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Are the British Conservative and Labour parties really so different? For many voters, it seems, the answer is no. At least on the most important questions of the day, whether it’s immigration, war or culture. With the general election looming, UnHerd columnists Aris Roussinos, Mary Harrington and Tom McTague join Freddie Sayers for a roundtable on election ennui and ask: what are we to do with the uniparty?
You can watch the full interview above.
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SubscribeThought provoking discussion, and yes we are being presented with 2 parties whose policies hardly differ.
Aris is right, there are dark economic times coming, probably sooner than we dare to think.
To promote this as the possible end of democracy, as Mary has, really fails to see the big picture.
Presently, due to the brexit happening and the dire state of our economy we find ourselves within the process of democracy working furiously.
Aris is not going to vote, but of course if many of us do not vote, then that will have unknown political consequences in the result of the election. So vote or not you are contributing to the democratic result.
What surprised me in the debate between the 4 of you was the failure to discuss the dire state of our economy, with public debt at £2.8 trillion and rising. Welfarism, the NHS, Quango’s and other State institutions are destroying our economy.
The UK, like most countries in the West, will have to re-industrialise and yes, to do that our currencies will be heavily devalued.
The present situation in our politics is not going to be resolved in ge2024. Indeed I see a possible 3 general elections between now and 2030 before the electorate decide how to resolve the way forward.
The choice will be made for them in part … vote for the Big State with its welfarism or the Small State with low taxes and individual accountability.
Not voting is a mistake and this incisive article by Miri Finch explains why (Unherd should interview her!) https://miri.substack.com/p/stop-starmer
Is the way to show the centrist dads what they need to own to vote for the Workers Party, not the woke-ers parties?
Get the swirling noise of these London demos into the House of Commons. Get the hot breath that hails from somewhere else onto the polished wooden benchers and among the Edwardian decor of the foreign office.
Freddie Sayers asked: “…why didn’t Sunak…do a big show of towing boats back to France…”
I suggest, the answer to this is fairly straightforward. Quite apart from the fact that such an action would go completely against the grain of his personality, Sunak is still young – so he’ll want to have something to do in the post Tory-defeat world, join the Boards of any number of finance and tech companies etc as both non-exec and potentially some high profile exec roles. Now, imagine his chances of landing such gigs, especially the plum ones he might have his eye on, if he had pulled such a stunt while in power. I suggest in the current cultural climate across the west, he would have dramatically curtailed the pool of potential organisations that would be in the frame for him.
Freddie poses the question at the end of the video “let us know if we’ve got it wrong or got it right” in terms of the ‘darkness’ of the debate. I think what the debate actually shows is that it’s simply not possible to prognosticate but that the vital thing is to try to understand where we are and how we got here as fully as possible.
Some of the debate might be characterised as ‘doom-laden’ but unless these ideas are being debated – which they certainly aren’t by msm, or addressed by political parties – then the sense that the whole system is failing will prevail. That doesn’t mean there’s going to be cataclysmic change (as per Aris’ thoughts) but then again i don’t think he has a particularly good grasp of the British mindset (as per the general thrust of many of his articles, although he does address some very important points in them).
The problem is that political parties are meant to prognosicate – to offer a vision of where they think we should be going, and how we might get there. None of the parties are able to do this. The global, internet-driven world is now just too complex for them to be able to do so. Now that is the real issue. It’s one that’s occasionally touched upon by Unherd, but perhaps too complex a topic to be addressed quite yet since the psychological adjustments we’re having to make are either too uncomfortable or too premature to be made. Of the contributors, i suspect Mary has a better grasp of this but there needs to be care taken in how to elucidate it without being entirely doom-mongering.
For my part, it really is a question of: are we, as humans, capable of negotiating these changes we’ve brought into being through advancing technology? My consistent answer is: only if we finally begin to fully understand ourselves, i.e. become capable of being far more aware of and acknowledging of our deepest motivations, both individually and collectively; which means ditching the reliance on external sources of authority, in either theological or ideological terms.