Mar 22, 2026

This Week in the New Normal #117

Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.

1. Mexico’s War on Cash

This week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced restrictions on cash payments for drivers, planning that all toll and fuel payments be made digitally. As Mexico News Daily reports:

Looking to an all-digital future, Sheinbaum plans to eliminate cash at the pump and the toll booth

Speaking at the 89th Banking Convention, Sheinbaum said:

“Our goal this year is to make digital payment of gasoline and tolls mandatory […] This will allow us to move forward with the digitization of the country through other schemes.”

This, obviously, promotes both the anti-cash and the anti-driving agenda. Mexico goes first on this one, but expected other nations to roll out near identical schemes very soon.

2. UK Abolishes Hereditary Peers

The British Government passed the “House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026” this week, which removes the hereditary peers from the UK’s Upper House.

This is being celebrated as a victory for democracy as it removes the remaining 92 hereditary peers from the legislature, but it should be noted that they are not being replaced by elected officials. Rather, this means that the UK’s upper house is now entirely appointed. Rather than old blood Lords protecting their own interests, we will now have newly created lords pushing the government’s interests.

It’s counterintuitive, but over the years, the old-money hereditary Lords have been one of the few institutions to push back against government overreach.

3. Colonial Comeuppance?

A Belgian court is bringing a prosecution for murder against 94-year old former diplomat Etienne Davignon over the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961.

At the same time, King Felipe IV of Spain ignited discussion of his nation’s colonial past by bringing up the “abuses” of the Conquistadors during the conquest of the New World. A potential sign of the direction the Mexico-Spain reparations feud may go.

These news items together make me think that we might soon witness a widespread colonialist apology and some kind of concomitant transfer of wealth.

BONUS: Orwell Reference of the Week

Having been accused of rape, thirty-three years after his death, unionist, labor leader and civil rights pioneer Cesar Chavez is suddenly and instantly a non-person, and the city of San Jose has set about removing his name from the Plaza del Cesar Chavez…

Letter by letter, crews cover up “Plaza De Cesar Chavez” in San Jose. pic.twitter.com/zbEzifBWbE

— scott budman (@scottbudman) March 20, 2026

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell, 1984

It’s not all bad…

The Scottish Parliament rejected the assisted dying bill in a close vote of 57 for, 69 opposed.

Hopefully, the England and Wales version of the bill will similarly fail in the House of Lords (which is one of the reasons they want to replace them, by the way).

And, as a fun game, the Labour government is planning 12 new towns, the names of which were announced this week. Can we do better? Let’s get some town names in the comments.

All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention how lab-grown meat and edible insects are going “revolutionise” our plates or “digital blackface”.