Yesterday was the most extraordinary day in parliament.
Around 60 Tory MPs demanded that their own government deport people seeking asylum and a place of refuge in the UK to Rwanda even though the UK Supreme Court, having considered the evidence put before it, had ruled that the country in question was not a safe place for these people. These MPs were, however, clear in their opinion: saving their seats was more important than the lives of refugees arriving in the UK.
Then, in the evening, we saw 56 Labour MPs vote against the instruction of their party because they, wholly reasonably and ethically, wished to vote for a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza, which their own party opposed because to agree to such a demand would have required that Labour recognise the existence of the SNP and the democratic will of the people of Scotland that made that party the third largest group in parliament. The Labour leadership was clear: it would happily tolerate the deaths of innocent people, children, and babies rather than recognise that the SNP could be right on any issue.
Political depravity rarely reaches these depths. Yesterday it did on both the government and official opposition benches. Leading aside the issues in question, on which my positions are quite clear, this worries me.
Within democracies, politics operates on the basis of consent. In other words, people accept rule by a government because they believe that the rule in question is at least benign and very commonly beneficial. When, however, it becomes apparent that this is not true, and I would now suggest that this is glaringly obviously the case, then we face a crisis. The assumption that democratic government is to be tolerated in that circumstance cannot be taken for granted. There is, instead, a very real chance that people will reject the idea of government by either of these parties, thinking both unacceptable to them.
If that happens, then there are three possible reactions.
One is that at least one of these parties might see sense and get rid of the toxic situation that they have created, and seek to restore trust. I can see no way that this could happen amongst the Tories at present, even if they chose their fourth leader during the course of this Parliament. It is, however, just possible that Labour could achieve this outcome by getting rid of Starmer. Who his replacement as leader might be is hard to suggest. Ed Miliband might be the obvious choice, but he has his past record to deal with. Angela Rayner is another obvious option, and there is no one who believes that she has very much faith in Starmer. Whether, however, she would want to deliver electoral reform is open to serious doubt. I fear she is tribal. Few of the other remaining members of the shadow cabinet look to have any real credibility. All gave followed the Starmer line far too closely.
The second possible reaction is that people demand electoral reform, a proper constitution, and the right for nations to leave the union if that is their wish. The reaction to this moment of crisis would, in other words, be to recognise the political realities that now exist within the supposed UK and address them by providing people with the real choices that they need so that confidence in the political process can be restored. This is, quite obviously, the desirable course of action.
The third option is that we end up with fascism, which is the path on which the Tories are headed and to which Labour at present provides no effective opposition.
I thought this crisis was some years ahead as yet. I am no longer sure. The moral bankruptcy and vacuum of political leadership that was in evidence in our two leading critical parties yesterday suggests that a crisis for UK democracy is much closer than I thought, and we should never forget the fascists are ready and waiting.
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“Political depravity rarely reaches these depths.”
I have been criticised for the various labels I have attached to the “leader” of the so-called “Labour Party”.
I rest my case. He is evil, depraved, a menace.
Only an imbecile would vote for the man or his party (with some honourable exceptions – emphasis – exceptions).
The author Iain Banks once remarked that there are decent people in the Conservative Party, but they are like pieces of sweetcorn in a turd; technically they may appear intact, but they are tainted by their very presence within the whole.
We are now at the point where the same can be said about any prospective party of government.
Gramsci’s famous quote springs to mind and there is no shortage of morbid symptoms right now.
The Overton Window is closing on the Tories, and the Labour leadership.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
It is times like this that we come to rely on the head of state, our monarch.
I know you are a republican; I understand and share much of your rationale for this view.
But King Charles is the backstop, the last line of defense against fascism and autocracy. The possibility of this seems to be drawing near.
A political, elected, head of state is unlikely to be able to fulfill the backstop role.
Frankly, I doubt Charles would do so either, but he’s all we’ve got.
Let pray it doesn’t come to that.
I think that we are in the midst of Fascism now anyway, a time where dissent is treated as an enemy and where emotion trumps reason in defining it.
And where populism is used to close down options and not open them up.
It’s as if by leaving the EU, we don’t know what rules are any more. We’ve become an even smaller island bickering amongst ourselves that is breaking of into smaller bickering groups.
It’s frightening.
And Labour – ‘Blue Labour’ is totally wrapped up in all of this too and has not got the tools to lead us out of this. That is for sure.
I think your third option, that the Tories are headed for Fascism has to be regarded as the priority issue.
In America it has been vividly obvious since Trump’s attempted coup that the West’s greatest threat is the descent into Fascism.
As Sydney Blumenthal said in yesterday’s Guardian the American media still refuses to see this and pretends that in terms of politics it is still business as usual.
It is much the same in Britain.
If Trump does win the next election he will establish an Authoritarian state based on a cult of him and his family, a model that we have seen many times before in the rest of the world.
If that happens, and if American polling is anywhere near accurate the likely -hood is near 50/50, then the repercussions for Britain and Europe will mean that all other issues are trivial by comparison.
To quote Private Fraser, “We’re doomed.”
I can’t see any hope on the horizon.
Yesterday’s Commons vote on a Ceasefire in Palestine was very revealing.
Firstly, with a sizeable majority of the electorate supporting a ceasefire, to see the two biggest political parties in the UK choosing to ignore their electors’ views and, in the process, ranking their self-interested political aspirations higher than a critically-pressing, humanitarian issue of global importance, sends all the wrong signals to everyone – the electorate, the media, the rest of the world. This will undoubtedly rebound on them at next year’s election.
Secondly, aside from the importance of the humanitarian issue, it was a very shrewd political move by the SNP to call for the ceasefire vote. They’re persistently treated with contempt in Westminster, so not only was it a humanitarian topic which Tories and Labour in their self-obsession would misjudge, but it was a political hand-grenade to remind everyone, not least in Scotland, that the SNP have a voice that needs to be listened to. There’s also the considerable Schadenfreude of watching the Tories and Labour tearing themselves apart while attempting to tear “the party opposite” to bits.
Thirdly, it has moved the seismic needle a bit further towards the break-up of the UK and the role of the SNP in tabling the debate won’t have been missed across Europe: the SNP will be seen as a pragmatic voice of sanity out-voted and out-shouted by the baying herds of Tories and Labour. How long will it take for the English to realise that the England they want for themselves will happen sooner if Scotland and Wales are allowed to go their own ways? Or are they too set in their colonial ways to recognise this?
Today’s revelations about the dubious financing of Labour by the same people who have financed the Tories for years (you have to give them their due – they can spot a sinking ship a mile away) will only move that seismic needle even further towards independence for the devolved nations: why would anyone in Scotland or Wales vote for more austerity and trickling-up when Labour will cling to neoliberal economics and Tory policies to please their new investors? Why would they vote to remain in a non-democratic UK with FPTP, inadequate pensions and social provision and a superior, antagonistic attitude towards our neighbours?