By: Gustav Clark

Gustav Clark — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 21:29:00 +0000

You put a lot of effort into that, so it deserves some comment. What you forget is that the Conservative Party does not care about anything except gaining and holding power. The various factions within it – Tory, One Nation, Brexit – are all united on that. It is something that the Left will never understand. The Conservatives are not synonymous with the Right, or with Capitalism, or Neo-Liberalism. They have found from experience that the British voter is generally pro-business, and anti-government, and they also observe that they distrust local politicians more than those at national level. Listening on the radio to the people on the street in Barnsley it was quite clear that they knew nothing and that they wanted a strong leader who would act in their name. They had no idea about what they wanted beyond that. In the past the Labour Party could count on these as voting fodder, now they will follow Mrs May. The problem she faces is that whilst she can rely on the working class to vote for her she at the same time alienates the Party’s traditional constituency. There is never any chance that they will flock to the revitalised Left of the Labour Party, after all there isn’t much between them and Mrs May’s Right. They recognise that both Right and Left will sacrifice everybody on the altar of principle. What both the Left and Mrs May have not realised is that the Conservative Party’s survival instinct will eventually pull it back to the centre, whilst the LibDems are overtaking Labour in every election across the country.
Where does this leave nationalism? First remember that it is a modern invention, like the nation state. Even England, little island state, has had borders down to Aquitaine, and French armies trooping through north Hampshire. Patriotism, its respectable brother, is about allegiance to the state and its manifestations, such are the Navy or Parliament. Nationalism tries to rid itself of these and asks us to believe in The People. Its unpleasant side is that nationalists then go about deciding who does and does not belong to that group. The contradictions it creates are obvious to all but those in Barnsley, and it’s power can be watched fading as UKIP tears itself apart and its candidates loses votes in the many contests they have fought over the last few months. Mrs May’s power itself is being challenged as her MPs resign. Over the next few months I do expect to see Jeremy try to hoist the nationalist banner for the Left, falling over himself to make the Labour Party the party of protection, but he’s competing foR the same ground that May

Comments on: “They didn’t tell us we could do that”: on Mayism and the economics of nationalism

By: Gustav Clark