The deepening ugliness of British political life
We are witnessing a general breakdown of emotional and civic control
The ugliness of British political life appears to be growing wider and deeper by the week.
On the streets, there’s increasing anarchy as mobs increasingly behave with impunity, whether in vandalising statues or obstructing traffic and bringing central London to a halt. At the same time, some are weaponising public disorder in order to attack their political enemies.
And in the background, we hear the constant drumbeat of intimidation and bullying in the public sphere as people are defamed, hounded and cancelled in a culture of coerced conformity that seeks to silence all dissent.
In recent days, this social hysteria reached fever-pitch with events following prime minister Boris Johnson’s ill-judged attack on the Labour party leader, Sir Keir Starmer.
Under intense pressure from accusations against him of hypocrisy over Downing Street “parties” flouting Covid restrictions, charges of lying and a gross failure of leadership and with his government descending into chaos, Johnson lashed out in the Commons by claiming that, when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions, he had failed to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile. This was even though Starmer had played no role in the case or the decision not to bring charges.
In the ensuing furore, Johnson subsequently clarified that he hadn’t sought to blame Starmer personally but merely to note his apology as head of the CPS and thus his apparent acceptance of responsibility for its failings. But the damage was done and people were understandably appalled at Johnson's behaviour.
On Monday, an ugly crowd of demonstrators harangued and jostled Starmer outside Parliament, with one shouting out “Jimmy Savile” and another one shouting “protecting paedophiles” before the Labour leader was hustled away by police.
Immediately, Johnson was accused of being directly responsible for inciting this rabble against Starmer and endangering his safety.
Labour MP Chris Bryant said Johnson’s Savile remark was “an attempt to incite the mob”. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said said of Johnson's “utterly shameful” attack:
Words have consequences — we saw that on (the) streets of Westminster yesterday evening. He’s poisoning our politics and must apologise or go.
Tory Sir Roger Gale said he feared the targeting of Starmer was the
“direct result” of Johnson’s “deliberately careless” use of language in the Commons. And of course, there were inevitable comparisons with Donald Trump and his presumed role in egging on the Capitol Hill rioters in January last year.
But all this was as absurd as it was objectionable. Yes, the mob shouted about Savile. But they also shouted a range of incoherent insults and grievances including “traitor”, “arrest him”, “don’t take the vaccine,” “do you enjoy working for the new world order?”, “why did you go after Julian Assange” and (of course) something unpleasant about Zionists.
Moreover, the mob consisted largely of “anti-vaxxers” who go around demanding that people “resist” masks, vaccines and any Covid restrictions and who on this occasion had been whipped up by the leading Covid troublemaker, Piers Corbyn.
One of the demonstrators was Corbyn’s right-hand man who had been arrested and charged after raiding the vaccination centre at Guy's Hospital in London last month. Another had been banned from social media after urging children not to take the vaccine. He told his Twitter followers that there was a conspiracy to shut him down —“but they can’t censor me on the streets”.
Yet another demonstrator was identified as Will Coleshill, editor of the “Resistance GB” group of ultra-left agitators. He was heard yelling at Starmer:
You are the leader of the opposition — why aren't you standing up for our constitution? For the working classes of this country. What about the working people of this country? Aren't you meant to be the opposition?
In other words, the demonstration that turned on Starmer had nothing to do with Johnson’s Savile remark other than adding it to an anarchist rag-bag of grievances provoked by seeing Starmer in the street.
Sky News reported that the protest had been advertised online with a poster that made no mention of Savile. It said the rally would “support convoys and actions all over the UK and world” and protest against vaccines, Covid regulations and police bill “attacks on rights”. The poster also said the group wanted to “take down all power — government and fake opposition”.
Corbyn himself, who the Standard reported as leading chants of “resist, defy, do not comply” at the protest, said the Savile remark had had nothing to do with it. Sky reported him as saying:
Some of the protesters just saw Keir Starmer walking past and started shouting at him, it was mostly about how he’s the worst opposition leader we've ever had. They did say things about Jimmy Savile, but it was nothing to do with Boris's announcement, that was just a cheap way of dodging the bullet around the parties issue. We couldn't care less about the parties, we want more.
This is by no means the first time that violence or disorder have been weaponised to pursue a political vendetta by grotesquely misrepresenting cause and effect. We are getting to the point where any political criticism, let alone insults, might be falsely construed as “incitement” in order to damage a political enemy.
And the notable fact is that this is politically one-sided. The Labour MP David Lammy tweeted about the Starmer incident:
No surprise the conspiracy theorist thugs who harassed @Keir Starmer & I repeated slurs we heard from @Boris Johnson last week at the dispatch box. Intimidation, harassment and lies have no place in our democracy.
But Lammy had himself compared Brexit supporters to Nazis and white supremacists — and later said the comparison wasn’t strong enough. And Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said of the Tories:
We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute vile … banana republic, vile, nasty, Etonian … piece of scum.
Although such remarks provoked condemnation, no-one tried to link them with intimidating behaviour in the street. Yet the Tory MP Michael Gove and the broadcaster Nick Watt were chased by Covid protesters through the streets of Westminster; and the Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, the repeated butt of unpleasant personal remarks, had his home attacked by vandals who sprayed the words “posh scum” on the windows and covered his wife's Land Rover with graffiti and a sex toy.
The only acknowledged victims of intimidation and violence, it seems, are those whom it is politically opportunistic to support.
The current atmosphere is dangerous. There seems to be a general hysteria and loss of perspective and reason among protesters on the streets, among politicians and others using character assassination to smear their enemies, and among those who distort events to pursue their vendettas. As MPs behave like headless chickens and barbed comments are stamped upon as incitement while police officers appear to believe that public disorder should be indulged as freedom of speech, we are witnessing a general breakdown of emotional and civic control.
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