This Sceptred Isle

 

There's a two-page spread in today's i that has two main pieces on UK politics. In the first, it talks of a return by Boris Johnson if Rishi Sunak continues to underperform in the show-politics department that obviously a significant proportion of the Tory Party seem to hold dear. Johnson was of course the arch proponent of the flash, but empty politics of gesture: exactly that which got him dumped as PM in the first place, by his own sodding party. I do think that the Party of Little Brain/Britain is showing itself for what it is: shallow, lacking in talent, and devoid of scruples. Re-election is their only motivation for being in public office: not a great CV item.

The second was an item regarding Labour's apparent current stance on the EU, with Lisa Nandy - whom I admire greatly - arguing that the party will continue to co-operate with the EU while stating that rejoining the union is merely fantasy. Considering the current state of the UK economy, the Northern Ireland Agreement issues, and the fact that we have dumped our largest economic market in favour of a few half-arsed so-called trade deals with countries the other side of the planet - consider that thought alone - and I think that, political and media expediency aside, the Labour Party - of which we have both been members most of our adult lives - should consider its position more rationally, rather than chasing the populist idea that the referendum was either absolutely conclusive (it wasn't), or currently thought well of (it isn't). 

None of the so-called 'problems' of EU membership, such that they were, in reality, have been addressed, let alone solved. We have not 'taken back control' of anything: if at all, we have lost freedoms ourselves and contributed, in part, to the scuppering of our economy. The truth is, we are still leaving and will continue to do so for decades to come as the web of red tape and legislation is slowly untangled by civil servants wading through a mire of half-thought-out crackpot notions dreamt up by the wreckers: disruptors like Farage and Johnson, whose sole motivations are notoriety and pecuniary advantage.

We are in a worse place now than I can remember, and party politics is just getting in the way of reasoned debate and considered, rational action. Badges? - we don't need no stinkin' badges. What is needed now is grown-up thinking. We need to put aside the partisan and the petty; the self-interest and the self-pity: the people of this archipelago deserve more from those we elect to represent us. We need to put aside all that historicist bull about 'greatness' and empire; we need to drop all that class-drenched, forelock-tugging-apologising for the failings of our corrupt ruling order, and we need to rebuild our society with all the tools and resources available to us: and that will entail both a modicum of socialism and of Europeanism, if we are to have any chance at all of success.