The Duran Podcast - UK & Denmark: Elites Fiddle While Their Economies Burn

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

UK & Denmark: Elites Fiddle While Their Economies Burn

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the situation in the UK, and let's discuss a bit what happened in the elections in Denmark as well, because I think something important is going on in Denmark. Another Alensky curse moment, at least that's how it looks. But who knows, maybe Meda Fredrickson will end up being a prime minister again when all is said and done, but still, something important is going on in Denmark. But perhaps we start off with the UK, I guess. Let's do so because I should say something to our viewers who are not in the UK, or Denmark.

The Denmark and the UK are very, very close friends. Very, very, we have a long history of very close economic contacts. The Danes have historically sold a lot of their agricultural products to Britain, the two royal families are very close and have intermarried and are very very, close friends. And, well, of all of the Scandinavian countries, Denmark has always been the one that the British have had the strongest connections to. And you know, it's Denmark, Copenhagen is one of those places which British people, especially British young people, often like to visit. So, you know, these are two very close countries. They like each other. They get

on with each other. In some ways, in some respects, their politics have been fairly similar. Now, I did another trip into the English countryside a few days ago. The last one that I did, if you remember, was just before the Christmas New Year holidays. But I went out into the countryside. I went to a rather different part of England, further north. The previous visit was around Oxford. This is very much the old industrial heartland of England. It's the industrial cities. I was lost there in that same area earlier last year.

I was shocked by... the speed of the decline since I was last there about a year ago. Again, this is not being captured in the statistics, but it is now very, very visible to anybody who knows these places. I mean, you see high streets basically derelict and abandoned. You see signs of urban decay. everywhere. And what was, you know, shocking was places that we visited previously.

We used to know quite well, hotels, restaurants, those sort of things. They've either closed and are closing rapidly or they're downsizing and downsizing sharply. So there is, I can only describe it as a societal and economic collapse underway. I don't think that is an overstatement. In London, you can also see stresses and signs of problems. But the moment you go outside London, the difference becomes much sharper. And I don't think the government in London or the political class in London, either know about this or care very much about this,

and they are not prepared at all, and they're taking no step that I can see to prepare at all, Britain for the economic tsunami that is heading towards us. We are perhaps of all the European countries, the most exposed to surges in energy prices. We have the highest energy prices in Europe, by the way. Energy prices in Britain are twice the levels of France, just to say. We have virtually no reserves.

We have about two or three days of reserves of natural gas. And we tend to buy reserves. We tend to buy natural gas increasingly on the spot market. And in Britain, natural gas is, what most people use for home heating. Electricity costs are going to surge. Energy costs are going to surge. Food prices are going to surge

because fertilizer is going to be an increasing short supply because much of it used to come from the Gulf. The other big source was Belarus and Russia. We are not importing fertilizer from Belarus and Russia because of the sanctions, which we're not prepared to lift. We are not importing from the Persian Gulf because supply has dried up. The farming economy in Britain was already in deep crisis. This is going to worsen that crisis even further.

Deindustrialization. We talk a lot about deindustrialization in Germany, but deindustrialization is also happening in Britain, and it is going to accelerate. This is going to impact throughout the domestic economy. The government is already running a very, very high, well, it has a problem with a budget deficit and it's having stresses with the budget.

Debt levels, GDP to debt ratios, are already very high. It's difficult to see how we're going to get through this well over the next year and the government is doing nothing to prepare. On the contrary, and I do want to discuss this, I was listening on a radio program, a former government minister, not the current government, the previous government,

Tobias Elwood, former government minister, well regarded within British politics, And it was quite bizarre. I mean, he was asked questions about the situation in the Gulf. He was asked situations about the British economy. He talked about these for about a few minutes. And then he embarked on a long tirade about the threat from Russia.

That was what he was really interested in. He said that we've got to prepare for this Russian very. We've got to spend whatever money we still have to prepare for the Russian invasion. He spoke about how the Russians are able to cut off all the undersea cables, 23 of them. If they cut simultaneously 23 cables of land of Britain, all at the same time, we will be plunged in darkness and there will be no internet at all. I mean, preposterous. I mean, to me it sounded deranged. And he was saying all of this, even as people in Britain,

are very, very frightened now about the prospects of sky high energy prices, energy costs and closures of factories and blackouts. He's frightening us with problems with over-under-sea cables. instead of talking about the actual everyday problems that people are facing, the pressing everyday problems that people are facing in the economy. And what is deeply disturbing is, yes, he was a member of the previous government, but if you listen to the officials of the present government, they're exactly the same, and they have no plan.

