THE MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD IS A GOOD PLACE TO GET STRUCK DOWN
For the rest of the silly summer season, we will all be treated to (or tormented by) the seemingly never ending mission to replace the rapscallious Boris Johnson. Not quite the cold civil war taking place in America, but an old idea doing its damndest to convince the true blue members of a new way forward that consigns corruption and a laissez-faire relationship with established conventions to the rearview mirror. One could argue the race for the premiership is between the continuity of the Johnson swagger that Liz Truss offers and a reoccupying of the centre ground that Rishi Sunak devotees assure us all will win the Conservatives another five years in power.
Much to the delight of the SNP, the Conservative Party is considered in England to be the natural ruling party. The Tories are the sharks in the feeding frenzy of modern, chaotic, social media driven politics. Remove them from the equation and allow the waters to calm, and the nationalists run the risk of looking like a middle-aged man flailing around in a child’s pool, shouting, ‘I can’t swim!’ They no more hope Labour will win a general election than the Labour Party itself wanted to win while he who wore the ushanka hat was the leader.
But, as someone who has lived long periods in North America throughout his life, I can assure you the Tories are very much a centrist party. One could even argue they are to the left of the U.S. Democrats, who view universal healthcare beyond the control of the marketplace as a democratic socialist idea not worthy of serious discussion. And unlike the Republicans, the Tories don’t pretend not to understand the writing on the wall about climate change. (Though, after hearing some of the MAGA Republicans speak, one would be forgiven for questioning if a certain percentage of them can read.) And I’m not convinced the UK’s Conservative party didn’t simply come out in favour of tackling climate change so they could proceed to do nothing about it. As Joe Biden has proven in America, talking about things you have no ability or intention to fix garners votes… until you don’t actually deliver. Net Zero slogans cost a lot less money than concrete actions to transition to a green economy. Although many in the name of political expediency refuse to acknowledge what they know to be absolutely true: doing nothing now will cost astronomical sums in the future.
But does Rishi really have a shot at bringing politics back to the centre? Where are all these disaffected voters so desperate to take the politics out of politics? I was recently on a hike with a good mate and fellow displaced Brit in the mountains about an hour outside of Los Angeles. Two hours to the top of Josephine Peak, we left a cheeky message next to the scribblings of other citizens of the world, and began our descent before 10am in temperatures already hovering around 40 degrees celsius. The way up is occupied by a lot of breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth and reattuning oneself to nature, while checking in on one’s companion’s water consumption. The way down inevitably encourages wider discussion. My companion asked if I had a horse in the leadership race, as he had always assumed I was right of centre. ‘You know, because you like the Queen and all.’
The centre ground is a funny place to occupy. The left views me with constant suspicion. I’m only in the centre because I am embarrassed to admit the muscles of the right side of my heart beat more vigorously than the muscles of the left. The right assumes I’m only in the centre because I just haven’t yet found the right storming the capitol buddy. And herein lies the problem; in an age of existential crises and the testing of the very notions of democracy and the mythologies that prop up a nation’s history, if you don’t take up arms for one side or the other, you aren’t to be trusted by either side.
Yet, the centre can save us. The centre’s belief system is based on data, not hyperbole. Quite right I ‘like the Queen’. Seven of the top ten countries with the highest quality of life are constitutional monarchies. Constitutional monarchies offer stability in changing times, are cheaper to run than republics, and prevent partisan-minded narcissists from assuming the top job. That’s what the data shows. The centre believes if the data shows our children will suffer due to climate change, then we do something about it… because any rational person does not wish to imagine their child suffering at any point in their life.
On the other side of the coin, the centre does not comprehend condemning a person for past words without giving them the opportunity to prove themself with current action. The centre does not understand why certain people take offence where none was intended, and then spend an inordinate amount of time mobbing the offender with threats to the livelihood that keeps their family safe and fed. The centre also does not fathom how the right and the left both believe after decades of having been proven wrong on their assumptions, that their opponents can be turned. So why not live and let live?
It is important to understand that the centre ground is a dangerous place to occupy during a time of purity tests. There is no room for compromise. If one is not willing to plant one’s flag, one threatens the logic of both sides’ dogma. And here is where the right and the left will agree: I must be excommunicated from society, lest I encourage a system based on common sense over ideology. But I remain firmly planted behind what I said: the centre has the ability to save us all.
As for the leadership race, my money is on Liz Truss. And perhaps she is the best choice after all. I believe Sir Keir Starmer’s party can beat a party led by Truss in a general election, if only because the public will view her, on some level, as the continuation of Boris. My bet is the electorate will still desire a fresh start in two years’ time. Then the Tories can spend their ‘forty days in the desert’ and find their moral compass before they take up their natural governing party status once again.