Review of Nye at the National Theatre.
Tim Price’s new play Nye is both a retelling of the life of Aneurin Bevan and an attempt to re-mythologise his life’s achievement, the NHS. Central to both is the idea of the Masses. The mass of people is the great constant of Nye: Bevan is their champion, and they champion him. At the beginning of the play, the whole of Bevan’s primary school class mutinies in solidarity against a vicious schoolmaster. Bevan swamps his opponents in local government by inviting the masses in to barrack proceedings. And when he dies, it is the masses that enfold him, lifting him out of his hospital bed and into their embrace.
Price’s Bevan lives his life by a simple logic. That is: why shouldn’t society be set up to benefit these masses? This is politics at its most elemental. It’s stripped of all the abstractions that we’ve grown accustomed to. If millions of people don’t have enough to eat and can’t see a dentist, then why should we care about parliamentary procedure, or local government procedure, or foreign policy, or the learned criticisms of bodies like the British Medical Association?
To Price’s Bevan, these abstractions are trivial. They mean less than nothing in the face of the toiling majority and its problems. The play makes it fairly clear that we’re meant to find this endearing, overall. Though at times wrongheaded, it’s an example of simple homespun wisdom. It speaks to a child’s good-hearted sense of fairness, and indeed, at the moment of death, Price’s Bevan devolves into a kind of baby speak: “I feel safe. I feel people. People are nearby. Did I protect everyone?”
In making Nye a figure of simple egalitarian horse sense, Price hopes to recast him for our own time as a sort of advanced Brownite bruiser. A souped-up Tony Benn. A duly elected Samwise Gamgee. The play invites us to believe that his great achievement, the NHS, is just another example of this simple humanitarianism. Price’s Bevan says that the NHS, once established, will offer nothing more than “dignity” to the masses.
Why shouldn’t society be set up to benefit the masses? Again and again Nye invokes this thought, and it’s invoked for a very limited aim: as an apology for the particular state healthcare system as it exists in 2024.
But this is an explosive idea. It cannot be channelled towards such narrow ends. It cannot be assimilated to cuddly social democracy, and throughout the play Bevan keeps wandering off script and saying alarming things that he’s not supposed to. Price’s Bevan is thus an interesting example of a fictional subject escaping the control of its own creator.
For one, if the current order of things only condemns millions to misery and death, then can any defence of this order be allowed at all? Those involved in Nye doubtless believe that it should, but they are never able to persuade us why. Who dares stand between the Masses and their interests? No one good, apparently. Bevan’s opponents in this play, the representatives of the old order, are a series of freaks and reprobates. The logic of the play’s moral commitments means that they cannot be presented as anything else. Nye’s schoolmaster is not merely cruel but criminally insane, lashing out indiscriminately with a pair of canes, which he uses to crawl around the classroom like an immense spider. Churchill is a would-be generalissimo of Britain who laughs off the deaths of thousands of soldiers. The avatar of the Labour Right arrives in the person of Herbert Morrison, a gruesome pint-sized party manager who pins Nye to a hospital bed and screams in his ear about how his ideas are unworkable. Even Clem himself is a figure of menace, silently gliding around the stage on a motorised desk.
And by the same token, does such a worldview really have any room for democratic niceties? Price’s Bevan begins his political career by strong-arming Monmouthshire County Council into submission. “Politicians talk while people suffer,” he barks. Maybe so. It should probably be noted, however, that you cannot have anything approaching a liberal democracy if you trade too easily in this kind of crude majoritarianism. Price invokes the idea of the Masses for the myth-making of the NHS, but the idea quickly starts to consume the whole play, and his own protagonist usurps him.
