Abandoning Sanity
Britain finds itself in the midst of a divisive election, and even more destructive existential crisis
The UK goes to the polls on Thursday. Most metrics suggest the Conservative Party, led by Boris Johnson, will emerge as winners (I’ve seen numbers suggesting they’ll win anything between a 10 and 65 seat majority).
This is a disappointing prediction, though one that isn’t exactly unsurprising. Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Johnson’s rival in the race for №10, has proven to be an incompetent leader of both the Official Opposition and the Labour Party. In fact, it often feels that this iteration of the Labour Party seems far more content with ensuring ideological purity and subservience to it’s ‘dear leader’ than actually winning power. The other opposition parties haven’t been much better, though unlike Corbyn — who says he will remain “neutral” in any hypothetical confirmatory referendum — they have at least taken a clear position on Brexit.
This isn’t to say that the Tories have run a stellar campaign. Whilst they have largely avoided the gaffs seen during Theresa May’s ill-judged 2017 campaign, they certainly haven’t demonstrated that they deserve — or would be even able to — govern the UK. Boris Johnson has proven himself to be more of a bumbling idiot than a shrewd political operator, his party’s manifesto short on vision, detail and compassion. The wider Tory campaign hasn’t been much better, the party turning it’s back on the ‘compassionate conservatism’ of the Cameron years, instead pursuing a cold, nationalistic agenda at the expense of migrants and business.
Nevertheless, Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” slogan has won a lot of hearts and minds. The UK population has become evermore apathetic and tired of Brexit, and so, for better or worse (arguably the latter), they want to see it through. They believe Mr Johnson’s ridiculous claim that he will get a trade agreement with the EU sorted within 10 months, though whether this sentiment is motivated by a genuine belief in the man, or by sheer apathy, isn’t clear.
Meanwhile, Labour’s campaign has been marred by several issues. Voters are confused by the party’s Brexit position, and see Corbyn as both weak and a danger to national security. The biggest issue however, especially in the last weeks of the campaign, has been the party’s inability to deal with internal antisemitism. The EHRC’s report concerning this was hugely damning. Far from being a “smear” used by the tabloids, the report detailed how Jewish members of the Labour Party have been harassed and harangued by many on the hard left, their pleas for protection ignored by senior party figures. Finally, while the party is to be praised for identifying that “capitalism isn’t working as it should be”, their spending plans have become more outlandish as the campaign has gone on. More and more extra spending promises have been made, backed not by accurate costings but by an economically illiterate position of “only the rich will pay more”.
The nation’s traditional ‘third party’ — the centrist Liberal Democrats — started the campaign on a high, some polls placing them in second place and on course for a huge windfall of seats. That is unlikely to transpire. A combination of sexism, an outdated voting system, and needless own goals means that Jo Swinson is incredibly unlikely to be in №10 come Friday. Her party’s pushing of a ‘Revoke’ position has alienated many of the moderate voters they sought to win over, whilst their use of inflated statistics in certain constituencies has been written off as wholly unprofessional.
Many internationalists, liberals and progressives see the best chance of stopping Boris Johnson as tactical voting, hoping that this will create a hung parliament and force the Tories into opposition. Whilst this outcome isn’t unlikely, there’s no guarantee that things will ‘go back to normal’ if it occurred. The UK is a nation going through an existential crisis. It’s broadcast media has been caught out by false sources, its largest two parties have both fallen for and created items of ‘fake news’ to slur their opponents. The “family of four nations” seems to no longer want to speak to one another.
As an Irishman observing from abroad, I admit that there’s a certain amount of amusement and catharsis surrounding the shitshow the UK finds itself faced with. “The Brits are at it again” is the definition of an 'evergreen meme’. But there’s also a certain amount of sadness and fear (mostly the latter). The emergence of exclusionary populism in your nearest neighbour is hardly a good thing, especially given that same populism has somewhat soured Anglo-Irish relations, and caused similar movements to emerge on your own turf.
It’s a cliché I realise, but it has to be said: There are no real 'winners' in this election. If Boris does get his majority, a hard or even no-deal Brexit looms large. If a hung parliament emerges, uncertainty reigns over whether a politically sustainable coalition can be formed. Even if it can, one has to wonder what effect the barrage of fake news, ill-judged reporting and low-key racism will have on the future of the UK as a whole.
Either way, both the UK and the world are going to have to brace themselves for a new political reality in 2020 — and I sadly can’t forsee it being a happy one.
*(Image: KC Green)*
