The United Kingdom is at present going through the outrageously undemocratic process of choosing a political party leader who will become the next holder of the highest executive office in the country. It is one of the quirks of the British Parliamentary system that has evolved through the ruling class, the aristocracy of the United Kingdom and, on the whole, wealthy middle class merchants.
Of the last 55 Prime Ministers to date, 42 attended Oxford or Cambridge and 33 attended Eton, Harrow or Westminster Schools. The Duke of Wellington, Disraeli, Lloyd-George, Churchill, James Callaghan and John Major did not attend University; however, Wellington was at Eton and Churchill at Harrow. Callaghan and Major attended Grammar Schools which later became comprehensives. Callaghan trained as a civil servant with the Inland Revenue, whilst John Major did a correspondence Course in Banking. The sole Doctorate is held by Gordon Brown who attended a comprehensive in Kirkaldy and the University of Edinburgh.
Make of those facts what you will, but there has clearly been a sense of entitlement engrained in particular public schools, Cambridge and Oxford. What is to be noted now, that there appears to be a concerted effort by those in contention to emphasize just how self-made and underprivileged they were and the difficult backgrounds they came from, as well as being first or second generation immigrants, keenly in touch with the general ordinary population.
So far as one can tell, the front runners are: Rishi Sunak, who attended Winchester School, Oxford University and prestigious Stanford University in California; Penny Mordant who attended Oaklands Catholic School and University of Reading; Tom Tugendhat who attended St Paul’s School, the University of Bristol and Gonville and Caius Cambridge; and Liz Truss who attended a community school, Roundhay School, and Merton College Oxford. Not a very great departure from the normal course of such events, you might think. None of them could in any way be classified as underprivileged.
The two candidates who have any real connection with ‘ordinary people’ are perhaps Penny Mordant and certainly Nadhim Zahawi, the Kurdish Refugee, who clearly has done very well for himself. One might think that his becoming a Conservative MP is perhaps a specific career decision. What is the clearest path to riches other than following the conservative capitalist business plan? There is an air of John Mortimer’s character of Leslie Titmuss about Zahawi; but then, there is an air of Titmuss about most of the candidates for the Conservative Leadership.
Despite their words of “doing it for the people of this country”, “upholding sovereignty”, lowering taxes, encouraging investment, creating jobs, there is nothing in their agenda that shows anything other than their ambition and precious little of their desire to be honest public servants, with an eye on the complete welfare of the individual citizen’s right to freedom, health and safety, both economic and physical. They pay lip service to concepts of liberty whilst at the same time lining up repressive and restrictive legislation to prevent dissent or opposition of any kind, and draconian methods of closing down borders to prevent anyone they do not like from venturing into the country. They are even willing to go as far as withdrawing a person’s birth right to nationality and all the protections that are meant to go with it.
These are not generous or charitable people. Their belief that the undisciplined laissez fair economy will solve all our woes is paramount. They claim, in effect, there is no real need for taxation save to provide a standing armed military and police force. So no need to inhibit companies. They will provide the enterprise, work and employment for all. It’s only a matter of letting them get on with it. All will sort itself out in the end. Government will not only, not interfere in business activity, but will prevent anyone else from interfering by making it a criminal offence to do so. Unions will be banned as well as demonstrations or gatherings of any kind which might disrupt commercial activities.
As to the matter of health, that too will eventually be hived off to private enterprise, most likely controlled by American Equity Corporations and the pharmaceutical industries. Of course, the private insurance companies will benefit immensely from private subscriptions, which will replace the current National Insurance Scheme. State pensions will likewise be slowly absorbed by private corporations.
This agenda is not far off and will only succeed in creating even greater disparity between the rich and the poor. It is what they are after. They keep going on about small government, non-interference, money in people’s pockets to spend as they like, letting the market place do its work. This is the real fairy tale. It is not just a matter of balancing the books, it’s a matter of getting rid of the books altogether and handing them out to any private businesses willing to take them on. Private enterprise is after all much more efficient than Government, so who needs it. The small matter of the welfare of the individual citizen is of no consequence.