Things come to a head when Price’s Bevan, during an argument with Churchill, blurts out that Britain’s war against the Third Reich is all in vain, as it’s only being waged by the country’s possessing classes in defence of their property. Again, the premises that the play has traded in leave us with no alternative to such a conclusion. Why should we care about the territorial integrity of Poland when children in Tredegar are coughing up soot? But here we are in some seriously uncharted waters. Britain’s involvement in the Second World War and the postwar settlement that followed are so closely bound up as to be inseparable; a heartening epic in which the country’s ancien régime, symbolised by Churchill, redeems itself by first refusing an accommodation with fascism, and then by acquiescing to the welfare state in 1945. Would the interests of Britain’s possessing classes have been better served by such an accommodation? It’s certainly a question that Bevan would have asked. But it isn’t one that the postwar settlement, and therefore modern British democracy, can really withstand.
The real reason why Bevan seems to spin out of Price’s control is that he is an alien man from an alien world. His idea, the politics of the Masses, is pure dynamite, a radioactive element from another age. No wonder it wreaks so much havoc here. Nye Bevan passed his days in the era of crowd politics and of mass mobilisation. When Nye was 20 a mob stormed the Winter Palace. When he was 21, hundreds of thousands of brutalised German war veterans organised themselves into motley ‘Free Corps’ and did battle with Communists for control of the streets. This was an age where Adolf Hitler, a broken down man in a threadbare suit, could simply make a few speeches in his local beer hall and attract a wildly devoted personal following. This was an age in which even liberal democracies like France had a quarter of its total population in arms by 1918. Such an age, in its energy and its brutality, is simply inconceivable to us now. Classes, nations, races; all were mobilised and at daggers drawn. At one point in Nye our hero exclaims that he’s going to read all about Dialectical Materialism, and there was a slight guffaw from the audience. To us, terms like these are quaint historical curios. But for the people of Bevan’s age they were anything but. People sent and were sent to death camps over these terms.
These years were the final climax of pure Democracy, in which the masses could elect people that would carry out their sovereign will and not be countermanded by things like law courts, the EU, the ECHR, the UN or modern ideas of human rights. More often than not, the first thing the masses did with this power was to elect someone who promised to dispense with the democratic niceties and to make himself their sole instrument. It was an appeal that could run to the Right or Left; just as Bevan, an early ally of Oswald Mosley, really could’ve ended up in either camp. “Politicians talk while people suffer” is the slogan of Price’s Bevan, sure. It is also the slogan of Caesar, of Louis-Napoleon, of Huey Long, of the Bohemian Corporal.
Our own age is allergic to such appeals. It is vigilant against anything that remotely smacks of it. For better or worse, we do not live in an age of demagoguery, but of oligarchy. Bevan was frustrated enough at having to deal with the Cabinet system. Think of what he would have made of the Supreme Court, or the Office for Budget Responsibility. Things like Nye’s headlong charge against the BMA would not run in 2024; indeed, the whole programme of Keir Starmer and Sue Gray is to give such bodies a virtual veto over democratic legislation.
And so our age cannot take a figure like Nye Bevan for its hero, no more than the supposed defender of norms Joe Biden can ever really invoke FDR – the four-term incumbent and great scourge of the Supreme Court, who in his inaugural address demanded the powers of a General resisting an invasion.
Nor should it. What if the Masses really did rule? In Nye, this question is meant to act as an apology for the status quo. But ironically, those who defend this status quo have the absolute least reason to find out.
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And the people are kept distracted and divided whilst this madness plays out mostly in plain sight.
One hundred and fifty Tory MP’s on the Nut Zero take. Presumably when many of these are out of work later this year their bribe monies will switch to their incoming Labour counterparts.
Yep, the new excited batch of excited but useless MPs will soon be on the gravy train and I suspect a fair few of the outgoing lot will keep their snouts in the troff via lobbying of some description.
Oh the Grand Old WEF/ They had 10,000 lackeys/ They marched them up to the top of the COP/ And they marched them down again/ And when they were all signed up/ when the public were all kept down/ All the UN puppet scum, were neither up nor down
Cheers Varmint – class.
Cheers mate. ——-My wife laughed as well.
If you want to be sure of the outcome of an election, you’ll obviously have to buy all candidates which stand a chance to be elected. That’s the way to control a properly tuned demuckcracy: Eliminate voter choice by suitable candidate selection.
If we got the list in advance we might get to see if Reform / UKIP / other small parties have a chance of getting in?
