In another place, there is a discussion about whether someone would leave the UK if money were no object.

There are lots of responses along the lines of, “I would be out of here faster than a blink”, but also plenty saying that people only think that the UK is a “shithole” because they aren’t wealthy.

I don’t think that’s right. I’m fairly wealthy, and like many of similar means I spent some time involved in UK politics as a decently high level. My experience is that it was full of people who wanted to improve things, but then were at some point offered a Faustian bargain: in order to have the power to change things, you need to be part of the British Establishment. To be accepted as part of that establishment, you must be willing to do what is required to perpetuate it.

The result is that the vast majority of people in the UK with the power to actually do anything are the ones who have either been willing to make a deal with the devil, or who are the devil.

The rest give up and walk away.

Ok, so I need to say something about the orcas, or rather the response to them, because this is pissing me off.

There is a popular portrayal that they are somehow proxies for a class war hunting down and destroying the playthings of the rich, invading their habitat, and this is absolutely not what is happening.

There are two types of vessel that can broadly be described as "yachts". The first type are the ones you're probably thinking of: things owned by multi millionaires who cruise about living a life of unattainable luxury. These vessels have price tags that start at 7 digits for a modest one, and go up from there. They are owned by multimillionaires, centi-millionaires, and billionaires, and they are completely and utterly immune from orca attack.

This is because they are motor vessels. They steer by vectored thrust, or by directing propeller wash over a relatively small hydrofoil. As a result, there is nothing for the orcas to attack, and even if there was, these people don't like to be kept waiting on their way to Monaco or wherever. They have power plants the size of road haulage vehicles and can outrun the orcas.

The second type, which are the boats that the orcas are attacking, are sailboats. These travel at about 5 knots, which is the cruising speed of an orca, and have huge rudders because they need to balance turning forces from the sails that power the boats. The smallest boats that are capable of sailing in the waters where these animals are have rudders comparable in size to an adult human. The orcas seem to regard these as prizes and love detaching them.

While the very rich sometimes do buy these kind of boats, they are not the typical person who does so. Most of them are bought second hand, and they have very long lives (a lot from the 1970s are still in perfectly good condition). They are generally bought for the price of a used car, or less A lot of people live on them and pay for mooring and maintenance fees by doing casual labour. This is still cheaper than renting a one bedroom flat in a lot of Europe.

I live in the area where these animals operate. Friends of friends have been attacked. They aren't "yachties", they're just people with day jobs who have enough disposable income to invest in a hobby they enjoy.

So either, best case, you are gloating at people of modest means facing a salvage and repair bill that they can't afford and is more than the value of the boat, or potentially you are laughing at terrified people watching their home and everything they own get sent to the bottom of the ocean by one of the most sadistic predators on earth, and who will then have to get in the sea with these predators which, if they're lucky, will decide to leave them to drown.

This doesn't make you an online class warrior, or the left-wing equivalent of an edge-lord. It just makes you an arsehole.