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Democracy Deficit, Brit-Style. [1]
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Date: 2022-10-17
Kwasi & Liz all smiles before the arrival of The Truss Buss
Limits in structure of Conservative Party rule, and distaste for the thought of another leadership contest means U.K. PM Liz Truss might miraculously survive until it’s known just how much suffering the Truss/Kwarteng experiment in trickle-down economics caused. The parliamentary system and Party rules mean Britain could see their 2nd PM in <3 month not selected by popular mandate. Sky News Deputy Political Editor Sam Coates said on a broadcast today (10/17) most MPs want to make sure the next PM is not selected by the membership. One plan calls for a committee of high-ranking Tories to choose a consensus candidate, then perform political blackmail by telling backbench MPs and Party members: it’s This Guy (likely not Gal) or a general election. Latest polls say the Labor Party would win a 65+% majority of the 650-seat U.K. Parliament if a general election were held today.
Okay, I’ll say it. Besides the absurdity of thinking 80K Tory Party members (vote total for Truss) represented a mandate to rule a nation of 67.5M, one source of British political dysfunction is the widespread, persistent belief that only (middle-aged) White males have a legitimate voice in the affairs of society (hence Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor and Acting Supreme Leader). Rishi Sunak, proud immigrant’s son, was the favorite of Conservative MPs, his eventual challenger the obvious Anybody But alternative. I’m guessing MPs thought Sunak’s frank admission of the need for higher taxes would play well with (so-called) moderate & left-leaning “independent” general election voters not-so-fond of Sir Labor Leader from North London; members using Sunak’s Et tu, Brute? act on Boris Johnson an excuse to vote for The Other Gal.
But I’m looking at Rishi and saying Nope. Not gonna happen. It’s not the same as a Black U.S. POTUS. I just could not picture a descendant of people who lived under the British Empire as the standard bearer for U.K.’s international interests. The lengthy period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth made space for debate about whether people from the Commonwealth (and non-white Britains) should feel any sense of loss, confirming for me how radical it seemed Sunak could become PM.
Whatever analysis you prefer, it’s clear Kwarteng’s fate had little-or-nothing to do race, but I wonder why he was treated with such venom given he merely executed what Truss campaigned on. During the leadership contest, Sunak was compelled to directly address his stance on immigration (restrictive, of course), likely pointing to how Sunak as PM would be an aspirational symbol for non-European British subjects and citizens, whether Tory faithful liked it or not. In neither case was race mentioned as a reason for their marginalization; maybe it’s me, but I felt an undercurrent was always there.
I kinda like Umar Haque’s take how British politics and economics Got There.
How did it come to this? This point of…total banana republic levels of incompetence, cross with fanatical insanity? Think of when else in modern history a rich country — well, a formerly rich one, anyways, has put in place a government which proceeded to a) crash its currency, b) tank its pensions, c) crash its housing market, d) cause an imminent banking crisis, and e) leave scores of people financially ruined for life…in a matter of weeks. This is the broken Britain Brexit made. (emphasis from Hague)
Hague describes how selling Brexit to the British public meant selling a version of the Big Lie: the ever-declining living standard of average people had nothing to do with trickle-up austerity imposed by successive governments both left & right. No, it was the Europeans! Of course immigrants also have something to do with it. Brexit came, and now the U.K.’s biggest trading partner became just another foreign nation. Businesses pulled out because of tariffs and red tape, needed suddenly-foreign labor (like truck drivers) decided the hassle wasn’t worth it.
What happens as nations get poorer— in this case, 10,000 pounds poorer per person? Well, such people can’t afford to fund the same levels of public services, because there’s less left over to pay for them with. They have to borrow more, if they want the same living standards — TVs, cars,homes, possessions, vacations. What’s true at the national level, then, is true at the personal level. Is it beginning to sink in just how and why all this was inevitable? Economic implosion happens. Currencies crash, pensions blow up, bonds crash, interest rates skyrocket. The average person’s left ruined — now finally understanding what “getting poorer”really means. The government which tried to patched over the Big Lies with quick fixes has no band-aids left, and none can stanch the bleeding, anyways... This is what happened in Britain over the last two weeks. The Brexit Bill finally came due — and it was horrific.
Hague does offer some observations that could give insight to what we’re up against here in America.
All this had to end in Truss and Kwarteng’s libertarian fantasy land. Their Big Idea was to turn the British economy into basically the Reddest of American Red States — a place like Texas or Kansas, and even beyond. The idea was to set up “investment zones,” effectively lawless places, where the rule of law, democracy, and consent were to be replaced, lock, stock, and barrel, with rule-by-the-highest-bidder. Want to put people to work in dorms? Go right ahead. Want to abolish weekends and eliminate labour standards? Go for it!! Who were the scapegoats now?... See the irony? The stupidity? The natural conclusion of a cycle? What happens when the cycle of scapegoating kicks off? Well, eventually, it has to end with the scapegoats coming from the in-group itself, because at some point, you run out of other people to hate. This is exactly what happened in Britain. Hating Europeans didn’t solve anything. Hating immigrants and refugees didn’t solve anything.
If there is any message Democrats could give to swing voters potentially effective is a forewarning about what happens when a libertarian-inspired populist regime takes control. American neo-fascists have an easier time using race as a criterion for scapegoating, but what happened to Brexit supporters could be an omen for the fate of the MAGA faithful.
And eventually, it had to come to this: a government which found the last scapegoat — Brits themselves. And openly called them all kinds of derisory, insulting names. Who should these lazy, directionless, shiftless idlers hope to be? Why, like the American super-rich. Hence, tax cuts for the ultra wealthy — funded by borrowing. A Truss Kwarteng fanatical libertarianism had to emerge — a Nietzschean project of scapegoating the powerless in Britain itself for its woes, while lionizing the American super-rich.
We now have the prospect that, even within the narrow confines of a Conservative Party membership, we might witness a kind of corporatist (i.e.,fascist) soft coup- a small coterie of people representing corporate interests, with consent of market, install a leader. Once in power, this regime can further consolidate interests and agenda using democratic means. It may not be as strongarmed as Orban’s Hungary, or violent as the MAGA movement, but the result is the same- an isolationist, xenophobic, overtly racist nation with a corporate-controlled political and economic system.
We should have seen the nativist direction of the world’s rich countries, with Italy’s Meloni, the near-miss of France’s LePen, and nationalist governments throughout Eastern Europe. I’ll be honest- I’ve become a bit of a fatalist re what will happen after November, my only question how long it will take for authoritarian forces to ramp up the heat we all know is coming. TFG surely admires Brit Tories for trying to pull off a process where a small cabal picks a ruler, with caveat he could control the cabal.
Will international markets come to the aid of American democracy the way they prevented Tory libertarians from hijacking the British Treasury? Not likely, given the dollar’s status as the world’s currency, and the American economy still among the top two globally. But at this point that might be our only hope, because I don’t think people believe how easy it would be for America to go the way of Brexit Britain.
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