One epoch is drawing to a close, and at the moment it is not clear what kind of brave new world will succeed it. But among the dramatic changes which have occurred over the past couple of weeks, we must certainly rank the apparent transformation of Keir Starmer. From being inhibited by the narrow bounds to which he seems by nature committed, he is suddenly seen as a war leader and, if he wants the job, putative new leader of the free world.
But one has to call it an ‘apparent’ transformation, since he remains much the same man. The same charges of lacking imagination and the crippling caution about change still apply. But he is a lawyer, and now he is playing to his strengths.
Will the new-found confidence put plomb in his crayon? Does he already hear the drum beats of destiny?
The PM is serious about this, literally the future direction of the world. So sadly, it is unlikely that we will see a Love Actually moment.
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When Messrs Trump and Vance organised their little act on President Zelenskyy, an important canon of decency was infringed. That their behaviour did not come as a great surprise is rather telling, or that they saw nothing objectionable about it. Just a couple of frat dudes kicking the spotty kid in front of their friends: surely that’s how the world works? Only it turns out the spotty kid isn’t for kicking. Mr Zelenskyy looks like a man who doesn’t bruise easily. His motorcade was cheered to the echo as it passed down Whitehall this week. His rapport with the King was embraced joyously on all sides. There was a sense that decency was fighting back, at last.
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Ever since the establishment of the American hegemony over the world, there has been in British hearts a sense of the Vizigoths being at the gate. It is quite possible that, given a choice, we would rather go to war with America than Russia.
The British have never really liked Americans, and they are not alone. Georges Clemenceau declared that: “America is the only nation in history which has gone miraculously from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilisation”.
But then the French rate civilisation higher than do the British. The greatest concern of the English, at least, is to avoid embarrassment. And however congenial they might appear, there is always the fear that your American is capable of mettre les pieds sur le plat. There are certain niceties which one feels Americans don’t understand.
Aldous Huxley observed that: “There are few who would not rather be taken in adultery than in provincialism”, so perhaps that’s it. For all America’s wealth and swagger, my dears, there is always that air of the provincial about them. (We shall not discuss adultery: the editor discourages it.) So these are early days, but with that newly discovered sense of decency, and no longer will we have to wince at the things those Americans say but (save for the PM) without making comment. So far, we’re having a good war.
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In a sign of just how the world and its attitudes are changing, it was a Conservative MP who suggested this week that Donald Trump may be a Russian asset. Meanwhile, relations will not have been improved by the contemptuous remarks by JD Vance that a minerals deal with the US, giving America an economic stake in Ukraine, would provide “a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
Mr Vance did not specifically mention Britain, but we’re up for a fight and decided to take umbrage anyway. James Cartlidge (S Suffolk) is the shadow defence secretary and accused Mr Vance of being “deeply disrespectful” to the British and French military. He pointed out that:
“NATO article 5 has been invoked once – on 12/9/01 by the USA, after 9/11. Britain and France came to their aid deploying 1,000s of personnel to Afghanistan, including numerous parliamentary colleagues, past & present. It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice.”
In doing so he captured the British public mood, but at the same time his leader, Kemi Badenoch (NW Essex), was defending Mr Vance. Her response was certainly a catastrophic error, as the subsequent backlash illustrated. But then, in her desperation to be taken seriously, she – like Nigel Farage and Liz Truss – has been keeping some very rum company among Republicans in recent months. Be sure that every jot and tittle of praise for them and their lunatic ideas will come back to haunt her.
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There are too many variables to know what will come next. But though Pecksniff is no nihilist, let us be clear: Britain and all of Europe is in danger. You will not find either politicians or news media keen to tell you that. They might claim that they don’t want to frighten the horses, but that is a frankly insulting and certainly patronising position to take. They don’t want to spell it out because there are too many entrenched positions and lucrative interests also in danger – not only from the present crisis but from what may follow. We desperately yearn for change, but we are scared of it and cowed by the complex and threatening world out there.
Always hold on tight to nurse, for fear of finding something worse.
Should we come through this unscathed, too many previously unchallengeable assumptions will have been shown to be irrelevant or inhibited by vested interests. So as well as facing danger, we may at last have a real opportunity to reshape the world as we would like it. The reason President Zelenskyy has become such an overnight hero is that, through him, Britain has been able to feel better about ourselves again.
Even the King, with what it has to be said is rather English panache, appeared on a Royal Navy ship wearing Canadian military honours. The joke is on America, and what is even better, they don’t understand it. In newspaper parlance, we can “stand tall”.
But whatever awaits us at the end of the potential nightmare to come, it is up to us to make it our 1946. Thousands of activists have been planning over the recent corrupt Tory years for when we can change our society to something better. That will be our chance.
