JG Ballard's 'Kingdom Come' Predicted Britain's Neoliberal Decline and Rising Tensions
JG Ballard's novel Kingdom Come (2006) is presented as eerily predictive of today's Britain, capturing themes of racism, predatory politics, banality, and cruelty. Set in Brooklands, a suburban area off the M25 dominated by mall-based commerce, the story envisions plans to clear migrant populations to expand retail zones. The narrative depicts considerable violence against minorities, including attacks on Muslim women praying in a makeshift mosque and assaults on Asian shopkeepers by white mobs marked with red crosses. Ballard foresaw a London where the city center grows whiter and wealthier, while ethnic minorities are pushed to the capital’s outskirts, framing these peripheral areas as loci of anti-English sentiment.
The article suggests that by around three and a half years from 2025, the UK could elect right-wing extremists, with leadership emerging from candidates who have limited direct records of racial abuse. It critiques simplistic explanations such as foreign money, US network conspiracies, or Nazism analogies, and instead advocates a long-term perspective on neoliberal England's decline. The piece highlights the concept of 'retail politics' embodied by the character David Cruise, portraying politics as a campaign driven by mood and salesmanship rather than substantive debate.
Kingdom Come serves as a warning about the decay of neoliberal England, linking the current social and political turmoil back to economic shifts in the 2000s and the aftermath of the financial crash.
