We’re publishing an original essay today by Dr. James Alexander, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in Turkey, about the transformation of the Conservatives into the party of the metropolitan elite, after a brief flirtation with populism. Dr. Alexander charts the history of the Party through a succession of crises, with the latest being the global pandemic. Here is his concluding paragraph:
The fifth stage is the crisis which has resulted not so much from Brexit as from Covid. Brexit was a revolt of a new Country party against the Court party of almost all assembled authorities, including both Labour and Conservative authorities. After some dithering, Johnson chose to side with Country. Hence 2016. But Covid has broken all of the traditions of opposition I have sketched thus far. For it is the Conservative Party – no matter how reluctantly – which stands at the head of a unified Court party which has done more than anyone since Walpole has done to ignore the Country, and not only ignore it, but oppress it. Johnson has presided over the establishment of an entirely technocratic politics of problem-and-solution which is, alas, not a politics at all, but the substitution of technique for politics. In this situation, the Government appears to be as committed as the opposition is to a unified politics of Universal Lockdown and Universal Vaccination and Universal Carbon Elimination in which no one is defending any aspect of the old order (including the church or universities) or even liberalism itself. The Conservatives have no longer got anything to defend. They have capitulated to their enemies and done it with a grotesque hyper-Disraelian-Bismarckian-Maoist-Malthusian flourish by way of forcing us to take the knee, take the mask and take the jab. They are not Tory, not liberal, certainly not even ‘austere’. They have found a magic money tree. They are presumably waiting for the seas to turn into lemonade. They are locking us into a magnificently communist-corporate hybrid order which will make the public-private partnerships of Blair and Brown look extremely pallid. If this continues then the only conservative thing about the Conservatives will be their inclination to hold on to their name.
Worth reading in full.
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My membership was cancelled almost a year ago and I won’t be voting for them ever again either. I’m a conservative, they are not.
Boris is Blairian not Churchillian.
Don’t you mean Hitlerian?
And as the conservative votes dwindle the rise of the left will take over and we’ll have the same shit, different coloured tie because it’s the liberal fascists that are helping to enable this situation.
Left and right are two wings of the same bird.
I prefer “the two fangs of the same tongue of the same serpent”
We don’t have anyone on the right representing us. It’s centre left, far Left, radical Left.
I voted for them in 2019 – first time since 1987. I was appalled by their treatment of Mrs T and vowed not to vote for them until there was something worth voting for. I certainly didn’t think Johnson was it, but I felt the threat from Corbyn and the hard left was so great that I had to at least vote against it. I won’t be making that mistake again.
Corbyn was a moderate and a pretty decent man who was cancelled due to him not being the right kind of leader for the ‘elites’ – this shit wouldn’t have happened with him (I’m not a labour voter/sympathiser either). Of course, depends who’s pulling the strings. Elected governments appear to be nothing more than puppets.
This s h I t absolutely would have happened with him. Under a Labour government, we’d probably have had curfews thrown in for good measure, as in Canada, and now Australia. Corbyn wouldn’t have stood up to the communist and far Left advisors, or those in his own party. He might have wanted consensus, but the consensus would have been exactly as it has been, with bells on.
“Corbyn was a moderate and a pretty decent man who was cancelled due to him not being the right kind of leader for the ‘elites’ – this shit wouldn’t have happened with him (I’m not a labour voter/sympathiser either). ”
Of course it would – probably worse. Are you not aware that Corbyn was, and presumably still is, a full on zero covid nutter?
Perhaps you didn’t see the literally insane document he signed, along with the rest of the Socialist Campaign Group, back in January?
A ZERO COVID STRATEGY IS NEEDED TO SAVE LIVES
Socialist Campaign Group Calls for Urgent New Strategy to Save Lives . #ZeroCovid #Covid19UK
I don’t have any particular personal issue with Corbyn himself, as a person. I’m sure he probably is a “moderate and pretty decent man”. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have gone the road of insanity like the rest of the “zero covid” loons.
Pleased to see that you spelt that term correctly!
But what is to be done, Toby?
