The Party's over - please!

 

I'm going to place a bit of a caveat on this piece, namely that I'm not a political scientist, have never held membership of any political party, and due to my non-resident status find myself politically persona non grata - more on this later. So the comments and views that follow are certainly personal, and not influenced by anything except my own experiences and a contemplation of poilitics in Britain. As I wrote in a previous blog, politics is top of my list of inventions I can do without - but has always (and still does) hold an unheallhy fascination for me.

For avoidance of doubt, I started voting in the 1970s, when the voting age was cut to 18, and have always taken it as a serious public duty. I have always taken note of the policy plans announced by all the major parties (and some of the minor ones) in the run-up to an election, and tried to vote for the party that in my view seemed the best fit for what my personal and, later, family needs were. My parents and sisters were never overtly political, never watched any party political broadcasts (they considered them at best boring and at worst just another pack of lies - and were probably accurate in that) nor political discussion programs like the BBC's once excellent Question Time, for the same reasons. So they never tried to influence my vote, and frankly I'm not sure they even cared who I voted for. In all honesty, my vote was generally meaningless anyway: through an accident of birth I always lived in constituencies that invariably voted for the same party, safe seats all. My vote simply increased or decreased the Member's majority by one.

Taking that methodology (and sorry, I can't think of a better word - it's not a favourite of mine as it reminds me of work...) at least gave me the chance to understand a bit more than most about what the parties stood for at any given election. It also meant that, over the years, until moving abroad and losing my voting rights, I dutifully put a cross against the names of candidates representing the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Liberal Democrats. I also voted for the Green Party once in a local election. I never met a candidate, was never door-stepped or stopped in the street, and only once met my MP.

But today, I'm only writing about one party: the Conservative and Unionist Party.

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The Tories have always considered themselves the only party fit to govern. Every time there is an election, be it local or general, one of their major selling points is still that they are "the natural party of Government". They also brag about being "the biggest and the best, most successful political Party in the history of the world". Clearly, then, they are quite happy to blow their own trumpet. The first boast seems to me hubristic in the extreme and is no longer anywhere near true, while the second may contain a grain of truth (although frankly I can't be bothered to trawl through a couple of hundred years' worth of electoral results to prove it one way or the other). Even if it is a statistically accurate statement, in my view it has little value now, and indeed has not been the case for most of my voting lifetime.

In my childhood, the party certainly seemed that way. The leaders, at least in my memory, MacMillan and Home, certainly carried a gravitas that Harold Wilson could never match. When they said something, in their clipped public school accents, people tended to listen, but that may simply be a distortion of the truth due to my then young age and my working class upbringing. My parents were both born during World War One, working class country people who met while employed as a gardener and a housemaid in service to the de L'Isle family at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent. So they insisted that, like it or not (and I think mostly not) people of our stock should defer to people of MacMillan's and Home's stock: the class system they had grown up through, though damaged by the two Wars, was still prevalent. At least MacMillan and Home and their various senior Ministers looked like statesmen, in their pinstriped suits, bowler hats and so forth, and gave the impression of knowing what they were doing and caring for the entire electorate. Going back through the history books now, that clearly was not always the case.

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But to me, they seem to have been a bit of a Last Hurrah. Look at the line of succession.

Ted Heath presided over a sliding economy and months of industrial strife that led to power cuts, train cuts and postal strikes: I can remember in my first job, at a venerable old stockbrokerage in the City, working by candlelight in positively Dickensian conditions as a result, and spending days cycling around my home town in the cold and rain delivering company mail to our clients in the area. He also presided over the "once in lifetime referendum" - now, where have I heard THAT before? - that took Britain into the European Economic Community, thereby releasing forces that have been ripping apart both the party and the country ever since.

