Posted on April 4, 2025

The Failure of Anglo Institutions

Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, April 4, 2025

Credit Image: © Eddie Mulholland/Avalon via ZUMA Press


Subscribe to future audio versions of AmRen articles here.

The Great Replacement is so obvious that it is almost impossible to talk about. The idea that great Western nations could cease to exist within the century sounds almost crazy. The illusion of continuity is strengthened by the persistence of traditional institutions, especially in the English-speaking world. If the Anglosphere has a defining cultural characteristic, it may be respect for institutions that are presumed to hold inherent power and legitimacy.

Until recently, the English-speaking peoples could be forgiven for thinking their ancestors had solved the problem of politics. Limited government, civil liberties, the rule of law, division of powers, and a constitution (written like the American or unwritten and ancient like the British) prevented extremism and tyranny. The United Kingdom avoided the dictatorships and political crises that plagued 20th century Europe.

The British constitution that the American Founders admired so much seemed especially enduring. In his magnificent Marlborough: His Life and Times, Winston Churchill made a typically triumphalist claim, contrasting Britain’s constitutional heritage with emerging absolutism on the Continent: “In the happy nick of time her [England’s] Parliament grew strong enough to curb the royal power and to control the armed forces, and she thus became the cradle, as she is still the citadel, of free institutions around the world.” (65, Book I)

On the surface, nothing essential has changed since the Restoration, with government vested in the Crown, Lords, and Commons. All that’s left is to expand “rights” of “marginalized groups” that keep challenging us to live up to our so-called ideals. The British government now defines British identity in abstractions. Its anti-terrorist strategy says “extremism” is active or vocal opposition to fundamental British values, which are “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.” Anyone can be British.

English liberty was not the end of history. The ancient British constitution is in tatters. The House of Lords is dominated by political appointees and outright DEI “aristocrats” such as Stephen Lawrence’s mother, a “Baroness.” Britain now has a “Supreme Court” that claims the right to determine what is or is not constitutional. Unelected people — judges — are sovereign, just as in the United States. The Commons can no longer be considered the ruling power. The Crown’s power has largely been abolished, not just limited.

The “rule of law” failed to conserve what any other generation of British people would consider basic rights. Freedom of speech has disappeared. The government is in a panic over a fictional TV show. Police want parents to report their own children if they watch “misogynist” internet videos. The Labour Government just hit a new low in public approval (14 percent), which tells us something about democratic legitimacy. It is about to ban ninja swords.

Yet the illusion of continuity is powerful. The King remains on the throne, ceremonies continue, the same political parties jockey for power, and the British government flexes its military muscle in talks about Ukraine. Until its recent decline, the Labour Party enjoyed a boost when the White House criticized Britain’s lack of free speech; Brits don’t like foreigners telling them how to behave. There was a similar boost in patriotism in Canada when President Trump threatened annexation. This could even ensure another Liberal victory in the upcoming election. While ordinary people may not understand or react to demographic displacement, they can still understand competition between nations.

Even if their governments no longer represent the nation, they can still inspire the loyalty a sports team might. A permissible form of civic nationalism is useful to the progressive establishment, in which the Union Jack or Maple Leaf is a rallying symbol against right-wing “outsiders,” but not against resident aliens. Breaking this artificial sense of continuity and permanence may be our greatest challenge, and it will be hard. Many people do not form new opinions after age 25, and in the popular imagination, the United Kingdom is still a white country.

And yet, certain political developments could break institutions or change them so dramatically whites would react. One would be the rise of explicitly Islamic political parties. The Muslim vote is an important part of the Labour coalition, but the October 7 attack on Israel and the ferocious Israeli response may shatter this coalition. There is tension between Zionists and anti-Zionists within Labour, and Muslims may be unwilling to accept their current subordinate role.

In a recent by-election in Mayfield — a majority non-white (67 percent) and Muslim (51 percent) London parliamentary district — Labour’s vote fell by almost 45 points. The Ilford Independents, a Muslim, pro-Gaza party, won, and Noor Jahan Begum is now a Member of Parliament. Tories won in the district as recently as 2006 but came in third with just 15 percent.