There is no alternative small c conservative party to vote for, and any attempt to form one would be strangled at birth by the media.
Also, this is a global issue, not a UK specific one. No matter who we vote for, anywhere in the world, we get globalist policies.
The most urgent problem we need to deal with is the complete absence of critical journalism. Without politicians being criticised by a free press, we will have no change.
Populism and a populist party is the only answer short of civil war.
A person and a party strong enough to resist the smears and manipulations of the elites and their media machines needs to arise. Cometh the hour cometh the man, we must hope.
Hitchens has always claimed that the answer lies in the destruction of the “Conservative” Party, following which an alternative will arise. My own view has always been that the “Conservative” Party will not die off until a rival has appeared.
Time will tell.
isn’t “populism” just the name the right-on types give to anyone who doesn’t believe their tripe?
Yes, exactly.
It’s what elites call anything popular that threatens their misrule. It can take many forms, but in the modern US sphere cultures it’s resistance to the globalist left, and usually (not always) takes nationalist, conservative forms.
‘Populism’ is what you’ve got now : the manipulation of the populace by an elite using constructed ‘popular’ myths and deceptions that conceal their elite nature.
Johnson is a classic populist, shaping his dictatorship with an appeal to popular ignorance and gullibility under the guise of popular (aka ‘common’) sentiment.
It seeks to use majoritarianism in establishing control. It isn’t ‘democracy’.
Both communist and fascist totalitarian regimes exploit ‘populism’.
The classic picture of August Landmesser (allegedly) in a swarm of Hitler salutes embodies the nature of populism.
Different usage, and not the original one.
America’s Forgotten Populist History w/ Thomas Frank
Thanks for posting that. It’s fascinating to see how the elite’s use of the Press to control the narrative was used even then.
The more things change…
Or, as a wise man once observed: “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.”
Interesting comment.
But does it mean that populism is the death throes of democracy?
Or will eventually something so bad happen that the populace, or at least sufficient of the thinking populace, realise that something has to change, and democracy reasserts itself?
Blair was a populist, but his reputation is now very, very low. Johnson is following the same trajectory, but at at accelerated rate.
Where does this end? And can some sort of acceptable and sustainable balance reassert itself? Speaking for myself, I have no idea – except to say that it’s going to be very, very painful.
An interesting thread.
“Blair was a populist, but his reputation is now very, very low. Johnson is following the same trajectory, but at at accelerated rate.”
Blair, like Johnson, was the very opposite of a populist in the proper, original historical sense of the term (see the video by historian Thomas Frank that I linked above).
The usage you and RickH seem to be using here is a later and simplistic one that seems to mean: “someone promising people stuff that I don’t believe they mean” – in other words a pretty empty term of partisan political abuse.
In the proper usage, it was originally a negative term used by elites to demonise popular resistance to their misrule, and that’s how you will see it used overwhelmingly in the mainstream media today, aimed at eg the Brexit or Trump campaigns.
To use it for elite-manufactured propaganda-driven pseudo-popularity such as Blair’s, Johnson’s or coronapanic nonsense seems perverse (though politicians like Blair and Johnson do gain some populist support by superficially embracing, or pretending to embrace some populist issues – they show their true colours pretty quickly once in office, though).
In the proper usage, if you are opposed to elite misrule, then populism, must be a good thing, as indeed the “populism” as it is usually used in our elite-owned mainstream media, directed against eg Brexit or Trump or various resistance movements to mainstream politics around the world, confirms.
“Also, this is a global issue, not a UK specific one. No matter who we vote for, anywhere in the world, we get globalist policies.”
I’m not sure about this. This is a malaise of the (globally dominant, granted) US sphere.
The Chinese do what suits China, globalist attitudes and policies are adopted when it suits them. Japan still resists a lot of the globalist bollocks. Russians support Putin as their alternative to a corrupt US crony. Muslim countries turn to various Islamic parties as their alternative to submission to the US-based global elite.
We need to find our own versions of these resistance movements. But it’s hard to find any kind of liberal approach that can resist the corruption of overwhelming wealth. Most of the alternatives I listed turn to authoritarian methods, perforce.
