The Tory Party’s relentless quest to divide and incite is alarming. The mind-set it reveals is repugnant. That this effort is spearheaded by a former Home Secretary (Suella Braverman) and a legion of ghouls within the Parliamentary Party is bad enough. That it is endorsed by the Prime Minister is outrageous. For that is what Rishi Sunak signalled by his comments recently when he said that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule”. It is pure dog whistle politics, akin to the “rivers of blood” incitement of Enoch Powell all those decades ago.
That this sort of toxic rhetoric is now coming from holders of the great offices of state, rather than a marginalised backbencher, shows just how far the body politic in the UK has decayed.
If Sunak actually thinks there is “mob rule”, then he is on a par with the demented Truss. If Sunak does not believe it, then he is displaying the naked cynicism of the very worst of Johnson. Either way, Sunak is demeaning the office he holds.
The embrace of conspiracy by the Tory Party leads to the ludicrous paradox of its current leader seeing the streets descend into anarchy, while his predecessor is firmly of the view that the entire nation is under the tight control of a sinister deep state.
The Tory intent to equate peaceful protest with the breakdown of law and order is a flagrant attack on freedom of expression and the basic right to protest. That the current Home Secretary feels that these protestors should, in effect, “just shut up and go away”, reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of what democratic freedom is. That the expression of moral indignation at the slaughter of innocents in Gaza is deemed a subversive act is a deeply troubling development in how the UK conducts debate.
This desire to delegitimise opponents has become an accepted part of Tory strategy. It is a trait of a fundamentally illiberal party. We see this desire to silence opposition manifested in lots of ways, be it judges who are deemed “enemies of the people”, to the prorogation of parliament, to threats to the House of Lords to submit to the “will of the people”, to Labour politicians accused of hating their country, to the PM himself openly accusing Keir Starmer of supporting terrorists.
Coming from the Prime Minister, it sounds utterly pathetic. However, the entire strategy is not only shameless and hypocritical, if allowed to persist it will spell the end of constructive political discourse within the UK. It is frightening.
On the specific issue of the conflict in the Middle East, I am concerned by how the topic of Israel is framed and discussed generally. The parameters within which the actions of Israel can be discussed have been narrowed, allowing the accusation of “extremist antisemite” (or worse) to be hurled in areas where it simply does not belong. None of this does anyone any favours. Everyone loses. An already difficult subject has been made even more complex. It is a topic that is replete with the wilful mischaracterisation of moderate, humane opinion that is held in good faith. The Tory Party itself, and its outriders in the right-wing media, display hypocrisy and opportunism. They pollute the topic with intellectual dishonesty. They are purposefully making a terrible situation worse. Shame on them. A pox on all of them.
And now we'll have George Galloway adding to the pot. Oh, deary me.
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