Margaret Thatcher took on the unions and won, destroying the coal, steel and car manufacturing industries, much of northern England, Wales and Scotland in the process. In a bid to create a "share and house owning democracy" - the ancestor of Levelling Up? - she de-regulated the Financial Services industry thus unleashing a vicious winner-take-all City culture of Get Rich Quick chicanery that changed the face of banking and finance forever, and broke up state-run service industries like the railways, post office, telecommunications, gas and electric provision to provide the service choices she championed but at the cost of a much less efficient and worse value for money proposition. Finally, she led a nationwide sell-off of council houses - and my mum benefitted from that, buying a big, three bed end of terrace for virtually nothing as a tenant of 40 years - but failed to guarantee their replacement by new-builds that is at the heart of the current housing crisis. In foreign policy, she managed to upset most of the other EU nations (the EEC had grown a lot by the time she took it on) by demanding and getting a rebate on Britain's share of the bloc's funding that still failed to please the increasingly vocal Eurosceptics within the Party, and successfully waged war against Argentina, who had had the temerity to invade the British dependency of the Falkland Islands. Over the period of her premiership, thousands of lives were lost or ruined, physically and financially, as a direct result of her actions. The Tory Party loved her. And still do.

John Major, her replacement as party leader and Prime Minister, led them to a fourth successive election victory in 1992, but remained a disappointing premier. As both a Foreign Secretary and Chancellor under Thatcher, much had been expected of him, and although enjoying some limited success in healing some of the societal divisions she bequeathed him, he failed to satisfy either the party or, ultimately, the country. The Citizens Charter he introduced was a partially successful attempt to create a fairer society by providing more open and accountable, results driven public services. It lasted through to 2010 before being quietly dropped. He abolished the much hated Thatcherite Poll Tax with a (quite similar) Community Charge, and managed to commit troops to the First Gulf war that followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. He also withdrew sterling from the EU's Exchange Rate Mechanism (that was meant to stabilise currency rates in preparation for the euro single currency introduction) after speculators including George Soros made billions of pounds by shorting sterling and causing its value to crash on Black Wednesday in September 1992. He also led our negotiations of the Maastricht Treaty that defined the governing structures of today's European Union, succeeding in agreeing some opt-out provisions for Britain, including its non-membership of the Single Currency. It was still not enough for the Eurosceptics, whose continued agitation eventually led, indirectly, to his resignation after losing the 1997 election to Tony Blair's Labour Party.

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In Opposition, Michael Howard, William Hague and Iain Duncan-Smith all tried to bring some sense and cohesion to an increasingly fractured Conservative Party and provide a strong opponent to a Labour Party that at times struggled to delivers on its own promises - especially after the second Gulf War, in the wake of the WTC atrocity in New York in 2001, that led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the ill-fated Arab Spring (a complete misnomer since the series of uprisings in various Gulf States ran for two years between 2010 and 2012) in search of democracy that instead has led to civil war, failed states and much bloodshed at the hands of a global Islamic terrorist movement.

None of them made much of an impression, and the party continued to fragment, with opposition to EU membership continuing to gnaw away, and strengthen its hold. Not a single leader, whether in government or opposition, seemed able or willing to confront and resolve the problem. All complained bitterly about it, but no-one did anything.

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David Cameron, Old Etonian, Oxford educated, son of a leading stockbroker and the recipient of an impressive income from the type of Panamanian offshore trust fund - perfectly legally set up and administered - that in his term of office suddenly became a political Hot Potato that prompted public outrage and EU-wide legislation took over leadership in 2005 and led them to power in 2010 in coalition with the LibDems. It never really worked, for the simple reason that British politics in general, and the Conservative Party in particular, do not understand coalition government because it inevitably undermines their own authority. It's all me, me, me, and this effort was no different, with the major cabinet positions taken by Tories and LibDem policies generally watered down or dropped. It limped along through its term to 2015, hamstrung somewhat by the global recession after the failure of Lehman Bros that forced a rigid austerity economy to keep government spending under control and taxes higher than any Tory likes. Bits of legislation came through, including legalizing gay marriage, cuts to the defence budget that have harmed Britain's defence capability ever since, and measures that intended (but failed) to reduce net immigration. He also held a referendum on Scottish independence that he won and Scotland remains part of the UK despite a hefty (and growing) proportion of Scots wanting to break away. For the 2015 election he promised an "advisory referendum" on Britain's EU membership and duly won a significant majority and all but wiped out the pro-EU LibDems in parliament.

