The Parliament of Fools

Five wannabes pitching half considered solutions to specifically personalised problems with no basis in fact on either side of the conversation seems to me a perfect metaphor for the current level of political thought within the UK.

We heard from two Conservative deserters, a party political opening in which the candidates outbid each other to offer olive branches to, well, whatever it was that the men from wherever wanted. We sat through platitudes thrown to a foster mother asking where the safety net for those in her care had gone, witnessed a 15 year old being patronised over climate change and an Imam rendered nameless by Boris. A contributor from Northern Ireland was told bombs can be neutralised by untested technology. After an hour of vague assertion punctuated by wild claims and shifting alliances nothing was resolved. Emily Maitlis, the moderator, wrapped things up with a weariness that echoed my own.

In the course of the hour billions were spent, trickle down economics, (that thoroughly disproven 80’s re-release), was reborn without comment and the statements and legal decisions of a host of European countries were tossed into a bin marked ‘bovvered’. Casual racism was blustered over with the now pat apology to anyone offended, not for offending.

Rory Stewart, the ghost of Conservative future, attempted to ground the debate from time to time but without success. All ended the debate on the bummest note, denying that an unelected PM would represent anything other than the shining democratic model that they purported to idealise. The subtext of party before country broke through in several responses.

This is not solely the fault of those in the studio. Whether Blair and Cameron’s triangulation, May’s direct appeals to the ‘ordinary people’ or Corbyn’s sheaf of letter at PMQs. British politics is now in a vice of its own making. Trapped within the disconnect marked ‘elites’ that began with the expenses scandal and has rumbled on ever since, politicians are now so scared of the court of public opinion that difficult answers are removed from the process. A public so distrustful of politicians that any rejection of their demands constitutes 'elitism' is a perversion of democracy that ends in tragedy.

Brexit is the logical endgame of this, the ultimate expression of the ‘will of the people’ that, when considered sensibly, is devoid of meaning. Leave how? To what extent? For what purpose? The idea of a binary vote being capable of expressing the desire of 17.4 million, let alone 53 million is a nonsense. Yet it is a nonsense that is now enshrined as the driving principle of government and the sole consideration of the Conservative Party.

Media coverage perpetuates this. Roaming the country to find angry voices, a cacophony of ‘what about us?’ screeches through everything, drowning out reason whilst allowing the levels of farce displayed last night to continue.

Previous moments in our history that bear comparison offer no happy solutions to this impasse.

The convulsions of the English Civil War, in reality a British civil war, resonate to this day and only saw a partial resolution with the imposition of a new royal line pliant to a rewriting of the concept of monarchy allied to an imperial expansion that drove up living standards and replaced internal anger with external might. The 1920’s and 30’s of left and right, of Cable Street and General Strike were finally subsumed by the emergence of a greater threat, a bogeyman we could all believe in. The Soviets served a similar purpose in the post war period.

Anyone wishing to continue to see some light in all this requires both immense faith and much fortitude. To return to a place where reality drives decision making, compromise is at the heart of policy and the subjugation of individual will to collective good is accepted by all seems as illusory as a seamless no deal exit or an increase in public spending allied to tax cuts. Yet the former is a force for good, the latter a chimera whose failure will only fuel further resentment and drive more to the arms of extremists. For those who genuinely believe in a democratic future the road will be long and winding.