A LOW DISHONEST DECADE

LOOKING BACK ON THE 'TENS'

Looking back over the last decade, and of all decades or perhaps like all decades, it is a clumsy amalgam of discrete periods, which in this case we must ludicrously call ‘the Tens.*’ So, in deference to the human desire to frame time, I must call years between 2010 and 2019 a decade, placing an uneasy cohesion on the chaotic days, months and years, a cohesion that never existed. It was a decade that started with confusion that resulted in the first coalition government in the UK since the 1930s. It also began with the triumph of the London Olympics that seemed to auger a new age Britain finally growing up. What followed was the most catastrophic period for progressive politics in the UK in the modern era, a period that made a mockery of those post-Olympic hopes.

Many people commented upon the remarks made by the BBC’s political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg to the effect that ‘history would judge those who opposed Brexit after the referendum ‘harshly.’ Overwhelmingly the responses took the form of stating that such comments betrayed bias. Well it certainly betrayed that fact that she held an opinion that was controversial. What few picked up, to my mind, was how incredibly foolish her remarks were. History teaches less than we think but one thing it does teach is that only a fool makes pronouncements about the ‘judgement of history’ in the immediate aftermath of events. To illustrate my point let us whisk Ms K back to Heston aerodrome in the autumn of 1938 just after Chamberlain had touched down. Surveying the cheering crowds and Chamberlains smug smile Ms K opines “history will surely judge the opponents of appeasement harshly.” 

However, if there was a thread running throughout this period it has surely been dishonesty and moral corruption in politics, as lie was piled upon lie, without even trying hard to conceal the level of dissembling. It was, to steal Auden’s description of the 1930’s a low dishonest decade. So, at the risk of being accused of inconsistency, I would hazard a guess that ‘history’, -whatever that means, - may well view the period, which is now slipping into the past, into history, as one characterised by political dishonesty.

This was not, as some like to present it, exclusively of the right, though it was the right that dominated the politics of the brazen lie, the left too, in the shape of the Corbynite fanatics sought to reshape and re-frame history, presenting Corbyn as some sort of Gandhi figure, a seeker after peace, truth, and justice. No amount of evidence to the contrary could dissuade the disciples of Corbyn or Brexit. Lies work, as the resistible rise of Boris Johnson demonstrates.

What all this augurs for the future is a matter of conjecture, but it hardly augurs well. A culture based on myths and fictions cannot possibly hope to sustain itself as a credible world actor. But one can imagine that as these fictions dissolve in the harsh glare of reality scapegoats will be probably formed of the usual suspects; the Irish, people of colour now joined by the EU and Europeans in general. How long before this collapse occurs is a matter of conjecture. Certainly, less than 10 years, possibly even as soon as three years.   

The one bright shining light during the last three years has been the birth, indeed the spontaneous birth, of a multi-racial, cross class and cultural barriers, pro EU movement that saw people demonstrate literally in their millions. That these people received no reward only scorn for their efforts will have long term consequences, and we may see the birth of a very new form of progressive politics. The idea that we can now all ‘move on,’ that now there is no longer any Remainers or Leavers is for the birds. So, as Winston Smith might have put it, if there is hope it lies with the Remainers.

Still, no matter how ghastly the years behind have been, you survived them intact, you and I hope those close to you. As to the years that stand before us, they are as yet as substantial as Shadows, there will be surprises and they will not always be unpleasant ones. Hubris is merely a malign Don Quixote.

So, in these hours that we call the eve of the new may I wish you a Happy New Year.

*marginally better than the ‘teens, I suppose.