Toby on Tuesday
'Procured Polices'
By far the greatest ever of Malton’s MPs was the author,
orator and statesman Edmund Burke. He had two abiding
themes. The first was that you could only govern with the
wholehearted consent of the people, always stressing how
vital it was to go with the grain of the electorate. The
second was that, if societies were to survive, they needed
to be continually adapting and adjusting to new
challenges. And when I was studying philosophy, politics
and economics at Oxford two generations ago now, I founded a
debating society named after Edmund Burke as a jollier and
less self-regarding forum than the Oxford Union, which
seemed to be stuffed with political careerists. I was the
first president. And where this is relevant is that a few
years later I was followed both by Theresa May and her
husband Philip. Now, Rosa Prince has just published her
new biography, “Theresa May –The Enigmatic Prime
Minister.” And in it she writes, “May made more of an
impression at Oxford’s second debating club, the slightly
less rarefied Edmund Burke Society, where the themes of the
debates were more humorous in nature. In her last year at
university, she was the club’s president, overseeing
proceedings while wielding a meat tenderiser in place of a
gavel...At the start of his second year, Philip succeeded
May as president of the Edmund Burke Society.” And as
Prime Minister, Theresa May has often quoted Burke, so the
lessons of all those years ago were well learned. For by
single-mindedly colonising UKIP’s defining policies on
Brexit, grammar schools and the rest, and combining them
with an aura of quiet competence, she has succeeded in
throwing both UKIP in the Labour Party into disarray. Last
week’s two by-election results were masterstrokes of raw
political positioning by the Conservative Party and it would
be churlish to say otherwise. The Conservative Party now
holds a chain of seats from coast to coast across the very
North of England, while a weakened Jeremy Corbyn still leads
the Labour Party – perfect for the Prime Minister! The new
political landscape is clear, UKIP defined it but in so
doing let others win the prize. But that’s politics!
So the new political landscape is clear. In many ways,
the social, economic, security uncertainties of our times
resemble those of the 1930’s. With looming trouble across
Europe and growing financial insecurity, the global threats
abound. And the 1930’s saw the predominance of a National
Government in which the defining figure was the reassuring
presence of Stanley Baldwin, winner of three General
Elections. And what Theresa May is now seeking to do is to
emulate Baldwin’s National Governments with her theme of
‘One Nation Conservatism’. The other day she readily
agreed to become patron of the Stanley Baldwin Statue Appeal
to raise the funds for a statue to his memory in his home
town in Worcestershire. And she wrote, “Stanley Baldwin
should be recognised as one of the most significant figures
of twentieth-century politics. It was he who coined the
phrase ‘One Nation’ to describe that fundamental aspect of
the Conservative approach to politics, and he put it into
practice with important social reform...As the Prime
Minister of a One Nation Conservative Government, I am
delighted to hear of plans to erect a statue in his honour
in his birthplace and former constituency of Bewdley.”
What Theresa May, always cautious and measured, is seeking
to achieve is a successful Brexit negotiation over the
coming two years, the implementation of the new boundary
review to remove Labour’s advantage in the size of
constituencies and then a Conservative/National Government
landslide in 2020, thereby emulating Baldwin’s own
success. Her themes will be competence, reassurance and
carrying out the will of the electorate in effecting what
have been UKIP’s policies. So the defining question must
be, “So where does all that leave UKIP?”
My own belief is that UKIP must now fulfil the role of
that other defining figure of 1930’s politics, Winston
Churchill. The outsider, the pariah, excluded from the
national debate and the airwaves of the BBC, he was seen
then as an old-fashioned warmonger in a nation that wanted
peace and comfort. Where Baldwin was restful, Churchill
offered no soporifics. However unpopular, he warned of
trouble ahead and the need to prepare for it. And that is
precisely what I believe UKIP must plan for now. It won’t
help us to win by-elections, but it can ensure that we serve
our country well, just as we have done for the past 20 years
and more. Brexit must indeed mean Brexit and we must
become a trading, maritime nation again. As the terrorist
threat grows, we must have full border controls sooner
rather than later. To demonise Donald Trump is pure
folly. He is a true friend to Britain, yet we trash him
for seeking greater border checks while refusing to
criticise Angela Merkel for inviting over a million
“migrants”, including countless terrorists, into a Europe
with open borders. We demonise Marine le Pen, who is only
asking that France should enjoy the same liberation from the
EU project that we in Britain are achieving under Theresa
May. Holland, Italy too are seeking to reclaim their
national democracies and we should recognise and welcome
this. And we should deny those with British passports who
go to fight with Islamic State in the Middle East the right
simply to return here and spread their poison. And our
Overseas Aid budget should be used instead to address issues
of national security, not least the issue of foreign
criminals who fill our jails while their countries of origin
refuse to receive them back.
None of this is reassuring or
comforting, but is essential for our national survival. So
just as Churchill was vilified during the Baldwin and then
the Chamberlain years, but was vindicated by history, so
UKIP must now be prepared to follow the same lonely path,
offering no comfort but instead the great prize of rescuing
our civilisation, just as we have always done!
Until next Tuesday!