Their Labour counterparts wouldn’t need bribing as they’re completely bonkers already. As for these Conservative nut jobs calling themselves Conservatives in the first place is beyond belief.
This sums it up.
I’m noticing an increase of commenters on MSM sites slowly coming round to the net zero / climate scams. Whether there will be enough to covert the brainwashed or not remains to be seen.
Sadly I reckon that things have got to get a lot worse before enough people think that stopping net zero is a high enough priority to strongly influence how they vote and these traitors are kicked out of power. Amongst the general population I wonder how many people realise they’re paying sky high prices for electricity due to subsidies and green mandates. Similarly when the cost of ICE cars and gas boilers increase massively because manufacturers are paying millions in fines because they can’t sell enough green crap will the majority of people realise why the prices are going through the roof.
And that pretty much sums up what western democracy has become.
Bureaucrats implement the policies of plutocrats and technocrats.
And politicians are responsible for selling it all to the general population.
Any politician who tries to sell a non-approved policy gets nowhere or taken down very quickly.
“Any politician who tries to sell a non-approved policy gets nowhere or taken down very quickly”——-Like Braverman, or Bridgen. ——–The globalist club members don’t want you in their exclusive club
I will never vote conservative again until and unless they unreservedly drop nut zero.
Conservative support for nut zero is not just plain idiotic but now shown to be venal as well.
Net zero is a financial, eco, social and political disaster. EVs are not ‘green’, eco-friendly nor economically rational. Visit a lithium strip mine for more info. Cobalt garnered with black slave labour seems to be fine with these virtue signalling idiots. Hydrocarbons are abiotic and have nothing to do with rocks or fossils.
As the article insinuates you can buy Pharma-ment or Net Zero-ment with about £50 mn. We saw this during Rona.
No surprise that the corrupt criminals in gov’t and the agencies are on the payroll of ‘big climate’.
We simply need to follow the money trails to find the ‘science’.
Yes we know…….But we are letting them away with it. We believe all the crap. We see a storm or a flood on TV and we just assume it is all climate change. ——-or at least most of us do.
People aren’t really assuming it’s all climate change, they keep being told so. This is really just as with COVID, just in slow-motion. The COVID disaster was always supposed to strike next month. The climate disaster next years, so to say.
These MPs are easily paid for. Any politician who drinks the nut zero koolaid avowedly hates their fellow man. We see the impact of nut zero in Africa, likely far more Africans have been killed by the world bank ban on investing in coal power than Jews were murdered by Hitler. The woke slaughter on the green alter goes unnoticed of course. Look how the Washington post celebrated this slaughter:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/07/17/the-world-bank-cuts-off-funding-for-coal-how-much-impact-will-that-have/
I agree. Africa (and other poor countries) have also been used in experiments with vaccines etc. Thank God so much less of Africa had the Covid jab, but they are being made to suffer for it in other ways.
Time to get Rolls Royce to donate a few SMR’s to these countries, make them independent of the West and keep their population at home as a bonus.
People should now realise if they have not done before that we are all being herded like sheep, and the sheepdogs are the globalist pretend to save the planet eco socialists seeking to control all of the world’s wealth and resources and using fear of a manufactured climate crisis to get us all into the pen. The Climate Industrial Complex controls the entire narrative. (The UN, WEF, Politicians, Technocrats, Liberal Progressive Media and Business Stakeholders). Whenever I hear a friend or relative say things like “Well the climate is definitely changing” I feel like shaking them by the lapels. But the power of the climate propaganda they see everyday on their 6 O’clock News leaves them so thoroughly brainwashed that they actually believe they can see global warming from their living room window. When you attempt to get them to see some sense they stare at you like you are from Mars. They ask “So you think you know more than the scientists”? ————-They are unaware that this has nothing to do with science. There can be little hope that the Climate Charlatans will not succeed as the vast majority of people simply refuse to escape from the herd of sheep. They accept losing their fantastic gas central heating, their car, their beef, their holidays, their affordable electricity, and they let the globalists throw them onto their back and sheer all the wool of them.
