OLD duffers like me, born amid the ruins of the London Blitz, sometimes wonder how today’s molly-coddled generation would cope with another real war.
Well, as the Third Gulf War risks turning into World War Three, we’ll find out.
The Nato alliance is refusing to help out.
And the headless chickens in Downing Street are unfit to lead this nation through the hardships heading our way.
At the first whiff of oil and gas shortages, socialist Keir Starmer is already promising to dish out cash he doesn’t have to keep benefit claimants warm.
But where is the money coming from?
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This, remember, is the brave leader who allowed Cabinet nut job Ed Miliband to shut down abundant supplies of oil and gas sitting untapped beneath the North Sea.
Without oil there is no petrochemical industry. Without petrochemicals, there are no plastics, no drones, no weapons to fight with.
Red Ed, who has effectively throttled British industry, thinks we can survive a possible WW3 on wind and sunshine.
In the meantime, we will ship oil and gas supplies from the other side of the world at triple the price.
Meanwhile, “Benefits Street” Britain is drowning in debt.
Our £330BILLION welfare bill is already gobbling up nearly 11p for every pound in the economy.
This colossal sum dwarfs a ballooning £188billion for health and social care and will rocket still higher as inflation soars in line with the price of oil and food.
That will stoke Britain’s eye-bleeding £2.87TRILLION of national debt — a dead weight which makes the cost of ships, planes, troops and drones almost totally unaffordable.
Successive governments have squandered the so-called “peace dividend” from the collapse of the Soviet Union and mothballed everything that can fire a shot.
Reality is about to dawn. And it isn’t going to be easy.
The last time we had to pull our belts in was more than 80 years ago — before the cradle-to-grave welfare state was even dreamed of.
There was no central heating. Few people had fridges, let alone private cars. And there was certainly no such thing as triple-lock pensions, free rail passes and “free” healthcare.
They were used to living within their means, not “on tick”.
People queued patiently for food and essentials which were rationed for years after the war ended.
They saved paper, string and candle wax and sat as a family around a single coal fire during the worst winters on record.
Could Generations X, Y and Z cope with such day-to-day hardships as petrol rationing, empty supermarket shelves and scarce medical supplies?
This was the age of Britain’s legendary stiff upper lip, nowadays only available with Botox.
We have evolved into “Sicknote Britain”, the fattest and most neurotic people in Europe. We have been spoiled since the days of make-do-and-mend.
In this age of instant gratification, rampant shoplifting and phone theft, it’s easy to imagine how some people will deal with shortages of essential goods and services.
It certainly won’t be Keep Calm And Carry On.
The evidence suggests we are going in a totally different direction: a more selfish society demanding our “rights” — to work from home, steal from shops, protest in support of our deadliest enemies.
Our society is splintered by multiculturalism and the rise of the “useless idiots” who demonstrated in support of Iran’s murderous terror squads on Sunday.
Matthew Syed, a columnist for our sister paper The Sunday Times made an impassioned call earlier this week to end state-subsidised “kindness” and simply put on another pullover.
“This isn’t compassion. It’s national lunacy,” he writes.
“There must be no energy bailout.
“Politicians should tell voters to wrap up warmer, turn down the thermostat, cancel their Sky subscription, whatever.
“The state is taxing and spending at a rate unprecedented in post-war history while people feel ever more squeezed.
“Why? A child could understand the logic — we have amassed so much debt that we are splurging more on interest than on defence and policing combined, while paying higher risk premiums than Germany, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and many others.”
The trend began with David Cameron’s Tory regime in 2010, promising austerity while actually increasing spending and debt.
It exploded during the Covid pandemic which cost taxpayers an eye-bleeding £410billion — around £6,100 per person.
That has continued through the migration boom with hundreds of thousands of illegals drawn to these shores by on-tap benefits.
We have become welfare mainliners.
Instead of reining in the benefits bonanza, Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have let rip by ditching promises to keep the two-child benefit cap.
Under Starmer, the number of jobless youngsters has soared while trade unions walk away with inflation-busting pay deals costing £11billion.
Meanwhile, future generations will foot the mind-boggling £1.4trillion bill for unfunded gold-plated public sector pensions — equal to 45 per cent of our entire economic output.
This shocking legacy is unaffordable at any time.
With the risk of war in Iran spreading across the Middle East and possibly much wider, it is a millstone crushing our future prosperity.
Under Keir Starmer, divided Labour is incapable of acting decisively to slash the “nice to have” welfare handouts to which everyone, rich and poor, now cling.
Of course we must help those who cannot help themselves.
But some subsidies — free prescriptions, free bus and rail travel, winter fuel allowance, triple-lock pensions, unfunded state pensions — will have to go.
Starmer and Reeves will not bite the bullet.
But whether we face peace or war, that time will come for another Prime Minister — and much sooner rather than we think.