The Brexit referendum was a brutal affair, with Cameron's Remain campaign pitiful in comparison to the Leave campaign and allowed the Eurosceptics in the Party to have their day.. It resulted in a shock defeat, a narrow vote in favour of leaving the Union that split the Party. Cameron did the cowardly thing and resigned within a couple of hours of the result being announced. Everything that has gone wrong in both the party and country can be laid squarely at his door. He faced the same Eurosceptic agitation as every other Tory leader since Heath, and like every other Tory leader since Heath failed to deal with it.

Theresa May reluctantly took over as leader and PM, and struggled to deliver a Brexit that would not be too damaging, but, as usual, was dogged throughout her premiership by the increasingly influential Eurosceptics. She came to power with a decent majority, and squandered it in an unnecessary snap election. government business was dominated by the tangled negotiations and ultimately came up with a package that would have done the job but was voted down. With it went her premiership as she resigned.

Boris Johnson, arch-Brexiteer, another Old Etonian and contemporary of Cameron and Oxford, ex-Mayor of London and formerly employed by the Daily Telegraph (then the Conservative Party's newspaper of choice) as their Brussels correspondent where he spent his time making up stories (mostly untrue) about the EU and EU regulations, was overwhelmingly elected as party leader on the promise of having an "oven baked exit deal ready" that could bring the country out immediately, When put to the vote, in a very truncated debate to force it through, the Opposition parties demanded more time to go through it and ask questions. Johnson's answer was prorogue parliament (i.e. terminate the session), an action widely considered illegal, and hold yet another General Election. He won a record breaking 80 seat majority that allowed him to basically do as he pleased. The deal was signed and Britain left the EU - but within weeks it became clear that parts of the Treaty were not working so Johnson unilaterally decided to ignore them and re-negotiate: the clear inference being that he had failed to understand big chunks of his own agreement. The arguments continue to this day.

Along came Covid. Johnson's government created a massive program of public spending, essentially unfunded, to support the economy and save people's jobs, and spent further billions in a vaccine rollout that over a two year period did indeed save millions of jobs, and vaccinate and boost most of the population to bring the pandemic under control - but at the cost of spiralling government debt. Then the shit hit the fan, and stories, illustrated of course, came out showing that he and many of his close associates, fellow Member and office staff had frequently broken their onw lockdown rules. Reports emerged of he and his staff drinking beer and wine and scoffing sausage rolls in garden parties at a time when the rest of the public were not allowed to meet together in more than direct family groups, nor make hospital visits to relatives in ICUs suffering from Covid, and worst of all attending the funerals of parents and children who had died. Johnson denied doing anything wrong, denied knowing about the parties - until photos of him standing on a chair raising a toast while surrounded by his acolytes - and was investigated by the Metropolitan Police. Confidence in him evaporated amongst his own MPs (though oddly not within the party itself) and he was forced from office, kicking and screaming and crowing about his own (often questionable) achievements.

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Incredibly, it got worse. A drawn our election process that limped through this summer brought in Liz Truss as the new Leader. She was of course a Johnson ally and a fervent Brexiteer, and tried to bury her past as a LibDem activist and voting Remain in the 2016 Referendum. She went off to Balmoral and was invited by the Queen to form a Government. By the time she had filled her Cabinet the next day the Queen had passed away. The country and government business essentially ground to a halt while the State Funeral was planned and took place, and King Charles officially ascended to the throne. Truss and her incompetent Chancellor then presented a "fiscal event" - for which read, mini-budget - that pledged another forty-odd billion pounds of (unfunded) tax cuts and government borrowing that lacked any kind of validation by the government's own Office of Fiscal Responsibility. It went down like a lead balloon, outside her inner circle and perhaps the 80,000 Party Members who had voted her into the job. The pound crashed. So did the bond markets. There was criticism from the IMF and the World Bank. The Chancellor was called back from a meeting in Washington and sacked. Her new Chancellor reversed the majority of the pledges made in the mini-budget and made it clear that he would run the economy his way - i.e. professionally. Finally, the Home Secretary foolishly sent an official document from her own email address, rather then her office one, and was sacked for a breach of protocol, and a blazing row with Truss. The confidence in her premiership evaporated and she resigned on her 45th day in office - the shortest ever period, and probably the worst PM in history. She will not be missed. As one wag commented: in 45 days she has buried the Queen, the economy and the Tory party.

