Overmatched, overpaid, and over here

If you're looking for a case study of the decline and fall of American conservative writing (not that it's hard to find), then look no further than Jonah Goldberg's latest epistle from his trip around Britain and Ireland on the National Review cruise. We last noted him reporting on 50s night on the ship and we were ahead of him on his new topic: Enoch Powell's 1968 "rivers of blood" speech, which (of course) he agrees with and extends into a rumination on the supposed decline of British confidence since then. Which consists of the following elements:

Lists of supposed modern British ailments that he couldn't be bothered finishing: runaway immigration, secularism, feminism, et al; it reminds them of colonialism or whatnot.

Lists of things that he thinks are true but couldn't be bothered providing any actual examples: For years, the police here have looked the other way as citizens have slaughtered their wives and daughters in "honor killings." To clamp down would be "insensitive" to cultural differences.

Outright howlers:

the now largely forgotten speech by the British scholar and — briefly — politician Enoch Powell,

Briefly? Powell survived as a Tory MP until 1974 (if anything, boosted in stature by his speech since his miserable showing in the 1965 leadership contest that we referred to the other day) and then switched to be the Ulster Unionist MP for South Down until 1987. So nearly 20 years after the speech, he was still in Parliament.

All of this came about because the British lost confidence in themselves. Confidence in the greatness of your nation is a wonderful bulwark against those who'd like to turn it into something else ... The founder of the Guinness beer dynasty signed a 9,000-year lease for his brewery.

So evidence of past British confidence is a contract signed by a Kildare man for land in Dublin? And this business of the "9,000 year lease" is one of those interesting factoids while chatting over a few pints, but it doesn't mean a whole lot. Look at it this way: if Arthur had just bought the land, we could say he leased it for infinity years -- now that's confidence!

In addition to reciting the hackneyed tale of how British Airways removed the Union Jack from their planes (which they later, following heaps of ridicule, brought back) he claims:

Here, the only real debate about the British flag is whether it is in some way analogous to our own Confederate flag.

Now, even a half-decent writer (like, say, a blogger) would see the opportunity here to flesh out a few sentences on how the two flags actually are historically related, since the Confederate (battle) flag has a similar design to the Scottish cross in the Union Jack. But note instead his sly usage "our own Confederate flag" which he can always say just refers to it being American but there's something of the dogwhistle to National Review readers too.

In summary, what we have here is the usual Goldberg sloppiness, accentuated by being stuck on a ship for a couple of weeks, with the Daily Telegraph probably being the primary information source. Rivers of drivel ensue.

UPDATE: The theme of a supposed liberal War on Britain has set up a game of transatlantic volleyball in the "Anglosphere." The National Review's Corner links approvingly ("there is something to be said for the idea that the ceaseless denigration of Britain, its history and its institutions, by the country's liberal elite has done a great deal to hold back the assimilation of the country’s more recent ethnic communities") to a Spectator piece -- the latter appropriately slammed by Mike Power. Also, Goldberg acknowledges the error on Powell's political career.