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Pecksniff has recently been explaining the difficulties Nigel Farage (Clacton) is in, over his obeisance to Donald Trump’s holy writ. For all his own shameless idolatry, he wisely appears to believe that the voters would not currently see this position as being to his credit. He finds himself isolated at home, with the entire news media and the weight of public opinion arraigned against him.
But he is so closely tied to Donald Trump he can’t escape. Besides, when the Trump debacle goes seins en l’air, he may need to leave Britain in his socks and will need a bolt hole. So in desperation he attacks Ukraine, hoping that the British may not take to being tied too closely (and at such cost) to a bunch of foreigners, “about whom we know nothing”, as Neville Chamberlain might have said…
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This plight is demonstrated by the question of what Reform should do about JD Vance. Almost at the same time as Nigel Farage was panicked into declaring that “JD Vance is wrong – wrong, wrong, wrong”; his colleague Rupert Lowe (Gt Yarmouth) remarked: “The Americans have got a real hero in JD Vance”.
It is little wonder that, in desperation, the editor of his own party’s magazine, the New Reformer, has appealed for help on social media.
“Can anyone who is active in Reform UK get in touch with me and let me know what the party position is on Ukraine?” he asks plaintively. “I really can’t keep up with Nigel Farage.”
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This gentleman is not the only one. As Pecksniff has been foretelling for weeks, there is already a split in Reform between Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe, who claims his leader acts as a “messiah” and warns him he may not be “by his side at the next election”.
This has nothing to do with Elon Musk’s suggestion that Mr Lowe should replace Mr Farage as leader. Mr Farage is an opportunist, a wheeler-dealer, a man with his eyes on the main chance. That main chance would not, for example, include being popularly portrayed as, shall we say, the kind of right-wing politician with whom this country has never had any truck. Mr Lowe on the other hand is his own man and shoots from the hip, disinclined to wonder much about how his pronouncements might go down with the punters.
[This diary was filed before yesterday’s revelations from Reform concerning claims of Rupert Lowe’s improper conduct and subsequent loss of the whip. -Ed]
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The chaos in Reform has however provided a life raft of sorts for the Tories, and a means of overlooking their own difficulties. There was no way of attacking the PM over his handling of the crisis so far, and James Cleverly (Braintree) honestly and intelligently acknowledged that in the Commons. But Reform are now vulnerable and Priti Patel (Witham) has seized her chance. She accuses Mr Farage of being “morally wrong” and playing politics instead of putting his country first. Damning stuff about a party which has always wrapped itself in the union flag.
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And there is something rather more sensational about Great Yarmouth: it is home to a Russian spy network. There has been a trial at the High Court – little reported for some reason – of three Bulgarians, accused of spying for Russia. The shady centre of their espionage activities was a guest house in Great Yarmouth. Police discovered a vast hoard of sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment and fake identity documents.
You will read more of this astonishing story at East Anglia Bylines in the next couple of days.
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Great Yarmouth may also be included in a new organisation of 60 Labour MPs who represent coastal constituencies, the Coastal PLP Caucus. It has been set up to see off the threat posed by Reform, who are a threat to Labour in lacklustre coastal towns which prosperity has passed by.
Great Yarmouth would certainly qualify under this description, though of course the town has already taken the plunge into Reformland. Clearly Rupert Lowe won’t qualify to join the group, but will the town qualify for the benefits they hope to bring? Perhaps not, otherwise Mr Lowe would try to snaffle all the credit. So it looks as though the town’s despairing vote for Reform may lead to worse stagnation, while others are given the resources to prosper.
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So the big question is whether the Great Yarmouth Mercury will report this conundrum. Or, come to that, even the Russian spy ring. Because the newspaper has come in for a degree of clattering in recent days over its apparently slavish desire to publish every word spoken by Rupert Lowe.
Now we must be fair. It is usual for local newspapers to publish stuff their MPs have to say, often because there is little else happening. (We don’t all have the advantage of Russian spy rings just down the road.) One also supposes that, with the general election behind it, none of the other parties can be arsed to say much at all – so leaving it exclusively to Mr Lowe to fill his boots. (Pecksniff has harangued our political parties often enough on their ineffectuality, so we won’t dwell on it again.)
But there was once a principle in the press that, when publishing one controversial view, it was appropriate for the newspaper to seek an alternative. Not, sadly, these days. None of the Mercury’s hacks took up the noble profession just to regurgitate press releases, but too often these days that is what news has come down to.
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With thanks to Stacey Richards, Karl Whiteman, Celina Błędowska and Liz Crosbie.
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