On Friday the 14^th February 2025, J.D. Vance stood before the generals and politicians of Europe at the Munich Security Conference in Paris, and said what no one in the British or European ruling classes wanted to be said. He held up a mirror to the ruin they have made and invited them—if they have any sense of shame left—to see the reflection. It was a speech that should be played in full on every news channel in Britain. Instead, as in any police state, it has not been covered in full. Instead of giving a full transcript, or playing the full version, and then inviting comment, the regime media has given a few quotes, and filled out the reporting with outraged denunciation. See, for example how the BBC and The Guardian have turned to the obligatory “fact-checking” from apparatchiks whose job is not to verify facts, but to make them disappear. Even The Daily Telegraph, more concerned about its failed crusade against Russia than its supposed belief in the generality of what Mr Vance was saying, has chosen to sneer rather than quote. The full speech is, however, available on YouTube.

And, in case anyone is wondering—yes, all the facts he gave are true. The examples he gave of Britain’s descent into a police state, of Europe’s economic and moral decay, of the crushing of dissent—if anything, they were too mild. The British ruling class does not just silence its critics; it terrorises them. Ask the people dragged from their homes for wrongthink tweets. Ask the journalists raided for reporting facts the government does not like. Ask the parents who have had their children seized by the state for questioning the latest gender lunacy. Mr. Vance was not exaggerating. The reality is worse.

Some Americans, astonished and admiring, have likened this to Pitt the Younger’s great Mansion House speech of 1805: “England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, I trust, save Europe by her example.” The parallel is tempting. Vance, as the second most powerful man in the world, delivered a public dressing-down to the assembled elites of the West. Perhaps the sheer force of his words will compel some of them to rethink their position, to accept—however grudgingly—that their grip on power is not as unshakable as they imagined. Perhaps, in some small way, his speech will lead to a slight loosening of the shackles on free expression in Europe.

That would be a welcome development. But we should not deceive ourselves. This is not an attack by a virtuous outsider against the corrupt establishment. It is an argument within the establishment itself. The Western ruling class is divided, not on fundamentals, but on tactics. The Clinton-Blair-Obama-Johnson-Biden-Starmer faction has spent the past thirty years looting its own nations. Mass immigration shattered social cohesion. Political correctness silenced opposition. The economy was left to rot while every last penny was squeezed from the lower orders and funnelled into the pockets of an increasingly decadent elite. Greed and malevolence aside, there was a purpose in this. It was to weaken the host societies to the point where no resistance could rise from within to their exploitation. However, this approach weakened the West so badly that, if this manner of rule had continued much longer, the West might not have survived at all.

The faction now fronted by Trump and Vance recognises this. They share the same ultimate goal—perpetual global dominance as a rent-extracting oligarchy—but they understand that to maintain their power, the host body must be kept alive. A society cannot be defended by men who have been told since childhood that they are evil. It cannot be sustained by men who have been convinced to castrate themselves in the name of personal growth. The Trump faction wants to turn back from the brink, to reindustrialise, to stop the flood of third-world migrants, to reassert basic norms of masculinity and patriotism. This is not, however, out of benevolence, but out of necessity.

The election of Trump is the victory of the more realistic faction of the ruling class. This faction knows that the West must be made strong again—not for the sake of its people, but so it can continue to serve as the enforcement arm of the New World Order. It wants to bring an end to the suicidal green policies that are crippling industry. It wants to stop the demographic collapse of its own populations. It wants to ensure that its young men will once again be willing to fight and die when commanded.

It is, in short, Glasnost and Perestroika all over again. This is a temporary liberalisation designed not to overthrow the system, but to save it from its own excesses. And just as Mikhail Gorbachev did not set out to destroy the Soviet Union, but only to reform it, so too does the Trump-Vance faction seek only to hold off the inevitable collapse. If their reforms work, they will maintain their hold on power for another generation.

Does this mean we should oppose them? Not at all. A little free speech is better than none. A little economic sanity is preferable to total insanity. If the state stops persecuting its own people quite so aggressively, that is an improvement. If mass migration slows, living standards will improve. If energy prices fall, ordinary people will benefit.

But we should be under no illusions. This is not our revolution. It is merely the latest power struggle among those who rule us. We should take advantage of the breathing space it offers. We should enjoy the temporary relief. But we should not make the mistake of believing that these men are our saviours. One does not thank a forest fire for changing direction.

The Western ruling class—whether fronted by Clinton or Trump, by Starmer or Sunak—is a parasite. It has no vision for the future beyond its own continued dominance. Its survival depends on keeping the ruled in a state of perpetual obedience. Whether they do this through brute force or through calculated concession does not matter.

Our task remains unchanged. We must overthrow this system and replace it with something that values the peace and prosperity of mankind above the greed and arrogance of a few oligarchs. This new regime may be less stupid, but that does not mean it is less wicked. And if we let our guard down, we will find ourselves praising our new masters just as fervently as we cursed the old.

For now, though, let us at least enjoy the sight of one faction exposing the crimes of the other. Vance’s speech was very, very funny. It was the modern equivalent of Khrushchev’s 1956 denunciation of Stalin, with a dash of humour. He was right about Europe’s decline. He was right about censorship. He was right about the sheer, suffocating corruption of the Western elite.

The age of illusions is over. The fight for what comes next has begun.