Joy upon joy, I discover on the internet (so it must be true) that Anjem Choudary is about to be released from prison, having served half of a five years sentence because of his explicit support for ISIS. No one could have been surprised since Choudary previously expressed support for the 9/11 murderers and came into contact with the lowlife filth who killed Lee Rigby. No peace-loving citizen of our green and not particularly pleasant land could be thrilled to hear this news. But the likes of Tommy Robinson will be.
I have no wish to choose which fascist I detest most. But fascist is not too mean a description. Choudary is an islamic fascist, Robinson the more conventional type. Neither bring much to the table the it comes to maintaining a peaceful and cohesive society.
It is so disturbing that this country is now lurching inexorably to the extremes. It is not just the extremes representing by Choudary and Robinson. It’s more mainstream than that. Both home and abroad, the place between far left and far right is unoccupied. In Britain, the hard right has been hugely instrumental in bringing about our disastrous departure from the EU. Yet the hard left, which actually controls Labour, supports Brexit, too. I mention Brexit in this instance merely to illustrate the wide fissures in British politics. Regardless of whether you are leave or remain, if you are anywhere from mainstream left to mainstream right, including the vast centre ground, where do you turn?
Brexit joins the far left and the far right so you have a Corbynista version of Labour quietly and discreetly supporting the hardest possible Brexit, as they seek to build socialism in one country which they feel would be hastened by it.The right of British politics, from Boris Johnson to Paul Golding, Nigel Farage to Tommy Robinson (admittedly not much of a gap, there), Michael Gove to Nick Griffin years for a nationalist hard Brexit, freeing us from those wretched foreign people. Everywhere you look there are extremes. Is it any wonder our country is so badly fractured?
Britain’s main failing is a lack of leadership from all parts. Theresa May’s bungling premiership revolves solely around trying to keep the Conservative Party together, as she tells everyone else to put the country first but then governs in narrow party political fashion. Jeremy Corbyn has no leadership experience, nor abilities it turns out, not surprisingly. He did not spend the vast majority of his political career on the far left fringes for no reason, avoiding power and responsibility. Is it any wonder that he is not up to the job of leader of the opposition never mind prime minister?
The Liberal Democrats once claimed to represent the centre ground. Where they are now under Vince Cable, whose stature diminishes with each passing year, his credibility shot to pieces after taking a job in David Cameron’s austerity-heavy Tory government of 2010-15, is anyone’s business? They offer not something for everyone; they offer nothing for no one.
The last government that did not pander to the extremes was the Labour government from 1997-2010. Whilst New Labour was left of centre, its combination of fairness, equality, its believe in meritocracy, its commitment to celebrating success and creating wealth, appeared to many people across the centre ground. For many years, the UK was relatively stable and content in its own skin. With the country now split down the middle, is it any surprise that the extremes are in charge?
Do people really want this endless chaos that you get when the country lurches from one extreme to another? Clearly many people do, especially in the hard left Labour Party which now enjoys record membership numbers, well over three-quarters of whom hail from the affluent middle classes. And the former Stephen Laxley-Lennon attracts significant support for his dog whistle racism. This is another conundrum. For the left always represented the working class and the right the better off. In many ways, the world is now standing on its head as Corbyn’s old Labour is now run by privately educated Oxbridge millionaires and attracting support from that very demographic. As a working class boy, I find Corbyn’s middle class Labour highly unappealing.
But as we say, it comes down to leadership. With no leaders worth the name, we are weak and vulnerable. It’s how charismatic leaders from the extremes seize power. They offer simple solutions that don’t exist for extremely complex issues, which is precisely what the far right did when persuading the country to set fire to itself and vote to leave the EU. All you have to do is look at history and see where this can end.
