Roger Scruton

Even if you had never read anything by Roger Scruton anyone with half a brain and some knowledge of the writer’s works would have realised that there was something extremely fishy about the racist, homophobic, islamophobia, and the you-name-it sanctimonious outrage served up by George Eaton of the New Statesman. Nevertheless, Conservatives including Tugendhat, Mercer, Osborne, Finkelstein and Brokenshire immediately condemned him. It now turns out, from a transcription of the interview, that Scruton’s words were twisted manipulated and selectively edited beyond belief.

Unfortunately, Twittersphere vigilantism and bandwagon condemnation by vote crazed politicians are distressing symptoms of the decay of our country and long-standing values of decency and fair play.  It is, therefore, doubly distressing to reflect that few Conservative politicians appear to have troubled to read Sir Roger’s excellent companion to life, “How to be a Conservative.” Equally useful would be a study of “Where We Are: The State of Britain Now.”  Both should be set books for the forthcoming Conservative leadership exam.

Sir Roger could also help with reasoned responses to the passing environment bandwagon. “Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously About the Planet,” is an excellent starting point.  Instead of being photographed (or not) looking awestruck by the vacuous hyperbole of a teenage truant, politicians and, of course, the BBC could have exposed the complexity of the issues and what should be a Conservative bottom up response.

I have read and often re-consult all three books above – they are readable, stimulating and compelling. I admit, however, only modest progress with the same author’s “Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey,” the completion of which I am finding a great intellectual challenge. But that, surely, is the point? We need lots of Sir Rogers, free to speak the truth, to help us come to terms with current issues. Which leads me back to Messrs Tugendhat, Mercer, Osborne, Finkelstein and Brokenshire upon whose cerebral contents I shall not speculate further.

Tories Must Act to Save us from Corbyn's Britain

Sherlock Holmes said, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?  Applying the same reasoning to the Brexit debate, when we have eliminated the impracticable, whatever remains, however distasteful, must be our policy.

It now seems clear that a clean break Brexit in which we sever our ties and negotiate anew is not going to happen – the establishment will see to that.  So, we regress to solutions involving various states of disengagement, some of which have some merit but all of which involve a significant surrender of independence and are sub-optimal economically.  The debate is hysterical because, at heart, it is driven by fear: fear for loss and fear for the unknown.  A spiral of mutually reinforcing irrationality has taken root and sophistry has overtaken reason.  On the face of it, a Brexit solution is simply a complex problem – all that needs be done is to arrange the various components into the optimal compromise position.  But that is not the case because the Brexit problem cannot be addressed with rules, logic and algorithms alone – it is too complicated for that.  The whole concept of Britishness is at the heart of the Brexit debate.  We may all agree on that but would anyone like to have a go at defining Britishness so that we may continue the debate from the same baseline?  Nevertheless, whatever we might say about Brexit, it is really our concept of Britishness which is at stake.

Survival is equally important to Conservatives.  In the short term, division in the party could result in a collapse of Government.  A General Election fought without a coherent policy on Europe would probably be disastrous.  The fall out could cripple the Conservative Party for many years to come.  Given that the Conservatives would, almost certainly, be replaced by a Marxist-driven Labour Party, all Conservatives should see that the enemy is now at the gate and muster to arms accordingly.  But under what banner?

We must accept that the current crisis is much more about the long-term future of our Nation than about short-term point scoring in Brexit minutia. A sunlit uplands blank sheet of paper Brexit is undeliverable.  Purists may fight on, honourably or otherwise, but it is a pipe dream, the support for which will drive an irreconcilable wedge trough the Conservative Party, if it has not done so already.  Neither should those proponents of soft Brexit solutions feel smug.  Their snake oil offerings have lamentably failed to find consensus and will continue to do so.  Mrs Mays deal, V4, encapsulates all the disadvantages of the former and is similarly doomed.  Vainly, the Government battles on proclaiming, on a recent petition, “it is now the responsibility of this government to uphold the result of the referendum.” The legacy of fruitless debate will be bitter as each side rushes to blame the other for failure to “compromise.”  We have, thus, eliminated all solutions as impracticable – all that remains must be our policy.  In the National interest, it is time to admit that leaving the EU on anything like acceptable terms is impracticable. Continuing discussions in the forlorn hope that something will turn up is merely prolonging the inevitable and building even greater resentment for the future. Furthermore, the duration of the latest extension is unpropitious – too short to accommodate a leadership contest, election and change of strategy but too long to introduce the time pressure of a cliff edge departure. No, however distasteful, having eliminated everything that is impracticable the only course remaining, however distasteful, is to revoke our Article 50 declaration.

As every business consultant will tell you, every threat is also an opportunity.  The opportunity for the Conservative Party is the possibility of drawing a line under past division and drafting a new manifesto resolved to remain in the EU under existing terms.  A unified Party could wipe the floor with an incoherent Labour opposition.  The ironically called Change UK Party would be left speechless.  The Scottish Nationalists would be shorn of a grievance and consigned to fight on their primary cause which is likely to lose.  The DUP, turned on their heads, could declare victory for the Union.  UKIP and derivatives would be seen to be head-banging and the Liberal Democrats would remain irrelevant in any case.

The change of direction for the Party would require decisive leadership.  But decisive leadership at moments of existential crisis is something of which this great country is familiar. The concept of blood, toil, tears and sweat is relatively fresh in our history.  We, the people, know from the simple fact of being British when we must knuckle down in the national interest and this should be the heart of the Prime Minister’s pitch.  She should begin at the top by uniting the Cabinet without reservation.  Dissent should not be tolerated and result in summary dismissal.  Mrs May should then appeal to her MPs.  Those that fought the fight for a clean Brexit may accept the inevitability of defeat and leave the field their heads held high for such are the fortunes of war.  Those that fought against should be happy but should also remember how defeated nations have dealt with collaborators before they get too cocky.  And those in between, who voted for Mrs May’s deal against all logic could breath a sigh of relief that their ambiguous obligation has been removed and that they may resume their life of politics with integrity restored.

A stage-managed show of unity of the Parliamentary party should precede Mrs May’s actual departure at which she could explain that whilst her tireless efforts to secure the Brexit that people voted for have been in vain, the greater good will be served by the Conservative Party uniting around the long-term national interest of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (without her).  

The greatest challenge will be explaining and apologising to the electorate and, especially, the 17.4 million who voted simply to leave.  But under a new leader and a new manifesto with deliverable policies on low taxation, housing, law and order, and justice versus the Marxism of the Labour Party, given the explanation above, the electorate may forgive the Conservative Party – maybe not completely but enough to see off Corbyn.  The new Conservative leader would have much more to offer than “blood, toil, tears and sweat.” If the electorate were to be offered a Conservative manifesto that addressed current practical concerns and reversed the progressive drift to the left, voters may forgive the Brexit aberration.  It must be worth a try because the alternative is, surely, oblivion?

We Wus Robbed

What can one say about Cardiff city? Robbed of victory at home against Chelsea by dreadful refereeing decisions and denied an obvious penalty at a critical stage of the match against Burnley away. It probably means relegation from the premiership for Cardiff City and who could blame Neil Warnock should he lodge a case for wrongful dismissal? Leave voters might feel a similar sense of grievance after parliament, refereed by John Bercow, steamrolled the referendum result.  The sad thing about the two situations is that, try as we might, the result is not going to change. The league table at the end of the season will probably show Cardiff in the bottom three and parliamentary arithmetic is not going to alter so two fingers to the result of the referendum. Who said life was fair?