Dear Subscribers,
The week started with the Labour party conference in Liverpool. In his speech the Prime Minister began with talk of the Hillsborough Law that will ‘impose a duty on public authorities and public officials to act with candour, transparency and frankness’. Starmerese abounded: ‘working people’, ‘national renewal’, ‘politics of grievance’, ‘basic ordinary hope’ etc. And then, Starmer’s main grievance: Nigel Farage – ‘he doesn’t believe in Britain… so he resorts to grievance.’ The most rapturous applause was for the recognition of a Palestinian state – a standing ovation, in fact.
In his wisdom the Lord Chancellor David Lammy claimed that Farage (b. 1964) had ‘flirted with [the] Hitler Youth’. Those familiar with Lammy’s appearance on Celebrity Mastermind may discern a pattern of historical confusion.
Buried under the enthusiasm of the party conference, the government has been found to have ‘secretly sabotaged the trial of two alleged spies’ as revealed in the Telegraph. Labour ministers ‘told prosecutors they were no longer willing to describe China as an enemy’ in the trial. The government says that the decision not to prosecute was made independently of the government, by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Earlier this week, Trump announced that he had agreed a 20-point peace plan with Hamas to end the war in the middle east. There will be a Board of Peace which so far includes Trump and Sir Tony Blair to oversee the post-war settlement in Gaza.
On Thursday morning horrifying news emerged from Manchester that an Islamic terrorist stabbed two Jewish men (Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66) on Yom Kippur. The terrorist was shot at the scene. He was called Jihad al-Shamie (‘Jihad from Syria/the Levantine’), aged 35 and had been a British citizen since 2006; and it has since emerged that al-Shamie was on bail accused of rape.
Lastly, the Conservative party conference begins this Sunday in Manchester. Kemi Badenoch’s voice has been mostly drowned out by Reform and Starmer’s deliberate decision not to mention her in his speeches. Many on the left and the Reform right are enjoying the prospect of her failure – all eyes, therefore, will be on her conference speech. Ahead of the conference she has made a commitment to leave the ECHR as part of a ‘Borders Plan’ that will see the deportation of 150,000 people a year.
Media
James Heale in The Spectator: Will this be Kemi’s last conference?
Chris Bayliss in The Telegraph: ‘Singapore-on-Thames’ was the wrong dream. PM Farage will need another model
Rachel Sylvester in The Observer: Tony of Arabia
Key Points
Orwell described Stanley Baldwin as a hole in the air. The same might once have been true of Starmer – and yet, that is not quite it; in fact, it’s misleading. Despite not having any apparent principles there is a mental structure that lies behind his utterances.
‘Starmerese’ is a useful concept because it shows how Starmer thinks in terms of stereotypes. Working people are people like his parents; ordinary people are decent like him and might engage in weekly Football worship at 15.00 on Saturdays; national renewal means using the state to improve living standards; delivery is the aim of government; divisive are those who take issue with what’s being delivered. Perhaps this rigidity of mind might explain why his public persona is so robotic, repressed – and pathological.
The terrorist attack in Manchester is one of many motivated by a radical Islam in recent years. The terrorist, Jihad al-Shamie, entered Britain as a child and acquired citizenship in 2006. It once again raises doubts about the liberal doctrine of multiculturalism and its presupposition that assimilation can occur irrespective of the rate of migration into Britain. It should also be borne in mind how the Israel-Palestine war has radicalised various sections of society. The first signs of its impact in parliament can be seen in the Independent MPs for Gaza and Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to start a party with Zara Sultana.
Many are doubtful of Kemi Badenoch’s ability to last as Tory leader. The party polls consistently in the mid-teens and struggles to make itself heard. But Badenoch has the support of Thatcherite grandees such as Simon Heffer and Lord Roberts, as well as the fear that, were she to be deposed, the party would self-cannibalise.
The main contender for her job is Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary. He has generated noise on social media with head-boyish demonstrations of the injustices derived from the ECHR or illegal immigration generally. He attracts a young male audience of radical Tories who would like to see the wet elements in the party evaporated and the legacy of Thatcher kept at arms length.
The intellectual difference is that between a Thatcherite and Powellite Toryism: Powell was an academic politician, Thatcher a suburban Tory – Thatcherism was Powellism with the immigration and culture taken out, and the economics placed front and centre.
The Blairite Toryism of Cameron went with Boris and Sunak. Since the election defeat the feeling has been anti-liberal. The struggle between Thatcherites and Powellites has been renewed, even if its participants do not yet realise it.
Talk of the Conservative party’s extinction are premature and exaggerated. But for now, the Tories are haunted by its record in government no matter how much grovelling and apologising its leaders engage in –
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner’s hollo!