I was an old style journalist. It was pretty crap then. I would say now, don’t worry. Journalism has completely altered. The old style is over. Experts like Robert Malone and Clare Craig speak directly to their audiences, rather than giving quotes. A multitude of sites like this challenge opinion and enable discussion by us, the previously almost voiceless readers. Truth-seeking journalists like Alex Berenson find a way to build their own platform on Twitter and Subs-tack. Voices speak directly from centres of crisis like Afghanistan. Journalism is much more alive than it was.
Thought-provoking comment thanks.
Yet in the rise of journalists speaking directly to their audiences do we eventually see those journalists eventually starting to believe that they should be politicians, rather than just commentators? So does journalism become a platform for political careers?
Spot on – it just takes time and effort to find, assess, agree or reject and then repeat. As was once said “The Truth Is Out There”..
The trouble is, sites like this are largely preaching to the converted – the mainstream media is what influences the bulk of the population, and that presents one-sided, simplistic views.
Interesting perspective.
However you have to search the sources out for yourself. The mainstream is entirely propaganda and unquestioned.
Political parties of the 19th century are dead in the water, have been for some time. How can you vote for the current political establishment – is that not a version of the definition of insanity? None of these MPs from this and the last several parliaments – with few honourable exceptions – are worthy of consideration IMHO simply because they have criticised the strategy and implementation but demanded “more of it”; that makes them guilty by association if nothing else and again IMHO irretrievably unelectable ever again.
So either we have a coalition independents – very unlikely or vote for entirely new organisations , I cannot bring my self to call them parties – or not vote – not an option.
A very difficult dilemma.
As Chris Sky said recently; “there is no political solution out of this. No one is coming to save us. We are the 99%, we just all have to say no”.
Interesting perspectives.
“Johnson has presided over the establishment of an entirely technocratic politics of problem-and-solution which is, alas, not a politics at all, but the substitution of technique for politics. In this situation, the Government appears to be as committed as the opposition is to a unified politics of Universal Lockdown and Universal Vaccination and Universal Carbon Elimination in which no one is defending any aspect of the old order (including the church or universities) or even liberalism itself. The Conservatives have no longer got anything to defend. They have capitulated to their enemies and done it with a grotesque hyper-Disraelian-Bismarckian-Maoist-Malthusian flourish by way of forcing us to take the knee, take the mask and take the jab. They are not Tory, not liberal, certainly not even ‘austere’. They have found a magic money tree.”
In fairness to the “Conservatives” (not that they remotely deserve it), the institutions such as church and universities don’t seem to want to be defended – they are plunging ahead into the New Global Order of Woke Technocracy with great enthusiasm.
I’d always thought University should be somewhere where your opinions and thinking are challenged and examined in the crucible of rigorous debate. Seems now to be more about ‘safe spaces’ and uncritical approbation for woke/green ideoligies that are accepted as ineluctable truths in and of themselves.
If people get the politicians they deserve than Johnson is but the apogee of the politics that an incurious populace has allowed to flourish. Blair started the cycle of spin and mendacity. The creation of ‘narratives’ to demonise and marginalise those that would disagree with the prevailing orthodoxy; and as an adjunct, alienate the very people his party was formed to represent. Honestly, we don’t have politics any more, we have a management structure. The hierarchy within that structure may change. The endgame will not.
And in a country that was born with legs but prefers taking the knee, change is unlikely.
“I’d always thought University should be somewhere where your opinions and thinking are challenged and examined in the crucible of rigorous debate.”
That’s so 1950s….
A very sobering analysis. Rightly or wrongly I have been a Conservative voter for 50 years, but as I have made clear to my current Conservative MP, never again will I vote Conservative, not in a million years, although I doubt that I will live that long. I voted Blue at the last election, got Red, as evidenced by the totalitarian government that we have at the moment, and illustrated by a member of the Communist Party, Susan (‘masks forever’) Michie, advising SAGE on COVID. Then to add insult to injury, it seems that by voting Blue I also got Green as evidenced by their arguably insane policies on cars and gas boilers. We desperately need a new centre right party to initiate a ‘course correction’. If not, I really fear for our future and our children’s future. In less than two years, Boris Johnson has destroyed our economy, wrecked the NHS, crippled our children’s education, torn apart our social infrastructure ( Covid snitchers etc.) and criminally instigated a psychological war on our own people. That will be his enduring legacy. He has to go and go now.
