So the United States, that self-appointed sheriff of global commerce, has decided to slap new tariffs on goods tainted by forced labour. And Britain, ever the eager deputy, promptly voices support for tougher supply chain laws. How noble.
How righteous. How utterly predictable. One might almost mistake this for a moral crusade, were the subtext not so glaringly transparent.
This is not about ethics. This is about the West’s desperate attempt to maintain a crumbling hegemony, draping itself in the tattered robes of virtue while the rest of the world yawns. We are witnessing the intellectual decadence of an empire that no longer commands respect but still yearns to dictate terms.
The language is that of the Victorian era: civilising missions, fair play, standards. But the substance is pure anxiety. The real story here is not the tariffs themselves, but the signal they send: the West is terrified of its own irrelevance.
Forced labour is a genuine evil, yes. But do not mistake this for a sudden outbreak of conscience. This is protectionism in a ball gown.
And Britain, ever nostalgic for its imperial past, clings to the illusion that it can still set the rules of the game. As Rome fell, it too issued edicts about barbarian conduct. How history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.
