The British Government, never one to pass by an opportunity to embarrass itself in the world, is now throwing a tantrum over encryption. According to Computer Weekly, it has issued a secret order under Section 253, part 5(c) of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016—a law, I will add without special comment, made by those freedom-loving Conservatives. The idea that people might want to have private conversations—without Big Brother breathing down their necks—is simply too much to bear. This is hardly surprising, when you consider what people are now saying in public, even with the harshest curbs on dissent since Pitt’s sedition laws of the 1790s. What they are saying in private is far worse. And those of us who are saying it know exactly what it is. And that is why ministers have brought out the usual excuses: “terrorism” and “child protection.” These magic words are meant to shut down all debate and make people forget that what’s actually happening is a blatant power grab.

Fortunately, the tech giants aren’t playing along. According to The Guardian, Apple has refused to comply, stating that it will not create backdoors.

Once upon a time, an order from London might have got immediate obedience. Now, it’s been ignored in much the same way that Google or Apple would ignore a decree from North Korea. The reason for this is easy to state. Part of the means by which the actual ruling class holds power in Britain is to weaken the country to the point where no other interest group can emerge to challenge it. The collateral damage of this has been the collapse of British world power. The Governments of Queen Victoria could send a few gunboats and wait for the foreigners to comply. The Governments of King Charles preside over a deindustrialised woke police state unable to deport illegal immigrants even in the few instances where they genuinely wants to.

So, what will happen next? Well, instead of accepting defeat gracefully, tech companies have hinted at an alternative: if the British Government keeps pushing for backdoors, they might just remove encryption entirely from UK services. Yes, because turning the entire British internet into a hacker’s paradise will surely make everyone safer.

Banks and big businesses are, naturally, horrified. Their entire business model relies on secure encryption—without it, every online transaction becomes an open invitation for fraudsters. If encryption is compromised, online banking collapses, and people will be back to stuffing cash under their mattresses. Even the less insane agencies of the British Government are worried. According to the National Audit Office, the “cyber threat to the UK government is severe,”

Jurgita Miseviciute, head of public policy at Proton, sums it all up bluntly: “Backdoors to encryption that only let the good guys in are impossible.” She goes on to explain that weakening encryption would create vulnerabilities that wouldn’t just be exploited by British authorities, but by every bad actor with half a brain cell. In other words, the Government’s idea of “security” would actually make Britain less secure.

Meanwhile, even Britain’s own allies have figured out that strong encryption is a necessity. In an advisory last year, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand urged the widespread use of end-to-end encryption to combat alleged threats from China—particularly after the ‘Salt Typhoon’ attack exposed vulnerabilities in US telecom networks. While Britain is busy trying to weaken its own security, its closest allies are strengthening theirs.

And so, as American tech giants shrug and carry on with business as usual, British ministers are left sulking in their offices, muttering about how unfair it all is. The fact that this order was supposed to be kept secret—but has now been exposed—only underscores just how weak and desperate they’ve become.

Embarrassing, I must say, for those of us who regret the decline of Britain. On the other hand, bearing in mind what the ruling class has made of Britain, it is some comfort that the loss of power in the world outside is now coming back as a loss of power over us.