It may be optimistic to believe we will ever (again) be allowed a meaningful vote.
Any voting is likely to be subject to the globalists’ confidence in having the electorate sufficiently brainwashed – and likely bolstered by an ability to manipulate the count.
Totally agree!
I remember a very astute old country bumpkin from East Anglia being interviewed by an obnoxius BBC type many years ago.
The reporter asked him who he was going to vote for.
The old chap said he was not going to vote, as no matter who he voted for the bloody government got in.
Nice analogy, too right!
In other words they are hard core authoritarian lunatics and slaves to the technocratic machine. Hence, barely human any longer and despise the very people who notionally gave them power. In this country we have a one-party state ‘Globalist’. Incidentally the Technocratic Globalist flag of conquest has these colours ROYGBIV, and you see it everywhere now.
Okay, now we know that – what do we do about it?
Funny, I thought that Labour were the party of the metropolitan elite…
Presumably that’s why the opposition is incapable of opposing any of the absurd measures imposed by the Government. Two cheeks, etc.
It’s hard to see the difference these days.
I hope this signals some intent from the DS team to finally admit the government are not going to save us and hunker down for the long fight against the Big Lie
Quite.
The Parliamentary Con-Artist Party is dominated by the authoritarian left.
One need only observe how many Con MPs voted in 2018 to keep the appalling EU agent May in her job even as it was apparent that she was working for the other side.
While some of the worst offenders were thankfully kicked out of the party by BoJo (e.g. EU agent Grieve), many others have been given a pass, such as EU agent Ken Clarke, who now promotes his poisonous creed from the Lords.
Excellent article. When can we start erecting the gallows?
You haven’t put one up already? I’m working on one of those new-fangled “guillotine” thingies as well.
Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance, as I was once told,.
Desmond Swayne at least sort of getting the point here:
Sir Desmond Swayne: ‘Britain is full’
At least a lot better than the “Conservative” traitors who want to welcome in huge numbers of foreigners, whether Afghan, Hong Kong Chinese or whatever, to whom the people of this country owe no debt whatsoever, whatever fatuous nonsense the interventionists might proclaim.
Will we ever again have people in government who actually think their job is running Britain’s government in the actual interests of their constituents, rather than using their position to pontificate and virtue signal on a global stage?
Er, no. Long, long time since they did anything else.
Usual mendacious nonsense from Labour and the contemptible Stella Creasey:
https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1427982056647106569
“Look, over there on the other side of the world! Someone’s being oppressed! Something must be done!
What’s that? Compulsory mask wearing and censorship of dissenting voices? Beatings of protesters? No biggie, we’ll back that. Zero covid!”
Meanwhile, a more measured assessment from someone actually in Kabul and not trying to exploit the situation for political ends:
https://unherd.com/thepost/clarissa-ward-in-kabul-what-the-taliban-are-really-like/
The 5-eyes countries have moved in unison. They have taken most of western Europe with them. This is at least a western world technological takeover which incorporates fascist totalitarian control. There exist different ‘civilisations’ in the world; the Russian, the Chinese, the Indian, the Muslim; and a variety of less developed countries. The ‘US-centric’ one we live in has been taken over by the technocrats.
The UK is part of this, in some ways a prime mover. Johnson as an individual has always been a chancer, he has no moral code, he just picks what he thinks is the winning side. So he is a willing servant in this movement. Most MPs etc are powerless, but ambitious, so go along with the leadership.
But the driver behind all of this is the $trillions wielded by the likes of BlackRock and the machinations of the Bank of International Settlements ( BIS) and its associated Central Banks. They want disruption, they want controlled chaos. In this environment they can make even more $trillions by investing in the new tech and pass on any risk to the tax payers ( ie you and me). To transform society they need control, the sort of control that fascist totalitarian control gives them. Hence covid, hence ‘climate change’.
