Moderate forces need to rise up
WE seem to be living through a longrunning national soap opera, with a daily dose of farce and tragedy. The world is looking on, asking themselves why we are doing this to ourselves. Frankly, we may be getting punch-drunk on endless damaging political drama, we need to take a few steps back.
The same mayhem is taking place in Trump’s America, yet if we look at Scandinavia, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand there is calm and, generally, economic and social progress.
What is at the core of all this chaos? Brexit, whilst big, is just a symptom and we need to look beyond it. Mrs May seemed, at the start of her time in Downing Street, to realise that many people were “just about managing” and needed a boost. Then she forgot all about it.
The Labour party, despite having a madcap leader at Westminster, did not. They offered hope and renewal. The Tories, sadly, seem unable to change what they have become, a cold, ruthless party, turned in on itself. Their only truly positive communicator at Westminster, Boris Johnson, lacks consistency and credibility. Ruth Davidson, however, the Scottish Tory leader, is a breath of fresh air.
Crucially, no political party, should there be another general election soon, is going to be able to offer more years of austerity. This is the fundamental change in British politics. People have had enough of seeing incentives and rewards offered to the well off, whilst ordinary people are subjected to a frozen standard of living and little respect.
A modest, utterly unrevolutionary redistribution of wealth is required, alongside common sense measures like a real industrial policy, help for small businesses, more investment in the health service and much more investment in housing. Above all, a sense of national regeneration is needed, and the Conservatives will only be able to achieve this if they go back to their “one-nation” roots. It is by no means certain that they can.
We have to address Brexit, but it is a distraction. We could have made all the reforms needed to create social fairness without tearing the entire house down around our ears, and wrecking our key economic and international relationships. We need a “soft”, sane and sensible deal with the EU, but we need to treat the real disorder in our society, a rightwing Conservative Party, which simply cannot lead, or care about ordinary people, or refrain from its pathological obsession with “hard” Brexit.
For everyone’s sake, the moderate forces within the Conservative Party, if at all they can, need to rise up and take on their dismal, destructive right-wing, and push them to the distant part of the political spectrum where they belong. John Gemmell Wem, Shropshire