I have tried to be broad minded in this election. I have gone as far as to suggest that despite their appalling economic policies people should vote LibDem if that stopped a Tory being elected. By implication that suggests I am being party political. I would deny it. I would say the same to prevent a Brexit Party candidate being elected. This is not about party politics. It is about something much more profound than that.
Yesterday was, by seemingly near universal consent, a bad day for the Tories. It was pretty grim for the Brexit Party as well. Johnson was so intent on ignoring the image of a child with suspected pneumonia sleeping on coats on a hospital floor that he took a television journalist's phone and pocketed it in an attempt to continue his pre-scripted mantra. Then Tories then claimed that an aide had been assaulted when video evidence showed nothing of the sort had happened. The Brexit Party were, meanwhile, shown to have profound and open racists working in their campaigns.
This matters. However bad Tory policy might be, and on Brexit, green issues, social security, and much else it is absolutely dire, this capacity of the Tories to straightforwardly lie to deny the truth matters more.
Please do not get me wrong. I have been engaged with politics for too long, and have known too many politicians to think that any of them are beyond putting a gloss on an issue. Of course they do. But then, as a matter of fact, we all do. There is not a single human who has ever lived who has not seen things their way, and from their perspective, resulting in their own unique version of events. This is to be who we are. I forgive politicians their uniqueness in doing this, however irritating it can be.
But this is not the issue I am referring to. Having an opinion you wish to promote is one thing. Straightforward lying about what is actually happening is another altogether. And it is very apparent that deceit is at the heart of all Johnson does.
He was in denial about the child on the floor in a hospital. You don't need to have had a child who has needed hospital treatment for pneumonia (and it so happens that I have) to have sympathy for the parents seeking to highlight this extraordinary situation that simply should not have happened, and would not have done but for NHS underfunding. But Johnson not only lacked empathy, he flatly denied having seen the image, when it was inconceivable that this was true, as his manner made clear. Worse, he refused to comment on it and sought instead to continue his inconsequential bluster of pre-programmed lies. Compassion was beyond him.
The subsequent claims by Matt Hancock's team that an advisor had been assaulted were straightforward lies. There is no other possible description.
What Channel 4 revealed about the Brexit Party was the real extent of ugly racism in UK politics. All parties have suffered it. This, though, was at the core of the campaign and very close to a leader. No doubt he will deny knowledge of it. I would find that implausible.
So what we have is not error. Nor is it the mistake that we can all make. What we are seeing, most especially from the Tories, is the deliberate debasement of our political discourse. The boundary between spin, which we can all recognise, and the straightforward lie has departed in their case. Ethical principles have clearly ceased to be of consequence for them. Power at any cost has become their purpose. And that is the point when a politician, a political party and in this case a whole wing of politics (because I see little to now differentiate the Tory and Brexit parties when they are, so obviously, working together) becomes dangerous. And this is what they are.
When I oppose what these parties do it is not just because I disagree with their policies, although I do. Much more importantly I oppose what they are. I can't say what they stand for, because they don't stand for abuse, thuggery, lies and deception. Instead those are things that you do. And this is what they are about.
Of course, it could be said that this is what populism has always been. But there are forms of populism that do not go this far. Instead this is about something much more pernicious. This is fascism. This is about the abuse of people, the truth and ethics in blatant pursuit of power in the interests of those seeking to acquire it alone. That in the process the media, trust and the integrity of the political processes built upon honest representation are trashed is inconsequential. Nothing matters but power. That is what fascism is about. And we can now see that this is what the Conservative Party and its allies are about.
My opposition to the Tories in this election is not specific. It is systemic. It is about challenging the evil of fascism that now hangs large over us.
Thursday is a day that might go down in history books. The Conservatives have long been open to fascist influences. Thursday might be the day when they take power.
And we have to remember that fascists are not good at giving up power when they have it. The Tories have already proposed sweeping constitutional reforms to retrench any hold they secure. My fear is that democracy really is at threat now. We face an existential crisis. And if the Tories secure power it's going to take real courage to survive the onslaught that will follow.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
The Tories have certainly overstepped the mark and are beyond the pale in their attitude towards the little boy in hospital. I was shocked when my MP Justice Secretary Robert Buckland defended Johnson on this subject. I always thought before that Buckland was an honourable man when I have spoken to him in the past despite being a Tory. in fact I wondered why he was a Tory because he agreed with much that I said, but now he certainly has been tainted by these almost fascist people.