But if these people already have so much power and wealth, why do this? Partly because they are psycopaths, they want total control, for ever and they utterly believe in their destiny to further their technological dream. Partly because they see the end in sight for the existing financial model and waning US power as a nation. And also because of Maslow’s heirarchy of needs and seratonin. They want to continually renew the feeling of superiority. And if you are as rich and powerful as you can ever be, the only way to be even more powerful is to drive the little guy further and further into the dirt. Its easier to do this with your own fat lazy populace than (say) Afghans.
Anyone who thinks real evil doesn’t walk through the world, is delusional.
Spot on, an excellent analysis; if only people would realise this. This has never been about just a virus. It’s blatant opportunism by the globalists and institutional investors. As for the person in the street and the potential impact on their lifestyle and savings, they are just collateral damage.
Excellent summation of the situation.
This 1% may have so much power and wealth, but they still don’t have ALL of it, with the middle class still possessing vast amounts; Home-owners, they are coming for you.
Indeed, by 2030 they will own nothing – and be happy, apparently!
It’s time people woke up.
There’s an open goal sat waiting for the right kind of party. Reform, Reclaim and Heritage need to club together and start picking target constituencies.
The NHS and economy are going to be a mess. Throw inflation into the mix and there will be no shortage of disgruntled people. The right people hammering out the right messages can and will turn heads.
Of course we’ll still need to be allowed to vote the bastards out of course!
Ah, Peking Piffle, who is, as his name suggests, leader of the “Not The Conservative Party”.
100% correct. No democracy, no opposition, no way of effective protest in the U.K. anymore. Who to vote for in future elections? And what will the point be? A revolution is needed, but I fear that the brainwashed masses aren’t up for any kind of fight. As long as they’ve had their jabs, can hide behind their masks and go on their holidays, they’ll put up with any sh*t those in power choose to use against us.
Parliament is Blairite where all roads to ruin lie.
At least we saw yesterday in Parliament, who is on the Dystopian Mask Fetish side
I reluctantly voted CONservative in 2019 after my Brexit Party candidate was withdrawn.
They will never get my vote again, under any circumstances.
They have destroyed our Civil Rights and wrecked the economy, in order to protect the NHS from doing what it is supposed to do.
There is nothing conservative about them. They are Commie-CONs.
I hate them with a passion.
Can anyone really believe it’s about: right and left, at this stage of the game. After the ‘election’ saga in the States. And the Silicon Valley censorship which abounds. I think we sat on our arses for a couple of decades, and got eaten up !!
“Can anyone really believe it’s about: right and left, at this stage of the game.”
How can anyone believe it isn’t? Right/left is a universal aspect of human nature, what changes is how it apples in a particular social context.
What is true is that it isn’t about Labour/Conservative, but that’s because both those parties are parties of the radical left., seeking to manage and change society for the better through collectivist state action guided by wise meritocratic elites.
Did it just escape your notice that it’s the causes of radical collectivism that are everywhere dominant?
The only part of Conservative I recognise is ‘Con’.
As everywhere else, the British conservatives are and act primarily as a part of the deep state corporatist cabal now.
The analysis is spot on in that regard.
And half the people and even more businesses were turned into net government handout/loot recipients now, which further underpins their continued robbery.
The only question is whether they really believe that this indebted Ponzi scheme and their rigged and corrupted rule over it can go on, or whether they have realized that this has to and will soon have to crash, hence their totally unhinged spending- aprés nous le déluge style- and absurd but draconian mandates.
The Tories are false Conservatives and as for Unionists, Johnson has sold Northern Ireland down the river and yearns for a united Ireland. It seems nobody in the party is conservative enough or has the guts to resign the whip and declare what is left of their “old” party for what it is, a bunch of corrupt, incompetent, dishonest, chancers without a conservative bone in their body. I have voted Tory all my life, but never again, and I long for a real Conservative party that I can be proud to vote for again, but there is nothing yet that meets the required criteria.
They’re all the same, unfortunately, They will all be held to account. They are all compromised. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” (Albert Einstein)
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