Of all the stormy weeks we’ve seen in UK politics recently, this last fortnight must qualify as the most tumultuous, during which, astonishingly, we’ve seen the PM’s sacking of her Chancellor, her absence from the House for Labour’s Urgent Question, (leaving Penny Mordaunt to endlessly stonewall the inevitable questions), poor performance at her second PMQs, the resignation of Suella Braverman, debacle at the fracking vote and finally her own resignation. Far right policy, as aggressively pushed by the ERG and IEA, has manifestly failed, but significantly, the damage inflicted on the economy and household finances can’t be rolled back. Furthermore, regular government business isn’t getting done so there’s a double whammy of damage we all have to contend with alongside the continuing political and economic instability. No wonder the UK is a laughing stock abroad. When not doubling down on the political turmoil, the media are reporting the shocking state of health and social care, how a Financial Conduct Authority survey shows 8m to be struggling to pay their bills and upheavals in the housing market.
Martin Kettle stresses that this isn’t just a short term situation: ‘Traumatic events bequeath traumatised legacies. We know this in our personal lives. The same is also true for nations and their politics’. He spells out how the trauma of the Truss era will affect us for years to come, getting to the mental health deficits the political wrangling, incompetence and corruption are inflicting but which don’t get much of an outing in the media. ‘We need to ask non-partisan questions about the longer-term effect of prime ministers toppling, ministers coming and going, and the experience of watching an economy on a knife-edge. This requires us to step back and think about how the events of 2022 may shape those who will govern for the rest of this decade and beyond’.
Despite the clarion calls for a general election, the Tories insist on clinging onto power, subjecting this country to further international ridicule via yet another leadership contest. You couldn’t make it up that besides Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, Boris Johnson (who was, disgracefully, on a Caribbean holiday during parliamentary time) is being supported to stand. Candidates must secure 100 nominations from Tory MPs and we hear that ‘Boris’, rushing back from his holiday, has already secured the requisite number. Wouldn’t you just know that Priti Patel is one of them? It’s the only way she can guarantee a job. But there’s still the little matter of the Privileges Committee investigation of Johnson and his misdemeanours, the Committee apparently having amassed plenty of written evidence and soon to start taking oral evidence.
At least some Tories have come out with honest opinions. ‘Jesse Norman, a senior Tory MP and Foreign Office minister, said returning to Johnson would be a disaster. “There are several very good potential candidates for Conservative leader. But choosing Boris now would be – and I say this advisedly – an absolutely catastrophic decision…..William Hague, the former party leader, told Times Radio that bringing back Johnson was the worst idea he had heard in his 46 years as a member of the Conservatives, and would cause a “death spiral” for the party’.
As he did back in August, columnist and commentator Matthew Parris not only eviscerates ‘Boris’ but also suggests that getting Truss elected was a cynical ploy to enable his own return. ‘No conspiracist in normal times, I have become convinced Johnson and his gang promoted Truss’s candidacy not because they thought she was any good but because they knew she wasn’t. Her failure was to be the launchpad for his return. I cannot disclose what has persuaded me Johnson thought she’d fail, but it confirmed all my suspicions. He knew that only against the backdrop of total mess could he look good’.
Narcissism is at the heart of his strategy, though, and this is manifestly unsuited to the PM role. ‘As for Johnson, he’s just playing with us again. If he loses, or withdraws, it’s only a game. But if he wins, it’s still a game. Whatever, we’ll be talking about him, and for Johnson that’s the thrill. Failure would be a pity but obscurity would be worse. Fame or infamy — it’s all in the mix for Johnson because both bring what Johnson most wants: attention. There’s a part of this man that would enjoy the walk to the scaffold: centre stage to the last. Weighed against the horror of being forgotten, Johnson sees the upside of a car crash’.
A Radio 4 listener tweeted what many must be feeling: ‘At the end of the day, it does not matter which Tory becomes the next PM. They have all been part of the 12yr destruction of the economy, the lies, and corruption. It’s not just the PM, the whole Tory Party are rotten to the core’. Another said: ‘Tuning into Radio 4 Today, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Johnson backers are slithering out into the daylight. He was a charlatan, a hedonistic libertine & a proven liar. Sixty (60) members of his administration resigned en masse – refusing to work with him any longer. No. No. No’.
Predictably, the straw grasping Daily Mail asks whether Johnson and Sunak could unite to ‘save the Tories’. Again and again we have this emphasis on the Party, the Party, revealing what the priority is in some quarters and it’s not the country. The Sun’s headline – ‘I’m up for it’- captures how Johnson sees this situation, language more suited to a mates’ booze up than a leadership contest.