The Remains of the Day was meant to be an historical novel, not a predictive one. At least it shows the cost of putting (misplaced) duty above humanity. We were warned – a long time ago.
On the same theme, if you haven’t seen it: https://davidallengreen.com/2019/12/the-l-word-the-f-word-and-contemporary-uk-politics/ .
I have
I agree with him
What should be clear after yesterday is how the media big wigs are NOT impartial.
Andrew Neil was NOT when he lied to the other parties that ALL leaders would get his hair dryer treatment.
His BBC protege and CHIEF political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg who has been a personal hand maiden to Johnson – see the fawning looks and soft focus interviews – made up LIES all day to spin away from her failure to protect him from a bright young reporter at 6 am in a fish market.
The insta policy flash bang grenade of abolishing the licence fee to divert from what is the clear cut moment of the sociopathic nature of the PM.
Peston who came from the same stable at ITV (as did Mair at LBC) proved to be biggest and nastiest of the bunch – because it was a colleague at ITV, who got the incendiary scoop – he soent the day in betraying that.
The various mannequins in the studios spewing the supporting misinformation to the hooked eyeballs.
The bunch of them operating like some Mission Impossible CIA team to deliver their objective in ‘enemy territory’
Expect plenty of media ‘agents’ to do their ‘best’ for the citizens they daily gaslight, as they do too little, too late to make any difference, to preserve their cover as agents of corporate worldwide power and wealth in their mission impossible, oh so clever caper to steal an election in a ‘foreign’ country.
It is our country – they are the foreign agents.
I have been calling out the very clear signs for a while, but the very British reluctance to use extreme words or think extreme thoughts, normally a calming & moderating feature, has done it a lot of disservice this time.
Because fascism progresses when people won’t call things by their names, and instead, gradually normalise them, making them appear acceptable, tameable, to people.
At the 11th hour, calling Johnson a fascist is very late, probably too late.
Let’s not be too British about this, this isn’t being ‘almost fascist’, this is it, positioning its pawns for the near future.
Mussolini was always a fascist, but his regime became fully so when all his pawns were in place, he was allowed to place them, one by one.
Johnson started a while back, guided by Cummings.
They have groomed the media, the voters, they have taken steps to allow the judiciary and constitutional institutions to let them go further.
If they don’t get stopped, we’ve only got ourselves to blame. We knew. We were told they were on their way here. It’s not as if the rise of fascism hadn’t been well documented already.
Polly Toynbee’s article in the Guardian today describes the creeping process fairly well, but the title annoyed me. “Be afraid”??? When you face bullies, don’t be afraid, be angry, unite, fight. Don’t be afraid. He has to go. He & his gang of Mafiosi.
I have been using the term for some time
Hi Richard,
I always enjoy your explorations and explanations on various matters. I have long said that the Tories are peddling a fascist politics, and often been shot down as exaggerating and over-simplfying matters. But, finally, it’s become apparant to people that under Johnson the party has sunk lower than even the most ardent of Conservative politicians imagined possible, as evidenced by the support for tactical voting. So it’s reassuring to see people such as yourself calling the new Tory politics what it is – fascist.
Where I beg to differ is your statement about the Lib Dems. You might be right in your statement, but you offer no explanation and whilst I respect your knowledge on economics it behooves an expert such as yourself to offer some evidence for such a statement, or, to just be measured – I do not support the LDs, for example, for various reasons, but ensure against a Tory majority was must all think very carefully – would be an encouraging statement!
I’m no expert in economics but the LDs policies are based on public investment, much as Labour’s are, but with the proposed cap on the deficit with regard to public spending. This is a potentially tricky position, as you know, because it limits the ability of the government to manoeuvre in the face of economic shifts. However, the principle surely is correct, to ensure against raging inflation? Maybe you could offer insight into this point? But aside from that, the alignment between all parties other than the Tories is reasonably clear – invest in infrastructure projects, improve environmental standards and get the economy moving in a way that creates velocity in our currency.
Where the LDs differ is to state, accurately, that EU membership creates fairly immediate economic value. That, surely, is a point worth discussing, despite the fact it causes Labour discomfort!
Anyway, onwards with the day and thank you for the work you share, it’s always a pleasure to read your thoughts.
