’. Since Lenin’s Bolsheviks tricked the Mensheviks into believing that they, the Bolsheviks, were in the majority and should be in the charge of the revolution (they weren’t, but it was a successful deception), the working class ‘proletariat’ have been nothing more than cannon fodder and a fig leaf for those in control to hide their true intent behind. We see the evidence of this invidious phenomenon in every action since the last socialist quack, Blair, held power and began the process of wrecking the established constitutional order in the UK that had evolved over the centuries. Blair and his acolytes call it ‘progressive’, which in simple terms demonstrates another facet of the deception that is gleefully picked up in fashionable (and intellectually facile) circles, especially in the media. Their language is the language of opposites, especially in its effect: progressive is regressive; fair means unfair and liberal most certainly translates into illiberal. Starmer is reinterpreting the law where thought crimes are now punished more than actual crimes; and in what universe does the term ‘popular’ become a pejorative term? It is a developing dystopia.

For socialism to survive as a process – for that extremist minority of the population that adheres to real socialism (i.e. ‘intellectuals’, not the deceived working class); for all the appalling intellectual and practical contradictions to even begin to function, socialists must employ Orwellian, fascist, state power to force and intimidate the population into complying with its wacky tenets. Examples of modern fascism include net zero, mass immigration, two-tier society and policing and our courts being ruled by Strasbourg. It is when the state enforces its will on the majority using the full power of the state and courts. It hasn’t taken Two-Tier Kier long, but you have to admire his energetic approach to unleash his fascist instincts to punish anyone who contradicts his narrative. “You ‘will’ submit (to my hitherto concealed, nonsensical agenda)…or else.” The daily narrative from the childishly pious members of this socialist government is winding up to be full-on autocratic control of everything in our lives, most especially that which we don’t want. Buckle up.

If conservatives were an animal, it would be a jerboa. Giving the impression of being busy, while actually doing not much, but generally inoffensive and nonthreatening. Suitable for what the UK population wants from its much-derided political class, i.e. not much. Less is most certainly more.

Conversely, if socialism was an animal, it would be a constrictor snake, with the incredible ability for every scale on its body possessing the ability to sense the life pulse of its victim and individually constrict it to the point where its victim suffers cardiac arrest. Now that the socialists are in power, we see how literally every aspect of the traditional freedoms in the UK are being constricted; the ‘sleepers’ in every one of our national institutions and media have been activated and energised in order to constrict the life out of our society. A process begun by Blair and likely to be completed by Starmer.

The question, I suppose, is how long before the UK suffers cardiac arrest?

All war is deception – the UK is in a form of social conflict that is dangerously poised. The minority – a comparatively tiny minority – have control over the majority. It is an untenable situation caused by a massive deception and the total failure of the Tory opposition to function at even a basic level. The socialists can only survive by continuing this deception, while the majority observe with horror the developing madness of the attack on our sensibilities and cultural norms.

We need our jerboa to morph into a mongoose…and quickly. To do that they must reject all of the Blairite nonsense they have swallowed since dopey Dave took power in 2010. However, and on the available evidence of how the Conservative Party operates, I suspect we are going to need a bigger cage for our growing collection of edible (for reptiles) rodents.

From what I hear and read, the Tories are in a state of denial about the nature of the public’s rejection in July. Unless they snap out of their funk, get real and see the situation for what it truly is, they are destined for the dustbin of history – phase two of their historic defeat in July will see them consigned to being a historical footnote. Political Darwinism.

Nigel is ex-military.