Well what a week it has been. I spent four days in Andover, three of them doing hostile environment training. My knees are bruised and scratched, my arms and legs ache, but I tell you what, I learnt a lot about myself (including - not that I didn’t know this before - that I never, ever, ever want to get kidnapped).
Here’s a photo of me, relieved to be home…
Anyway! Enough about me. I want to keep talking about the National Conservatism Conference and, specifically, the obsession the hard right has with being the underdogs.
From coverage I saw of the conference, there was a distinct whiff of right-wing victimhood. Despite the fact that the Conservatives have been in power for 13 years, despite the rise of right-wing authoritarian governments across the Europe, despite the fact that the Christian nationalist right-wing in the US has a Supreme Court that made all its dreams come true with Dobbs, despite the fact that the majority of the UK printed press has a Tory perspective, dare one say bias… despite all this, listening to those guys drone on you’d think we lived in a Corbyn-run England with a cabinet packed with blue-haired Don’t Stop Oil activists and a media stuffed with bleeding heart liberals who qualm at getting kidnapped, like yours truly.
Lads, what would it take for you to feel that you have won? WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!
There are a few things at work here.
Arguably the first is a recognition that their project has failed, and they are looking around for someone to blame. It’s been 13 years of the right in power, and seven (7!) years since the populist right won on Brexit and let’s face it, EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE. And just as communism would be fine if it was done properly, the right are determined that all their schemes would have worked out jolly well if only they’d been done right.
Look at the big policies of the last 13 years of the right. Austerity was a failure. Brexit was a failure. Levelling up - this was a slogan not a policy but no one feels levelled up, do they? Truss’s tax cuts bonanza = a failure. Cutting immigration = I don’t think we should, but if that’s your thing, it’s failed as a policy. Everything the hard right has advocated for has failed and that failure has cost us dearly.
But no! they cry. It all would have worked out if it wasn’t for those elite millennials and their wokeness wrecking everything! As if me believing abortion is a human right has anything to do with my mortgage payments going up.
Rather than have an honest evaluation of the impact of their disastrous policy-making, the hard right has declared themselves the victims of a shadowy plot, probably orchestrated by feminists, human rights activists and … sorry, what’s that whistle I hear? North London elites, is it?
I don’t need to explain to you why this is dangerous. The idea that the will of the people, the government, Parliament etc is being undermined by an invisible enemy, is a conspiracy theory. It’s a far-right conspiracy theory at that. And what’s scary is that we can fail to recognise this, because it’s not being said by ranting skinheads on Tommy R’s Telegram, but by people in smart suits speaking next to the Home Secretary at a posh conference centre.
Just take the spread in the Mail today as a further example, with Richard Littlejohn claiming a ‘coup’ is going on in Britain. The standfirst claims that the ‘ultra-woke civil service and renegade Tories still loyal to the EU are working to destroy an elected government – aided and abetted by the unions and the Left-wing media’. The image is a bloody dagger.
It’s tempting not to to takes this stuff seriously. But at some point, it gets serious. This is conspiracy theory 101: the destruction of an elected government (all elected governments are destroyed every 5 years but whevs), the bogeyman of the trade unions and the wokerati civil service, the underhand tactics of the left-wing media… followed by the lie that the ‘new establishment is clearly winning’.
Guys, once again, how much do you have to have before you feel you have won enough?
Anyone with any understanding of 20th Century history should take note of the conspiracy that trade unions are undermining the government.
I also want to talk about power and who has it.
The conspiracy theory propagated in the article above and at places like the Nat Cons Conf is that there is a new elite, a ‘new establishment’ that has a shadowy power influencing the country’s political direction.
But who really has power in this equation?
It’s not left-wing academics who are basically trying to survive on zero hour contracts; it’s not lefty journalists like me who works two jobs to pay my bills; it’s not feminists who see our concerns pushed down the priority list by a government captured by men’s rights; it’s not black lives matter activists fighting for justice in an institutionally racist society; it’s not LGBTIQ people living in a society where they are still disproportionately likely to be homeless; it’s not trade unionists… none of us are in charge here!
Even if you want to look at the posher ranks of the protesting left, they still don’t have much real power. Not the actual power that comes with having a huge investment portfolio, multiple board memberships, inherited or super wealth, and a seat at the table.
When you compare the power the ‘wokerati’ has with the power those speaking at Nat Cons Conf have – when you compare who has the assets, who has the wealth, who has the influence… the new elite are who they have always been.
They are rich, right-wing, privately educated, men.
It’s bizarre, when you think about it. Why do they care? Why are they so obsessed with us?
On a flippant note, there is always the argument that the devil has better tunes. Maybe they just want to be cool like us.
More seriously, it is about the conspiracy theory again. Despite their power, wealth and influence, the hard right’s policy platform has failed and failed and failed again. It has made the UK miserable, poor, less productive, and fed up (nothing fucking works, does it?). But to admit that failure is to admit that:
a. They’re not smarter and more special than the plebs whose lives they are fucking over
b. Their world vision is flawed and their ideology is crooked
So they create a conspiracy that it’s someone else’s fault.
And who’s fault is it?
Well, there are those dog whistles blasting my eardrums again.
Obligatory book plug
A week on Tuesday.
6 June 2023.
Can’t believe it’s so close!
You can pre-order copies from Verso.
There’s the launch at St George’s on 7 June, organised by Bristol Ideas.
And a panel with me, Paul Mason, Nick Lowles and Prof Madhu Krishnan on 12 June, also organised by Bristol Ideas.
What I’m writing
Big journalism week this week, with me and Sascha Lavin making our debut in The Times with our investigation into payouts for allegations of sexual misconduct in the NHS.
This investigation was months in the making. You can see me talking to Stig Abell about our findings on Times Radio too.
And that’s not all! This week The Lead published by deep-dive into the far-right attacks on Drag Queen Story Hour. This was another one that took months, wading through endless reels of hate. It was an interesting one though, to see how and why this narrative has emerged. As I keep saying to people, if you had told me 5 years ago that Paul O’Grady would be dead, and fascists would be protesting alongside former lads mags editors outside libraries where drag queens sing nursery rhymes to kids, I wouldn’t have believed you. But we are where we are.
What I loved
Hot on the heels of mine and Sascha’s investigation, the Guardian, BBC and BMJ went big on sexual harassment in healthcare settings, combining the data of patient-on-patient, patient-on-staff, staff-on-patient, and staff-on-staff allegations, alongside police reports.
Sascha and I reported on police reports of sexual violence in hospital settings in both November and January, and patient on staff harassment in March 2022.
What I’m reading
Going with the boys by Judith Mackrell, about women war reporters in 1930s/1940s.
What I’m watching
Back on my Babylon Berlin trip and started series 4 (abandoned my original plan to watch from the start and then do series 4). Absolutely SHOOK by a revelation in Episode One, relieved by a second revelation in Episode 2.
Also re-watching Parks and Rec on ITVX, always a pleasure.
That’s it from me! Next week I’ll be a few days of book publication date. A bundle of nerves and anxiety and excitement, most likely. And already I’m starting plans for the follow-up…
In the meantime I am going to rest and recover from HET and cook myself all my favourite meals.
Enjoy the sunshine! Ciao ciao!
Thanks for speaking what I thought was only in my mind. My rw relatives seem to be constantly on the lookout for reds under the bed and i just couldn'tunderstand it. Will pick up a copy of your book next week.