The Tories and the Great British Myth

(From Unsplash; by Ian Taylor)

In my childhood in the 1950s and 60s, I was brought up with a myth about the Britain into which I was born. It went something like this:

- The British had been successful in invading and influencing just about every part of the world. However, the British Empire was generally benign because the British had a system based on virtues: democracy, fair play, honest trading, free speech, efficiency, inventiveness, and impartial justice. So the Empire had evolved into a Commonwealth.

- The British had been guilty of their share of problems in the past: absolute monarchy which amounted to tyranny, slavery, suppression, desperate poverty, and harsh justice. But these things were everywhere across the world, and the British were the first nation to overcome them.

- The British had had a civil war and revolution before everyone else and, having got that out of the system, had restored the monarchy as part of a system which worked very well: a parliamentary democracy with a non-interventionist monarchy which was the envy of everyone in the world.

- The British had prevailed in just about every important war that they had engaged in since time immemorial. The British could function even when everyone else was against them, the only major country in 20th century Europe not to fall to the Nazis, Fascists, or Communists.

- The British were superior to the nations of the non-English speaking world, which were dogged with corruption, inefficiency, and injustice.

- The one country on which Britain had some dependence, and to which they had lost a war, was the United States, which was essentially founded by the British and spoke English. With the U.S., Britain had a ‘special relationship’.

- The British were at their best in times of war and national trouble; people banded together and helped each other.

- The British monarchy was benign and respectable, with virtues and family values that acted as an example to all British people. They were worthy of the privileges which their heritage bestowed on them.

Yes, this is a myth of national identity that hides a great deal of brutality, oppression, and profit-making on the backs of people from other countries and also the poor and vulnerable in our own country. It is an illusion, but it is made plausible by the fragments of truth that are contained within it: Britain has been important in the development of desirable things such as democracy, impartial systems of justice, welfare, and life-enhancing technology. However, Britain is not alone in this; it has been at its best when it has worked with other nations to these ends.

Now to the contemporary situation. The British myth is closely associated with the fortunes of the Conservative party, who promote it. This is a major factor in general elections. As someone who never votes Conservative and always wants them to lose, it is easy for me to get excited when things go wrong for them. But history tells me that whatever ills befall the Tories, they tend to bounce back. They have been in power for 47 of the 77 years since the Second World War (including the 5 in coalition with the Liberals). It takes a war or a major mess-up to remove them, which happened in 1945, 1964, 1974, and 1997 (hopefully, that list will be added to in 2024).

Yet for all the Tory disasters of the past, the one that is happening now feels as if it might be the most serious; it is as if they have imploded. The recent claims by William Wragg and Nusrat Ghani have the potential to do more damage even than the irresponsible gatherings at No. 10 and the enigmatic Sue Gray’s report. Wragg and Ghani are Conservative MPs so angry that they are prepared to do damage to their own party because of what has happened to them. That in itself makes their claims extremely plausible.

And Christian Wakeford, who won Bury South in a big ‘Red Wall’ turnaround as a Conservative, has defected to Labour only just over two years later. He must be really upset. One Tory chump thought that showing the TV camera his e-mail to Christian Wakeford with no mention of withdrawing funding from a school proved that the threat did not happen. Are we all really so stupid? Of course, that kind of exchange would be verbal; only a complete idiot would commit it to an e-mail.

And Dominic Cummings, the first flouter of the lockdown rules (which seems a long time ago)? He is someone else with a grudge against Boris Johnson, and yet was his most valued aide for several years. Oddly, some of the Brexit lot – Cummings, Steve Baker, David Davis – have become the most outspoken critics of the very prime minister who is in power because of Brexit.

So the gun is certainly smoking. This is no left wing plot; these people are, or were, convinced Conservatives.

What has emerged in all this is extremely serious: in the case of William Wragg and Christian Wakeford (and others, apparently, from whom we have yet to hear), they are saying that funding such as would be crucial for deprived constituencies is dependent on the whim of those in power and can be withdrawn because of the perceived disloyalty of the MP. We all thought that funding was planned and budgeted in such a way that such spite would not be possible. It looks as if we were wrong.

All this and several other issues in the last couple of years, including the attempt to get Owen Paterson off the hook for his irregular lobbying a few months ago, fly in the face of the British national self-understanding as a nation of fair play and justice, which is a real problem for the Tories, who claim to be the party of national values more than any other.

The British myth of national identity, even though it may hide a multiple of sins, can still be effective in keeping abuses in check. You only break its rules and norms if you can get away with it. To get away with it, you employ propaganda, a biased press, coercion, and cover ups. When you don’t get away with it, you are in deep trouble. The pictures of the Queen sitting alone at Prince Philip’s funeral the day after another of those No. 10 parties illustrates the point. This is the ultimate sin: you have been seen to have offended the great British myth in several of its aspects: fair play, openness, all being in it together, and respect for the monarchy.

There are many Conservative MPs who want the party to continue to be the champion of the great British myth, and the only way to achieve this is that, given what has happened, is to ensure that heads must roll. So, surely, Boris Johnson has to go? The only use he might have is to hang on for a few months and provide a scapegoat for frustrations over the inevitable rising prices and inflation this year, so that a new leader could appear squeaky clean. But it is going to be hard for someone put into the Cabinet by Boris not to be tainted by his reputation, because they have all supported him and owe their careers to him. This could herald another chance for someone outside the Cabinet like Jeremy Hunt, in character rather the opposite to Johnson, Badger rather than Toad (it’s difficult to believe that someone like Hunt – remember him as Health Secretary? – could have come to be an acceptable option).

Something else that could keep Johnson in power for a few months longer is the Russian situation. Would the Tories want to change horses during an international crisis? Putin seems to have a liking for bumbling idiots running western democracies, so he has timed his crisis well to take the heat off the Johnson government.

For me, as someone who has always disliked the Conservatives and feels uneasy when they are in power, this particular government, ever since Johnson’s accession in July 2019, has outdone any previous one for a combination of incompetence, corruption, and sheer nastiness. Brexit achieved this; it caused people, and still causes people, to be completely uncritical of the people they vote for. They vote as they do because of the British myth, that part of it that tells us we are better than foreigners and can do things on our own. But in doing so, they vote against that other part of the British myth: the bit about decency and fair play. That contradiction is what is unravelling now.

Boris Johnson is certain to fall, but I really hope that the unpleasant Cabinet that he created fall with him. Its only redeeming aspect is that it does contain several members of ethnic minorities, but the Cabinet in general represents extreme wealth and the desire to expand on that by any means. I will shout with relief to see the back of Gove, Raab, and Rees-Mogg, in particular. Who in their right mind would choose to be ruled by people like them?

Perhaps there is just a chance that the British belief in fair play will play its positive part in giving us for the remaining years of this parliament a Conservative government not led by liars who are so blatant that they have proved themselves unable to hide the fact. Then after that, I pray that Britain will give Keir Starmer a chance to show what he can do. For that, he may need some help from the Liberals and Greens. Some kind of coalition is the only way to defeat the Conservative party that is still regarded as the custodian of the British myth of national identity, and yet also the party that is least likely to maintain its more positive aspects.