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Brexit has read the rites over British conservatism


Ideological fervour has turned to raging fever. Brexit has upturned British politics. The very fabric of the nation’s democracy is at risk. Scotland’s place in the Union of the United Kingdom has been put in question. Boris Johnson could not care. The prime minister and his band of Brexiters decreed that Britain must leave the EU on October 31. Not a day later. All the rest was trivial.

Thankfully, parliament has decided otherwise. This week the vulgar swagger of Mr Johnson’s short premiership faced a first collision with reality. A politician accustomed to lying and cheating his way out of tight spots was roundly defeated in the House of Commons. Parliament now looks set to disarm the October deadline by blocking the path to a no-deal Brexit. It has also taken out of the prime minister’s hands the date for an inevitable general election.

Mr Johnson’s response was true to character. In the manner of the flailing schoolboy bully who has failed to get his way, Mr Johnson withdrew the party whip from the 21 centrist Conservatives who had dared defy him. It was an act of spite he will come to regret.

Among the roll of former ministers sacked from the party were Kenneth Clarke, one of the most distinguished Tory politicians of the postwar era. Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, was another victim, as was Philip Hammond, who until two months ago served as the chancellor. These are figures who have long upheld the decent, respectful and essentially honest political discourse of which Mr Johnson knows nothing.

Beyond the personal vindictiveness — the rebels now face being ousted as candidates at the next election — the purge sent another message. Not so long ago Mr Johnson found it convenient to strike a pose as liberal-minded One Nation Conservative. Now he has thrown overboard entirely the broad church, middling conservatism of Edmund Burke. In his anxiety to outflank on the right Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, Mr Johnson will fight an election as leader of the party of English nationalism.

Scotland has been all but jettisoned. Ruth Davidson, who headed the Scottish Tories, was one of the most effective leaders in the British political firmament. She cited the pressures of family life as the main reason for her recent resignation. It is no secret, however, that she loathed the pinched rightwing populism peddled by the prime minister. Her departure foreshadows a collapse of the Tory vote in Scotland. The longer Mr Johnson is in No 10, the surer the bet that Scotland will back independence.

In the style of demagogues and xenophobes through the ages — and with more than a nod to the populism of US President Donald Trump — the prime minister wants to frame a general election as a contest between parliament and “the people” he now claims to champion. Anyone who thinks that Britain should not be wrenched out of Europe by October 31 is a collaborator. And, yes, the Europeans are the enemy.

Mr Johnson’s prospectus is shot through with contradictions and absurdities. He styles himself a champion of the sovereignty of the Westminster parliament. Yet he has spent the past several weeks seeking to muzzle that very same parliament. Having failed in the endeavour, he now claims a higher authority as the representative of “the will of the people”. This way lies the authoritarian assault on the institutions of democracy.

Mr Johnson’s claimed negotiating tactic with the EU is redolent of playground politics. He says Brussels will reopen the arrangements agreed with Theresa May’s government only if he convinces them that he is ready to throw Britain over the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit. The message to Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron is simple: rewrite the agreement or we will blow ourselves up. Madness.

The prime minister has read the demagogue’s handbook: repeat the lie often enough and a lot of people will believe it — the more so when it is shot through with dog-whistle xenophobia. During the 1960s, America’s rightwing Republicans embarked on what was called the “southern strategy” — a populist pitch to white working class voters who were disenchanted with the civil rights liberalism of the Democratic party.

Mr Johnson has a “northern strategy”. By casting Brexit as a fight against foreigners and immigration he hopes to win an election by winning over anti-European white working class voters in traditionally Labour areas. We are promised a campaign that might make even Mr Trump blush.

Such has been the tumult since the 2016 referendum, it is easy to forget just how far Britain has fallen. Trust in politics has collapsed. Civilised political discourse has made way for habitual rancour. The essential norms and institutions of democracy — tolerance, respect for minority views, the impartial roles of the judiciary and the civil service among them — have faced sustained attack. Casual falsehoods have become a favoured ministerial currency.

A general election will not settle this. Reason has fled from the European argument. More than likely an election will throw up another political deadlock. The minimum requirements for a sustainable settlement are the removal of Mr Johnson and another referendum. At some point, of course, the EU27 may lose all patience. It would be hard to blame them. Mr Johnson once promised to “take back control”. Now he has lost control.

philip.stephens@ft.com



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