A stummer saying the same stuff. Absolutely. Exactly the same stuff. We're fighting a two-front war. Okay, what's happening in the Middle East, whatever. Who cares? Well, let's focus on Ukraine. Yeah, he's focused on seizing Russian tankers and what he calls Russian tankers.

That remains his primary focus. And you go to much of the media and they talk in the same way. As I said, even as people are saying to themselves, how am I going to be? be able to afford my groceries? How am I going to pay for my bills? What's going to happen to my job when, you know, factories and businesses all around me closed down? And this is going to have an effect politically as well. And, you know, this is where perhaps we can talk about Denmark in a moment. Yeah. But the entire political class is like this. I mean, the king, amiable man, who does he like to meet all the time? Who does he constantly host?

At the palace, why he's dear friend Vladimir Zelensky, for example. Of course. Of course. Of course. Ukraine is good for them. Russia is good for them. The Russia boogeyman serves their purpose in that it distracts. And in this case, it'll distract from what's coming with the fallout from this conflict

in the Middle East, which is going to be a huge, massive economic fallout and economic catastrophe for much of Europe, for all of Europe. And so they can distract away from that and they can say, let's just focus on Ukraine. A project Ukraine lines their pockets as well. So that's always helpful. They hate Russia. So for them, it's very comfortable to continue to attack Russia. And yeah, I mean, that's, you know, the whole focus on Ukraine thing is, it works out for them.

Focusing on the Middle East. And one more thing, they don't want to focus on Iran in the Middle East because they don't want to admit that they're too chicken to tell the United States to cut this war off. Absolutely. Because no European country, maybe they're not supporting the war. They're supporting the war in quiet ways and in other ways. But okay, they're not sending their military there or they're not sending their ships. And Trump is always complaining about it. But that's just a bunch of nonsense.

Everyone knows that militarily Europe would not be able to do anything. anything that the United States cannot do on their own. They would add zero value to the military operation in the Middle East. But what Europe could do if they really cared about their people and their citizens and the economic situation that's going to hit their countries and that's going to hit their everyday citizens is they could tell the United States, stop all of them. The entire EU could say stop Trump, enough. No more.

You need to end this war. You need to wind this war down. Cut it out because our countries are going to get slammed. Not one European leader is saying that. And so Ukraine and Russia serves as a very good distraction away from them having to actually stand up to the United States. Because they can't stand up to the United States. They don't want to stand up to the United States because they're all a bunch of vassals. Yes.

I remember Margaret Thatcher very well. And, you know, I was, I opposed to. I mean, you know, this is so I'm not saying. somebody who's going to go to come along. And, you know, I'm not a huge, I'm not somebody with a background of supporting Margaret Thatcher. But in the 1980s, the moment she sensed that a war in the Middle East was about to happen, she would have been off to Washington.

She would have been insisting on meeting Trump. She would have said to Trump, what exactly is it that you think you are doing? What are your plans? What are you going to do with the Strait of Hormuz-Close? where what you expect us to do in that situation. And she wouldn't have been the only one. Helmut Cole would have been there. Francois Mitter, I didn't like any of these people, by the way, would have been there too.

They would have all been, but, you know, they were substantial leaders. They would have come along and they would have said to Trump, under no circumstances do this thing. Or if you are going to do this thing, tell us how. How? Tell us how you're going to do it. You must consult us first. We are your allies. We must have a say in this. But of course they don't. They don't say anything. They didn't say anything before the war. They didn't say anything substantive or important after the war. There is no way Margaret Thatcher would have accepted the kind of insults that Kirst Dahmer is accepting from Donald Trump. she'd have fired back, she'd have said exactly what she thought. And by the way, the Americans would have respected some more for it. But, you know, we have a political class, which all I could say is, I mean, they are, they're not,

Vassals is too polite a word to describe them. I could think of other words, but I'm not going to use them. I mean, it's just, it's just abysmal to see what they are. And if you're asking for planning, if you're asking for preparation, if you see them say to themselves, that we are in this crisis, all prices are going to rise, fertilize the situation is going to increase. What do we do?

Well, they would be working, they'd be working hard on trying to prepare some kind of plan. There'd be warnings made to people. They'd prepare to them. we might have to think of rationing. They would have said something. They would have planned something. They would have prepared in some way. And they are doing nothing.

They're doing nothing in Britain. They're doing nothing in France. They're not doing anything in Germany. Ursula is doing nothing at all. And of course, Kaya Callas is still talking about the threat from the east. That's all she's doing, which is the only thing she ever, ever talks about. And the other thing, of course, that they're all saying to each other is, what a pity this war has happened. It's a great distraction from the war that really matters, the threat that really exists, which is the threat from Russia.