In the 2024 general election, the Muslim vote for Labour collapsed in key areas. Candidates, including Ayoub Khan, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Hussain Mohamed, and Adnan Hussain, all won by putting Palestine at the center of their campaigns. They were not spoilers for the Tories; Conservatives were practically irrelevant in these elections. “The goal from the very start has been to empower the Muslim vote and send the main political parties a message: Muslims are united, in Muslim-heavy areas your majorities will be under threat, and there may even be an upset,” said The Muslim Vote after the general election. “Tonight we did that in spades.”

George Galloway won a crushing victory over Labour in 2024 in a by-election in Rochdale. “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” he said at the time. Mr. Galloway has always been a left-wing gadfly, but he could be a transitional figure. Palestine is historically a left-wing, socialist cause, but it is rapidly becoming an identitarian cause for Muslims. The Palestinian flag has grown in popularity as Israel strengthens its hold over Gaza, and has become a way for Muslims to mark their territory. Sunni Arab states are increasingly indifferent to Palestinians, but in the West, the Palestinians are a pan-Muslim symbol of struggle.

Last summer in Ulster, there were signs of Catholic/Protestant unity during race riots after murders by a non-white. Mass immigration changes the way people think. And once “communities” are established, there may be separate legal standards and intermediate authorities between the state and criminals. British police may face riots if they arrest “ethnic” criminals without going through “community leaders.” If Muslims set up street organizations and political parties, it will be hard to keep the United Kingdom from turning into Northern Ireland writ large. “Whatever else, the formation of ‘Muslim Defence Leagues’ to ‘protect mosques’ appears like an embryonic analogue to sectarian groups in the province,” wrote one critic.

But where are the white community leaders? What are their symbols? What is their faith? Certainly, the Church of England will not stand for the English. Sadly, the only banner whites have is their national flag, which is also the flag of the government.

Ironically, British people may be the ones under occupation, the equivalent of Irish nationalists in Ulster. The British government only reluctantly backed down from an attempt to impose “two-tier” sentencing that would punish whites more than non-whites, and it will try again after Easter. The government celebrates Muslim holidays, with the King, the so-called “Defender of the Faith,” leading the way.

While Nigel Farage and other British leaders on the “Right” cling to a civic nationalist creed, 71 percent of Muslims consider Islam the primary source of their identity, and complain they are “excluded” from Britishness. If all this groveling has not done the job, it is hard to see what will. Muslim MPs are becoming nationalists for what they consider to be their real nations. Eight MPs who oppose expanding an airport in England because of “climate change” also want Britain to fund a new airport in Pakistan — at a time of budget cuts.

British institutions, including the armed forces, cannot seem to imagine anything but submission.

Osama bin Laden famously said that when people see a weak horse and a strong horse, they pick the strong horse. When someone like this is a leading British politician, it is clear who is the weak horse.

Vice President JD Vance’s grim jibe that the United Kingdom will be an Islamist state with nuclear weapons does not seem so unreasonable. The danger is not that there will be political upheaval, but that there will be none. Institutional barriers such as an official aristocracy, a monarchy, and a state church have not stopped sweeping cultural change or repression of the British. Public opinion is no barrier.

What is happening to the United Kingdom is an important lesson for conservatives who think institutions or constitutions have magical powers to protect against the consequences of demographic changes. Institutions are products of a particular people, and if the people are gone, institutions will be corrupted. Once that happens, they are of no value. No institution, however ancient or hallowed, has value if it is hostile to the ethnic stock that built it.

“Ulsterization” —the United Kingdom fragmenting into hostile tribes with whites only one among many — is preferable to what is happening now: surrender with a shrug. Whites should never have been reduced to organizing in Britain the same way Muslims do. Muslims don’t even belong there, whereas Britain is the homeland of the British. However, without collective organization, there will not always be an England. English people must look to their own defense. Not their laws, their institutions, their constitution, nor even their King will save them.

About Gregory Hood

View all posts by Gregory Hood
Mr. Hood is a staff writer for American Renaissance. He has been active in conservative groups in the US. You can follow him on Gab.