“Shaking them by the lapels”? Shaking them by the throat, more like!
“But the power of the climate propaganda they see everyday on their 6 O’clock News leaves them so thoroughly brainwashed that they actually believe they can see global warming from their living room window.”
Eloquent and sadly funny:
“global warming from their living room window.”
And that’s the truth of the matter.
Well maybe they should go upstairs and have a look out of their bedroom window for a clearer look. They might be able to see that the Polar Bears are doing just fine
Since I think this everytime I’ms scrolling past it: I absolutely love this picture, although I’m not convinced of the health benefits of Coca-Cola.
Except the Bear isn’t really drinking the cola. The photo is about as realistic as the Polar Bears demise. Whoever heard of an endangered species whose numbers have gone up 5 fold in the last 50 years?
The Coke bottle is obviously there because of its symbolic value as “American way of life” icon the other guys really despise. They’d almost certainly be calling teaching polar bears to drink Cola a cruel and unsual way of furthering their extermination. As always with these Americanisms, I find myself in disagreement with both sides. But I nevertheless really like the picture.
Good point about the cola as symbol of capitalism. And that ties nicely in with the fact that climate change isn’t actually about the climate, and is really an anti capitalist eco socialist agenda with climate as the excuse
But I think many are waking up, perhaps most among what we used to call the ‘working class’. In my experience with Lower Traffic Neighbourhoods (we have just had one installed in our area of south London), many are furious and not complying. They are not just furious about the LTNs, but about ULEZ, the bicycle lanes, the constant road works, the electric car fiasco, etc etc. They definitely see that it is an anti-motorist agenda. There are many more who are seeing all this now, as with the cash versus cashless stuff. We must keep fighting where and when we can.
They are not “green” billionaires, they are grifter billionaires and megalomaniacs
I wonder how many of them are on Mr Epsteins list
Most if not all is my guess.
The big con is persuading people that “climate change” is new, rather than educating them that the climate has never been stable for long. Avoiding investment in things that provide protection against weather related problems and taking the opportunity to blame someone else is on the agenda as well.
Very well put.
It is “climate” that isn’t new. ————-“Climate Change” is new since this actually means changes to climate allegedly caused by humans, and ofcourse it allows for all manner of policies to be put in place, and all manner of rent seekers holding out their hands for money from the western world who caused this manufactured crisis.
“…chaired by London Mayor and fireworks impresario Sadiq Khan” Love it!
One word..Traitors .
They really do not give a toss about the country or us.They all have their noses and more in the corrupt trough.
Retribution is coming !
I hope Retribution comes real soon for these parasites.
We need more psychopaths with access to weaponry. Maybe the yanks could spare a few?
Retribution for them will not come in this world, but one day we all have to face God on Judgement Day!! There, true justice will be dispensed!
I seem to recall UK taxpayers provide funds for WWF which is a charity. They should not be able to join political campaigns.
I hope Reform advertise the strong links between the Tories and these fanatical political campaign groups. As the economy implodes and people shiver following power restrictions their votes will evaporate (or maybe they will boil away).
The Labour and Lib Dem Parties plus SNP/ Greens are all fully onboard with this eco impoverishment crap as well. It just happens to be the tories in government at the moment. —-If anything the impoverishment will happen even faster under those other parasites.
They hate us and everything British. They should be strung up from the nearest tree.
Oh, they absolutely love us. That just want (and work to this end) that we hate ourselves so that our guilty consciences make us part with our money more readily.
That might be working with some in the middle classes, but I don’t think it’s working on here. I hate them more with every article I read, and I don’t feel guilty about anything.
You should lobby your Government officials – invest in an election and buy some politicians.
Another argument for outlaw supraregional electioneering clubs aka political parties. There’s principally nothing wrong with the Grantham Foundation fielding candidates in elections. But these should stand as Grantham Foundation candidates. Some people who very much believe in elected(!!1) would probably be suprised to learn that all of their so-called choices end up as vote for a Grantham Foundation candidate, ie, that they really don’t have a political choice at all, just one for their preferred hairdo.