Now, that brings me to my further point, and this is where we can talk about Denmark in a moment, because, yes, I do think most people in Britain have mostly accepted the narrative. about Russia, which is after all the only one they hear. I mean, it's broadcast to them 24-7 in the media. They hear it relentlessly. They hear all the politicians repeat it. They may not be as engaged in as some people in the political class are. But, you know, they mostly agree, you know, that Russia is a bad place and Putin is a bad man and all of that. But that's not what they are mostly worried about at the moment. After that discussion with Tobias Webb Elwood, after he went away, it was opened up for calls. The radio program was opened up for calls. And the calls were scathing. People were furious. They say, what is he talking about? Why isn't he talking about our problems?

And I think this is exactly what you have seen in Denmark. Now, even amongst, the European elite, Marta Frediksen has been one of the most extreme anti-Russian leaders around. I mean, you only have to listen to. I mean, she was one of the people who talked about, you know, the fact that we're already in a war with Russia. I mean, her rhetoric on Russia has been extraordinary. And she has never been one to hold back from advocating the most extreme, the most relentless, sanctions against Russia that you can imagine. Now, I don't know what most people in Denmark

think about Russia, but I expect it's not that very different from Britain. I'm sure that most people in Denmark also believe that the Russians are in the wrong over the Ukraine war, that they, you know, Putin is bad, and all of that. But again, at a time when in Denmark, which is a rich country, economic conditions are getting more difficult. The message Fredrickson must have been conveying to more and more people in Denmark is that ultimately I'm not interested in your problems. I have this obsession with Russia and that is what I'm here all about. I'm not concerned about your bills, your jobs, your homes, your housing, your taxes. I want to focus instead on helping my dear buddy

and dear friend Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine from the threat of the Russian bear. So the result is that Fredrickson, who you remember just a few weeks ago at the height of the Greenland crisis, was supposed to have become suddenly popular again. I never believed it, by the way. Fredickson and the Social Democrats who have been the dominant party in Denmark for most of the last century. I mean, you know, Denmark, at the rest of Scandinavia, went through a very, very strong Social Democrat phase. I mean, Denmark was part of the Social Democratic systems that you used to see in all of the Scandinavian countries of the 60s and 70s. Anyway, the social Democrats suffered their worst defeat in a century. Fredericksen is gone.

Of course, she will get promoted to another post. She'll be probably made. I'm guessing she's going to take over from Christine Lagarde as head of the Central Bank, the European Central Bank. She might be prime minister. There's still a chance. Yeah, there's still a chance. She might be prime minister.

Wow, can you imagine her at the ECB? I know, exactly. But, you know, the reason for this debacle is that the elite is only interested in listening to itself. It pays no attention anymore to what the people it's supposed to be governing and representing are worrying about. And to the extent that the power of the ballot still exists in Europe, and I wonder for how long, by the way, people. are exercising it wherever they can against that elite. They did that, as we discussed in recent programs in Germany, in the elections in Baden-Wiltenberg and Rheinland-Faulz. They did that in France, in the local elections. They did that in Italy, in the recent referendum there, though Italy is

complicated and rather different. They've just done that in Denmark, and very soon they came to do that in Britain too, when we have the regional elections in May. They just did that in the United States as well. They just did that. In the state elections, the local elections. Exactly. Everything swinged blue. Exactly.

Including Trump's home base. Exactly. Exactly. So. But they don't listen. But they don't see that. They don't care about that. They talk to each other.

As you rightly said, Friedrichson has suffered this crushing defeat. And there's still talk that she might remain prime minister, which is, I don't believe that. I mean, I think that's too much. I'm saying there is a chance. But there's a chance, absolutely. But don't worry about her because she'll be promoted to something else. Maybe Secretary General of NATO went up.

Butte goes where she will continue her perennial theme, the Russians are coming. We must increase our preparations for the. this Russian threat, it doesn't matter if everything else is falling apart all around this. That's what we need to focus on, the threat from Putin, the threat from Russia, and people may be exasperated about it, they may be frustrated about it, but as we repeatedly see, you change the government and the same policy continues. And in Denmark, by the way, whatever happens, whether Frederickson stays or goes, that will undoubtedly be so.

They say that the left and the right both strengthened their positions in Denmark. That is absolutely true, but the coalition that will form will continue where Fredrickson left off. Absolutely. The Russia business is very lucrative. Absolutely. The Russians are coming. Business is very, very profitable.

Exactly. That's for sure. All right. We'll end it there. The durand.com. Round X, round rumble, round telegram. Go to Durant Shop, pick up some merch,

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