I have analysed the LD offering, recently, and during this election
The Torygraph BTL is instructive with various tory dolts claiming that the photo of the child is fake. Cognitive dissonance has a long history in the tory party.
In or around 2015, I was in a taxi in London. The driver’s wife worked in a hospital in London. He noted that admissions to A&E of people who fainted at work were rising. The cause? malnutrition. It was often women who were working, but not earning enough to feed themselves AND their children. You can work out the rest.
The driver went on to note that he related the above to a Tory MP who was in his cab. The MP flat out denied it was happening. I see similar denials with respect to foodbanks, homelessness, zero hour contracts etc etc. Under the tories, the Uk is turning into an evil place to live and by deploying cognitive dissonance the tories ignore the problem.
Nothing to disagree with – but when a group of people like Mays & Johnson’s Tory party become so energised by extremism there can only be one answer: they know they are on the way out. Sure – they are going to bite and kick and gouge as much as they can on the way down but they are on the way down.
The question now is, can any progressives work together? We had the Lib Dems refusing to work with Gordon Brown in 2010. And look what happened. The Lib Dems kick off about Corbyn. Look what might happen there.
We know now surely that the Tories have crossed the last parallel of decency. It is now incumbent upon the Lib Dems and Labour, the SNP, Greens and others to take that threat seriously and congeal, unite to save the country.
Can they do it? Can they realise that the greatest existential threat to the country is the man who is in power right now?
The Tories got us into this mess. I believe I know who can get us out of it. And I’m watching all of them with keen interest because I know what their responsibilities are even if they do not.
Richard states of Johnson “compassion was beyond him” in relation to BJ’s reaction to the story of the boy in Leeds A&E.
Further enormities were revealed in yesterday’s front page article in the Herald, which readers outside of Scotland are probably unaware of. Do read it, for it reveals that Johnson’s lapse of compassion about the Leeds incident was not a one off. His writings on the Dunblane massacre demonstrate that he has never done compassion, nor indeed does he pay heed to the relevant facts unless they suit him. The tightening of the UK’s gun laws came about as a result of the intense lobbying initiated by Dunblane residents and, contrary to BJ’s assertions, the amnesty for undeclared weapons did not affect people who needed to own guns for legitimate purposes like sport, vermin control etc beyond registration and secure storage when not in use.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18088038.dunblane-father-boris-johnson-totally-unsuitable-prime-minister/
Needless to say today’s Herald is full of letters from outraged readers.
Thanks Ken
I think we are heading to a very dark place. Tories are already breaking all norms, employing Trumpian tactics. I think that when Brexit starts to unravel (presuming they will end up enacting it) they are going to become even more desperate and panic and do all kinds of stuff to cement their position. Voter suppresion is already coming, voter disenfranchisement, probably fiddling with boundaries and electoral commission. We can absolutely forget about reform of electoral law for social media, it’s the new print and totally unregulated and a gift. Manifeso P48 talks about adjusting the constitution to break away from judicial oversight. Talk today of legislating against tactical voting and yesterday about scrapping the license fee (the ultimate goal in mind is the removal of impartiality in the media, so ultimately we end up with the American system, Fox News UK?). Utterly depressed that both Labour and LDs can’t see the bigger picture and forge a proper alliance to tackle the threat. That is, if they think that it is hard getting elected now, wait until there is a really desperate grasping Tory party in power, who have wrecked the country, knowing there is no way back once they are out of power.
[…] And if that means holding your nose to achieve that goal, please do. There are bigger issues at stake in this election. […]
I wonder where Cambridge Analytica 2.0 is in all this seeing as it was established and owned by members of the establishment?
I can’t see them actually giving up a golden goose like that when we all know how these far right channels generate income.
Like the spread of the ‘fake’ child on the coats story.
Good question Zachariah. Does Cambridge Analytica still exist as a company, active or inactive? Given that it’s a toxic brand, it’ll be more to the point to know what its major players are up to now.
I think it has been liquidated
Liquidated. But that is not the end. Those people have simply scattered into other businesses doing similar work. There were some moves to transition the business of CA/SCL into a new company called Emerdata but I’m unsure if that was successful.
I agree – the ideas remain
[…] have already described much of my reason for that fear. The Conservative Party standing for election today is nothing like that I have known for nearly […]