Many organisations fund both sides, just to hedge their bets and guarantee influence. We need to check who is bankrolling the people we vote for and vote accordingly.
So the choice at election time is really between 2 bunches of pretend to save the planet socialists. ——Take your pick. Perhaps if we all voted for the Monster Loony Party the eco socialists might wake up
We need to cross through the names on our ballot paper and write ‘none of the above’. If enough did that, it might make an impact. I am not hopeful, but we must do something. Actually, I believe that at local councils level is where we could make most impact – I am too old, but younger people should seriously think about becoming independent councillors and start to make a difference (not just protest).
I’m not sure the OMRLP have enough cash to field candidates in all seats, unless you think Reform are one of their branches
The Tories need to be destroyed at the next election. It’s a bit of a stuck record, but this lot really are a shower of sh!t. Fully bought and paid for by Rockefeller and the rest. This is a great article, well written, factual and concise. Just follow the money to see who is in charge of the country. That’s the link that needs to be broken, how politics is paid for. This corruption needs to end. The vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich over the last few years is being weaponised to keep the poor in check. To take away genuine democratic choices.
I’m not voting for these globalist puppets anymore. They can all crash and burn as far as I am concerned. I will no longer comply!
This is not a problem limited to Tories. It seems like most MP’s are in the pay of people, or groups pushing their agenda’s and a few ‘donations’ is all it takes to get a change of policy, or vary voting intentions. We quite literally have the best parliament money can buy.
See if your MP is a supporter of the conservative Environment Network. Mine is and I have written to lambast him about it. The more that we harass the better!
https://www.cen.uk.com/our-caucus
Thank you, Chris. Superb reporting and analysis. Again.
I told my super marginal Tory MP (Felicity Buchan, who had a majority of 150 votes) that her membership of CEN guarantees I’m voting Reform.
The not-Conservative Party needs to burn to ash next general election if we’re going to have any chance whatsoever of getting an actual small-c conservative party worth voting for in the election after next.
I would say a good half of my family and friends usually vote Tory. Asking them now I can’t find a single one who is going to turn out for them. They seam to assume its not going to be as bad as predicted. I think that they are wrong, they will be ash.
Voting Reform won’t help anyone since they don’t stand a chance – it just gives more votes to Labour and we’ll have an even more appalling lot under Keir Starmer (of the Trilateral Commission). You need to put a cross through your ballot paper and write ‘None of the above’. But it’s important to go to vote and do this, otherwise they’ll simply say that non-voters don’t care or are too lazy or apathetic to vote.
At least voting reform means you are voting for a candidate, spoiling your ballot won’t change who get’s in, it just decreases the vote. It would need a large number of spoilers (who would all be voting for the same candidate normally) in your constituency to change the outcome.
But I don’t want to vote for Reform!! I don’t trust them any more than the other parties. I believe, for instance, that Richard Tice no more stood up against the Covid jabs than any of the other politicians. In any case, our area is a Labour stronghold and it is extremely unlikely that that will change.
And here’s the massive impact that Ed “The Moron” Miliband’s “Climate Change Act (Destruction of the Economy)” of 2008 has had on global emissions.
F….ing W…ker. ——–Remember Miliband gave us the climate change act but a tory (Teresa May) gave us the net zero amendment to that in 2019——-So we can see there isn’t much difference between a piece of crap like Miliband and a so called tory.
The dirty Tory Traitors are being bribed to trash our country. Pure filth.
What a nest of vipers! I will have no regrets about the Tories losing an election. However, Starmer and his equally awful brood will be as bad if not worse over Net Zero, so we’re in a cleft stick. As I’ve replied to someone below, our only option is to cross through all the names on our ballot paper at a GE and write ‘none of the above’. But we must go to vote so that ‘they’ can’t say we didn’t care.
Thank you, Chris, for consistently excellent articles in the DS.
A list of the member MPs?
https://www.cen.uk.com/our-caucus
Internal combustion cars versus spontaneous combustion cars.
Who are these politicians? Name names.
‘I know every man has his price, I just didn’t expect it to be so low’. Napoleon.