These people see the United Kingdom as a separate land from the rest of the earth, hovering over the landscape like some giant spaceship with troublesome tunnels and conduits to the ground, only requiring control. Any attempt to trespass will be met with transportation to a faraway station, out of sight and out of mind. Deals are to be made solely with the elite.
This is the science fiction world envisaged by the current conservative party. Seeking to satisfy a minority of the electorate on the assumption that opposition parties are incapable of rallying their supporters to get off their asses and vote. In this particular instance getting out the vote in every constituency is of paramount importance. The only way change will occur, is if the total electorate is sufficiently motivated to get to the polls and remove the conservative candidates from office. Not that the whole of the conservative party is of the variety of the current figures vying for leadership, but those of the centre right have been squeezed out by the right of the party. Indeed, the centre right has been pushed towards the centre left, just to stay relevant, which is something they do not like and which is driving them out of the party altogether or certainly keeping them silent and unable to curb the disastrous agenda from the Brexiters, populist isolationists, and nationalists.
The long and short of it comes back to the group view of entitlement. That group which believes they are the ones who are destined to rule. They seek to safeguard their freedom to be able to continue to rule. So any protest or opposition has to be stifled and stopped in its tracks. So long as you think as they think, you will be entitled to be free. You will be able to voice your opinion so long as it conforms to state opinion. You will be free to do anything you like so long as it does not interfere with the rule of the rulers. The rule of the rulers will be law. Any opposition to that will be drowned out, crushed and incarcerated. To think otherwise would be wrong. What is right will be what you are told is right. There are societies that are like that, to wit currently Russia, Belarus, China, Myanmar and a number of others.
The entirety of British history has been a repudiation of that kind of thinking. The unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom has been the development of the rule of law, the protection of the individual and the duty of care of each citizen towards every other citizen and human being. That is the true thread that binds this nation together. To try and minimise its effects by reserving it for an elite group of people or one single section of society is completely contrary to its very existence.
This minority of the electorate are moving the country towards anarchy and hateful division. They claim otherwise, but seek to remove every aspect of human rights, born in this nation, and signed up to by numerous nations around the world. The current government seeks to renege on its international commitments in every aspect. They claim to support a beleaguered Ukraine, anxiously wanting to join the European Union, all the while doing all it can to break away entirely from that very Union, and breaching the agreements it has made. They claim a lead in counselling for world peace whilst disrespecting every aspect of international law. The overall hypocrisy of this Government is so shocking it is a wonder that any other nation would seek to associate with it.
Do I exaggerate the position? I think not. When an ordinary Member of Parliament flips the finger at people voicing their opinion, with the excuse that she is a victim of the mob and just getting her own back, that speaks of arrogance and entitlement. That her party has not censured her is indicative of their own arrogance and sense of entitlement. Her fellow members when asked whether she should apologise, say yes, but none have said she should be suspended or removed from the party. It is no longer a question of it being just a human reaction. The gathering of people was nothing to do with her in any event, but her arrogance in assuming that she was the specific object of protest tells its own story and the sentiments expressed apply to every single one who just wants to move on and let it go. The party has been moving on and letting things go for far too long. The resignations from Boris Johnson’s Government came far to late. Enough is enough I’m sorry to say is not good enough.
There is an exchange between two characters in the film Judgment at Nuremberg.
“We never thought it would come to that”
“The first time you let it happen, it came to that”
Just so with this government, the first time they overlooked a flagrant breach of ministerial code and responsibility, that was enough. That it took them so long to act, condemns them all. That those very same people seek the office they fell so short of protecting is merely a continuation of that arrogance and sense of entitlement. How the British people can support this fiasco is depressing. Where is the outrage? What kind of country is this that allows this charade to continue?
I do try to remain positive, I look at the overall history of the United Kingdom and rejoice in its continuing development towards an intelligent, multicultural, civilised inclusive society, where freedom and respect for the merest individual is the paramount object of the duty of care and rule of law. I see that very society being airbrushed away, just as the Supreme Court of the United States is brushing away the very Constitution on which it sits. The two countries where most of the world’s refugees look for succour are letting the side down as never before. Please tell me I’m wrong, or is it simply a question of:
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose.
(Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1, Verses 4 & 5)
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