July 8, 2022 - 11:56am
After the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and with a leadership election looming, we convened an emergency roundtable to try to zoom out and understand the bigger picture. Has the populist experiment run its course in the UK, or is it only just beginning? What does this moment mean for Conservatism and the realignment?
Joining Freddie Sayers to try to see beyond the Westminster speculation were non-affiliated life peer Claire Fox and UnHerd’s Will Lloyd and Aris Roussinos.
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SubscribeGreat discussion. I am not quite sure how bleak things are going to be, but hopefully slightly better than you predict. The struggle to think of anyone capable was sad and amusing. I voted for Brexit as I think democracy was moving further from the people in the EU, I don’t think this will end well. I hope at some stage we will develop a party with some competence in delivering the basics such as a proper energy policy. Is that too much to ask?
Sadly, the answer is Yes: any degree of competence IS too much to ask. The reason is simple: it’s not a priority: only serving oneself and one’s mates is a priority and as election time looms obviously getting re-elected necomes a priority.
Glad you think democracy is really important and worth breaking away from a large union where one feels one has little say in that union: hopefully that applies to Scotland as well or is that (in the words of my ex wife) “totally different” whilst being exactly the same?
Absolutely fine with me if that’s what they vote for.
The most interesting comment made during this discussion, imo, was Aris’s suggestion that we have already entered a period of great disruption in the developed world and that the old order has already passed. I suspect he’s right.
Germany must now face its unrealistic energy policies. The world must now face the reality of China’s global intentions and that it will never be a member of a global community of democratic nations. The world must also face the consequences of massive government indebtedness and the lack of a coherent policy to provide meaningful employment for future generations. The list is endless but, taken as a whole, it’s a giant reality check.
When it comes to “old order” there must be little that’s older, more out of date and out of touch than the (dis)order of Westminister with its sheep bleating and dozy house of Lords. What’s needed is real democracy and subsidiarity (political decisions made at the lowest practicable level).
It will also help if the British electorate can stop thinking Eton eejits are their betters! Time for wringing the caps is long gone but you will hold onto it for tradition sake won’t you? And as for the extended Royal family with its dukes and earls and hangers on of every hue… don’t get me started..
The most interesting thing about this discussion was what they didn’t say. No one said the “I” word. No one mentioned immigration. Don’t anyone dare say immigration! Because after all, everyone is just thrilled with the housing shortage and grooming gangs and no-go zones and scary streets and lack of access to their GPs and . . .
Hint: the front runners are Sunak, Zahawi, Tudendhat, Patel.. hardly old Anglo Saxon names are they?Where do you suppose they came from of not IMMIGRATION!
Love these discussions!
Looking in from outside (yes you may give me down votes) I found it interesting that the panel found that it was disappointment with Westminster that led to Brexit, and the EU was hardly mentioned. And on an issue that appears regularly I don’t think Britain is any less woke than the rest of the west.
P.S. Freddie needs a better microphone, or else needs to close another button on his shirt!
Thank you, this type of discussion is why I was pleased to have found UnHerd.
It’s interesting that Raab was the only person identified as a tolerable potential leader of the Conservative party at this time. I feel much the same. I think he has the right instincts but he needs to up his game in terms of his image and public persona. At the moment, I don’t even know if he is in the running.
I would have thought image and persona were by now dirty words? Substance is what’s required surely?
What really interested me about the excellent discussion was how everyone leant forward excitedly at the suggestion of building 5 Milton Keynes. This was precisely why I voted for Corbin, in the hope that something might actually get done. It is not a question of left or right, it is about a commitment to actually deliver, in a competent manner. I agree Gove might be the only chance of that.
Interesting discussion. Overlooked the external forces that determine politics and government. We’re being allowed to play at democracy unless/until it might make an actual difference to anything. We’re entering a period where even that pretence may well be dropped and we had a foretaste of it during Covid. Look at how willing almost every elected representative was to abandon first principles.
Gove? Gove? Why Gove? Wyf has he ever delivered?
The question that interested me got short shrift. “What is conservatism”. We heard its “never labor, lower taxes. and private property”. This is pathetic and unlikely to take us into the calamitous disruption that is barreling down on us– think climate, income inequality, mass migrations.. the center will not hold–. Unherd and its audience needs to range outside the box of the current critique of woke, gender politics and the rabid culture we live in. Someone on the panel spoke about the psychodrama of the current state of critique. This is distractions politics designed to seduce us with click bait and boost the dopamine in our brains, all the while the elites gather power, the poor get poorer, and the planet burns up.
So what does conserve mean? What is important to conserve? What does labour, meaning work, mean when AI and robots will render human work obsolete? What are the questions that no one is asking? The unthinkable questions.
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Me too. I don’t understand