Due to inflation, energy crisis, worsening pay and conditions, increasingly authoritarian right wing govts, the impending collapse of the NHS, higher education entry criteria choking the number of graduates, etc.
I’m reasonably sure the final straw would be a currency crisis. A stable currency feels like imperial privilege.
Has anything been written on this? The characteristics of imperial core countries, I mean. I’d be interested to know if there are any examples of countries that have ceased to be core countries that have been analysed through a Marxist lense.
Hope you’re not underestimating the problem. The UK government has been quite loud during the current Ukraine events. They’ve been perhaps even bolder with accusations (i.e. about chemical weapons), with the media hysteria. Their weapons were said to be actually effective (NLAWs), as opposed to USian javelins.
For a while it felt quite the opposite - as if UK was actively attempting to return to the big boys club.
It’s the last gasps of a power in rapid decline. Britain’s military industrial complex is one of the few productive industries we have left. The feverish way in which the British ruling class has clutched at the bonanza of weapons sales is no different from an emaciated man being presented with a buffet. British imperialism is so advanced at this stage that it is practically chomping at the bit for a return to aggressive, open competition with other powers for a redivision of the world.
Well yes, that’s partially what I meant.