THEY THINK IT'S AL OVER...
2020
LOOKING BACK
2021
LOOKING FORWARD
AJP Taylor once said that either a policy of appeasement or one
of standing up to German aggression, could have worked if the former had been
taken to its logical conclusion and allowed Germany a free hand in Central and
Eastern Europe to dominate that region, whilst the latter could, indeed would
have succeeded had Chamberlain acted firmly and blocked German revanchism from
the outset. What was most calculated to fail was a policy of dithering between
both approaches. I thought of this the other night when Boris Johnson completed
yet another U-turn and placed London and the South East in a lockdown, despite
previous statements insisting that Christmas would be exempted. Indeed, as
recently as previous Prime Minister’s Questions he had taunted Kier Starmer
with wanting to “cancel Christmas.”
Such inept dithering, from allowing pubs to stay open and
racing festivals to go ahead, long after it was clear that this would lead to
increased infections, to switching to draconian lockdowns, has characterised
Johnson’s response to the pandemic, and like Chamberlains dithering has been
equally calculated to end in disaster. So here we are.
It has been a year, – like France in 1894 as the Dreyfus case exploded, 1933 in Germany, with the Nazi accession to power, 1952 in the US as McCarthyism raged, or 1956 in the UK during the Suez crisis, -in which people were tested, and all too often found wanting. Men and women of principle have all too often been heavily outnumbered by the mob of cowards, sycophants, chancers, hedge betters and fence sitters. Both here and in the States examples of those willing to stand up to bullies, blow the whistle or speak truth to power holding firm to their principles, have been both few and isolated. However precisely because they have been so few they have stood out and been all the more admirable for that.
Moral courage is a much rarer than physical courage. To be
physically brave one only has to momentarily switch of those elements of self-preservation,
the instinct to avoid danger, -not easy it is true and often admirable.
Moral courage is more
difficult because of the immediate absence of physical danger, only the cold
daylight and the growing knowledge of personal isolation, the threat of
censure, loss of status and possibly employment. All on top of the coercive force
of peer pressure, sometimes the howls of the mob, and in extreme cases risk to
life and liberty. To swim against the tide, to take a stand when so many others
are choosing the easy life, preferring to go with the flow, takes a lonely form
of courage.
As I say a few individuals stand out, Georgia Secretary of
State Brad Raffensperger and Sir Philip Rutnam the Home Office's top civil
servant, for example. But there were others. Whilst examples of moral cowardice
abound, Bill Barr’s abject surrender to Trump, abandoning even the pretence of behaving
independently. Whilst the slimy support provided by Backbench Tory MPs to the
Home Secretary Priti Patel after she was condemned as a thug and a bully, both
provided moments of intense nausea. The cowardice of these people brings to
mind the similar complicity, usually of the same people, in Dominic Cummings contempt
for the Covid 19 restrictions, surely a turning point in the destruction of trust
in the government’s handling of the pandemic.
As I write this the deal we have struck with the EU, surely
the ‘no-deal’ scenario was only ever Johnson playing games with the British
public, has passed in the House of Commons. I have not looked into the deal in
any detail, but already, of course it is clear that it falls far short of what
we had as full members and exposes the dishonest promises of the Leave campaign.
Equally predictable will be the slow and steady realisation of just this, and of
how bad these new arrangements are.
Whilst already the puerile noises are being made, often by
the same politicians who stoked them, about healing divisions, blathering about
national unity, and bringing people back together as if there was some sort national
light switch that can now be thrown to bring about consensus. Be clear, the
country is deeply divided, Brexit unleashed US style culture wars into the UK,
and consequently we remain divided for the foreseeable future.
The same is true in
the US. The idea that things can return to ‘normal’ after Trump leaves office
is pie in the sky. I like and admire Joe Biden, he is a principled and honourable
man, - and god knows we need such people in public office now more than ever, -
but his view that the Republican party will settle down to business as normal anytime
soon is dangerously naïve. In fact, it is this desire, this hunger, to ‘move
on’ that represents the greatest danger to democratic government both in the US
and, albeit in a different manner, here in the UK. Without facing up to and addressing the corruption,
moral squalor, crimes, and misdemeanours of the Trump presidency the Republic
will leave itself exposed fatally to the poisoning to which it was subject during
the Trump years.
Here in the UK the dangers are equally pressing. Whatever
your view of Brexit, Russia both supported and intervened in the Leave
campaign. If this reality is not faced and remains unaddressed the cancer will
eat into the British body politic every bit as fatally as that of the US.
Until this happens there can be no genuine moving on, only a
fake charade, a tablecloth thrown over the elephant in the room. For all our
sakes, on whatever side of the Atlantic, I hope people make the hard choices,
though I am not overly confident of this happening this side of the pond. On
the other side, in the US, Trump’s behaviour, the trail of damage, and the
abundance of evidence of his criminality makes a calling to account and
retribution a certainty. I will return to this in my next post.
In the meantime, for anyone reading this HAPPY NEW YEAR.
AT 31st December 2020
,