Although it’s a few days old now, it’s worth quoting veteran (and usefully outspoken) MP Sir Charles Walker, who pins part of the blame on the Party opportunists we’ve long come to recognise. ‘I’m livid and I really shouldn’t say this but all those people that put Liz Truss in No 10, I hope it was worth it, it was worth it for the ministerial red box, as it was worth it to sit round the cabinet table, because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary’. When asked when Truss should quit, he replied: ‘Well I hope, by tomorrow … She needs to go. She shouldn’t have been made prime minister’. Meanwhile, new Home Secretary Grant Shapps is still digesting his sudden promotion: ‘There is a very important job to do.. People expect their government to ensure there is security for them. It is a great office of state. I am obviously honoured to do that role. I am going to get on with that serious role right now’. The way things are going he’ll be lucky if he has a chance to ‘get on’ with the serious role. Or worse: he might ‘get on’ with it in the same avoidant way he dealt with the rail unions in his Transport Secretary gig.
We have to wonder, though, whether politicians or the media recognise what’s going on from a psychological and organisational point of view. What we’re seeing is a classic example of psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion’s Basic Assumption theory, which identified three kinds of defensive and unhealthy behaviour governing groups. It seems to me we are currently witnessing two of these: dependency and fight or flight. In the first, the group is always hoping and waiting for a better, stronger leader to save them from the mess. Individuals are passive, waiting to be rescued (in this case by ‘Boris’) but no leader is ever good enough and leaders are replaced over and over again. The ‘flight or flight’ behaviour is all about group preservation at whatever cost, focusing energy on an enemy, eg Labour, EU, migrants, benefits scroungers etc. Externally this group is energetic but internally it fights itself (ferrets in a sack) and abdicates responsibility. The first step of changing a damaging situation is to recognise it, but this doesn’t look like happening here any time soon.
One reason will be level of delusion amongst Tory supporters: they really want to believe ‘Boris’ can ride to the rescue and that his many lies and misdemeanours can be swept under the carpet. A commentator tweeted: “Why was Boris Johnson forced to resign as PM?” Tory MP: “Because some of my colleagues stopped believing in him.” Like Brexit and Father Christmas, you just have to believe!’
Then there’s the myth of ‘the mandate’, which has become a mantra amongst Tories and which is never challenged by collusive media presenters. COP supremo Alok Sharma tweeted: ‘I am backing Boris Johnson – he won a mandate from the electorate in 2019. We need to get back to delivering on the Conservative manifesto we were elected on’. What these people don’t seem to get is that a 2019 mandate doesn’t and cannot equate to a 2022 mandate, especially given the extent of incompetence and corruption in between.
As the weeks pass more attention is being to the need for ‘warm banks’, offering comfort to those unable to afford heating in their own homes. Libraries have been cited as a good venue for this but in my area at least there’s been no information from the council about this being in the offing. In many areas there’s been so much neglect of these important community hubs as they’ve long been seen as an easy target for cost cutting. At least there’s some guidance available, finance expert Martin Lewis having teamed up with CILIP (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) to produce a guide called A Warm Welcome. Lewis said: ‘Of course, warm spaces are far from a panacea, not everyone will be able to get to warm spaces, not everyone will want to, and people will still need to heat their homes sometimes.. Yet I think they will turn out to be crucial extra help to get a decent number of vulnerable people through the winter’. A survey earlier this year found that nearly 60% of library authorities were actively considering taking part in a warm bank scheme: I’d have thought such a survey needs updating and a listing produced detailing the various facilities. No surprise that only 4% of library leaders expected to receive any extra funding for this activity.
Following a recent piece here about the Booker prize shortlist, we now know the winner: ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Booker prize for fiction. The judges praised the ‘ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques’. The judging panel’s chair, Neil MacGregor, chair of said the novel was chosen because ‘it’s a book that takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey through life and death right to what the author describes as the dark heart of the world…And there the reader finds, to their surprise, joy, tenderness, love and loyalty’. Sounds interesting but wonder how readable this novel is. I’ve found so many unreadable in the past.
Finally, amid news of government ‘investment zones’ threatening environmental protections, it’s very cheering to hear about a new nature reserve being created from an industrial wasteland in Greater Manchester. Called the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh, the 738 hectare wetland was formed from flooding of land which had subsided following intensive coal mining in the 19th century. But during the 20th, the site has become home for various species including rare ones like bitterns and water voles. It would be marvellous to see a bittern, known for their distinctive booming call, as they’re so heavily camouflaged they’re hard to spot. The site has now been declared a National Nature Reserve by Natural England – I hope it does well for visitors and supporters!
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 