So: another Leadership contest...... the former Chancellor, who narrowly lost out to Truss, is as I write well in front and likely to take over today or tomorrow. The current Leader of the House, who finished third last time, is lagging way behind but insisting she will still win. And Incredibly, Boris Johnson managed to cobble together over a hundred votes amongst his loyalists, without even declaring he would run for the job. Surprisingly he stood down late last night as it became clear that a high percentage of his own MPs would not support him if he regained the job - governing would be too much like hard work for the lazy git. For perhaps the first time in his life he did the decent thing and walked away (for now, at least....).

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As things stand, the Conservative and Unionist party, a.k.a. the Caring Conservatives or, more popularly these days The Nasty Party, will remain in government with its third leader and Prime Minister since the spring, only one of whom had a public mandate via a general election. No-one within the party is talking about calling another general election because they would probably get wiped out at the polls: and rightly so after the incompetence and lack of leadership stretching back 50 years.

Now I accept that some of their leaders, notably Thatcher and perhaps Major did some good stuff that benefitted ordinary people like you and me, at least temporarily, but they too left chaos and inequality behind as part of their legacies that should not be ignored. The last four Tory Prime Ministers have been terrible, each one far worse than its predecessor, and the pain felt by the electorate is worse now than it has been since the 1970s when Thatcher was merrily destroying British industry: it took a generation to recover from that and all the gains and promises that were there pre-Referendum have been washed away by the Brexit fiasco. Britain is back to hard times, facing a health service in crisis (again), rising costs and unemployment (again), a still fractured transport system, a housing shortage and High Streets containing more For Sale boards in shop windows than goods. After 12 years in power, one way or another, it is impossible to blame it on anyone but themselves - but of course they try to do that.

The party is at a crossroads. It HAS to change. It HAS to put the electorate before personal gain and clinging to power at any cost. It HAS to govern, prudently and with vision, and forget all about this "we're better off under the Conservative Party" nonsense, because that patently is not the case. The new leader, who will simply be the best of a bad bunch (as an aside, I have never seen a parliament of so little talent, on all sides, than the current one: the Tories are not the only Party to suffer from internal crises and incompetence) rather than a statesman in waiting must first re-unite a party riven by internal struggles and competing ideologies around a common agenda and then KEEP it that way. It MUST govern for everybody, without favour.

It would be nice if the new government gave a thought to its ex-pat British citizens too, because we have families, children and grandchildren, back home and we care about them and our country just as much, wherever we may live. Right now, we do not count in ny policy discussion. Some, but not all, of us managed to get a postal vote for the Brexit Referendum (the mechanics of doing that were simple but never publicised) so perhaps two million of us were unable to have our say. That privilege was not extended to subsequent General Elections. We are disenfranchised. When the Queen died, no book of condolence was opened at the British Embassy here in Warsaw, and enquiries to them have remained unanswered nearly three months later. I have heard from ex-pats elsewhere who have had similar experiences. This is simply wrong: we are still British Citizens (it says so on our passports) and still pay tax into the Treasury's coffers at source from our pension arrangements. It would be reasonable to have a small say in how they spend the money....

I don't believe the Party is capable of doing any of that. I can see it limping on for another couple of years, hoping to turn a corner, before the next election must be held. Depending on how it performs in that time, it may not be completely wiped out, as it probably would be were the poll held this week. The longer it drags on the more damage will be done to the country, and it may take a generation or two to repair..

It makes very sad. And more than a little angry.