The collapse of reponsibility

Alistair Meeks wrote a very thought-provoking and, for me, deeply worrying article in Political Betting on Sunday called The disintegrating establishment about the retreat from grown-up politics.

He defines "establishment" politics as being focussed on good government and responsibility and contrasts it with "insurgent" politics which takes no interest in competence or caution.

Some people may be tempted not to take his article as seriously as it deserves because it appears at first reading to equate support for a "leave" vote in the EU referendum with insurgency and therefore with ignoring the issues of responsible government or the need to govern competently.

I certainly don't think it is fair to suggest any automatic equivalence between campaigning for "Leave" and that style of politics, to accuse everyone who supports Brexit as being an insurgent as defined in that way, or indeed to suggest that there have been no irresponsible actions from those who support "Remain."

Unfortunately Alistair's argument cannot be dismissed as simply as that, however. With the honourable exception of those "Leave" campaigners such as the "leave alliance" who have made a serious attempt to set out an "exit strategy" rather than simply fling every possible argument for Brexit at the public without making any effort to consider which of those arguments are mutually incompatible, many supporters of "leave" are indeed open to the charge of irresponsibility and abandoning "grown up politics" which he makes.

Meeks begins by defining the "establishment" as a belief in emphasising the need for competent, responsible government in line with a quote from David Cameron at the start of his time as leader of the opposition:

“Real substance is about taking time to think things through, not trotting out easy answers that people might want to hear.  It’s about sticking to your guns.  It’s about character, judgement, and consistency.  It’s about policy, yes.  But it’s about getting it right for the long term.”

At that time both the Conservative and Labour parties supported that style of politics. I believe David Cameron is Prime Minister because that it is also what the majority of the public want and Labour's defeats in 2010 and 2015 came not because they were treating politics differently, but because their record in both office and opposition between about 2007 and 2015 meant that competence and good government was not something the electorate trusted them to deliver.

But in the wake of their 2015 election defeat Labour turned completely away from any attempt to be a responsible party of government in the normal sense and Alistair Meeks believes that a significant chunk of the rest of the political spectrum has followed them. As he puts it:

"The Labour party has been taken over by a faction that has demonstrated no interest in appealing to competence or caution.  In his opening conference speech, Jeremy Corbyn made a virtue of not wanting to impose leadership lines at all times and of expecting real debate not message discipline at all times, of wishing to carry on being an individual activist.  He has been true to his word on all counts.  Blairites are as appalled by the style as by the substance of what he says.

Meanwhile, the insurgent right is currently consumed by the referendum on EU membership.
 
Without even a pretence of coherence, they campaign on running away from the complexities of multilateral engagement, variously on immigration, regulation, security concerns or whatever else flits across their minds (how leaving the EU is actually going to help on any of these fronts remains largely unexplored).  Their figureheads, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, campaign on charisma rather than competence.

With the Labour right in long-term internal exile and the Lib Dems obliterated, the sole repository of the flame of good administration at present is the current Cabinet.  Can they withstand the onslaught of the crazies?  

You would think that offering competence in government as a USP would be a great vote-winner but everyone else seems to be having too much fun being irresponsible to make adult behaviour look enjoyable."

As I inferred at the start of this response to Alistair's article, I don't think all Conservative supporters of Brexit can be fairly described as "insurgent right" in the terms of this article or that all "leave" supporters have behaved as irresponsibly as described above.

But with that one caveat I find the analysis above terrifyingly accurate and I think even some of the more intelligent "leave" supporters would agree that the Brexit campaigns have a "headbanger wing" who are acting pretty much as Alistair Meeks describes.

I am convinced that Britain does needs responsible government and that the principle of trying to govern in a coherent, responsible way in favour of what works rather than what sounds exciting is far too important to be represented only by one party or one view of the issues. If those with a firm grip on reality, and who are willing to act responsibly in support of policies which work in the real world,  do not succeed in regaining control of a larger part of the political spectrum, I don't think we are going to like the results.