As we cascade, thunderously, exhilaratingly and shrieking to a no-deal Brexit, a vanishing economy and a winter of COVID, in a wild spirit of carefree panic, cautious recklessness, thrilling, intoxicating death-wishes and nihilistic despair, and with the strangest summer of all time well underway, perhaps we can take a moment to look back at the last four years of twists and turns in the world-beating reality-opera, known as 'The UK'.

Since its controversially sensationalist 2016 referendum reboot, the car-crash TV phenomenon 'The UK' has been must-see viewing for a population that just can't look away.

The show has gone toe-to-toe with Game of Thrones in terms of blood-letting (if not sexiness) with the unexpected defenestration of lead character David Cameron in season one, episode one setting its peculiarly distinctive tone of dark, unpleasant violence and absurdist comedy.

The first season was driven chiefly by a kind of demented energy that produced its greatest hits, including Liam Fox's deathless pronouncement, “The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history”, not to mention the following unforgettable deliverances:

• Barack's Portent, "The UK is going to be in the back of the queue.",
• Boris' Fateful Fib, "If we vote Leave on June 23 we can take back control of £350m a week and spend on our priorities here in this country including on the NHS."
• Leadsom's Fancy, "I want to guide Britain to the sunlit uplands..."
• Theresa's Colossal Redundancy, "Brexit Means Brexit."
• Johnson's Cakeism - “There is literally no point to cake if it can’t be eaten.
• The Daily Mail of Judgement - 'Enemies of the People'.

Season two began in 2017, not with a death, but with the foreshadowing of two, with the writing on the wall for Theresa May and the false dawn of plucky underdog and friend of the oppressed Jeremy Corbyn and his band of inept assassins, the ironically named 'Momentum'.

Acrimony, brinkmanship, deceit, betrayal and inadvertent farce defined seasons two and three, with the emergence of unlikely impish hero John 'Order' Bercow, the PM's terrifying transformation into the Dancing Maybot, the burgeoning insurgency of the People's Vote marches, Change UK's slapstick turn, 'Springtime for Swinson & Revoke' and other storylines too numerous and woeful to recount.

Season four opened with the somehow inevitable leadership victory of the people's pantomime hero/villain, political Marmite-monger and the man that viewers love/hate/disbelieve Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his preposterously evil Grand Vizier/man-servant/puppet-master Demonic Cummings. From here the drama ratcheted up a notch or seven and the sheer volume of events threatened to overwhelm all but the most hard-core fans/victims.

On Tuesday, the Report from the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) on the threat from Russia was finally published, nine months late and with no serious explanation offered for the delay, fuelling mistrust around what No.10 sought to hide from the public.

The main findings were:

• Ministers ignored election interference (except, notably, where they felt Russia was helping Corbyn, in 2019).
• Spy agencies dropped the ball - insufficient focus on hostile states, compared to Islamic terror groups.
• The London Laundromat - visas for sale and illicit money welcomed for cleaning. Conservatives receive £3.5m from Russian sources in a decade.
• Russia's cyber threat - attempts made on the FCO and Porton Down.
• Organised crime - use of organised crime groups by the Russian state.

It must be said, that, ordinarily, this type of interference might be considered normal, it was certainly the case during the Cold War and more recently that Western nations have sought to undermine Moscow and bolster independence and democratic movements amongst its neighbours. The pernicious difference here is the extent to which the UK establishment (for the last 10 years, the Conservative Party) has been so thoroughly penetrated by figures connected to a state that is implacably hostile to UK interests.

And it's no surprise that politicians can be bought and sold, of course, the shocker is just how cheaply. What a fabulous bargain-basement the UK has become, for a paltry few million here and there, visas are bought, UK passports secured, private UK education for the kids, countless billions of murky dollars rinsed and polished and for a bonus, state enemies can be poisoned with impunity in any of our pleasant cathedral cities, market towns and hamlets. We often talk about competence with regards to our modern crop of politicians; but really, these donations are pitiably small for a country with such great aspirations.

Interestingly, the Daily Mail has published the most comprehensive list of the proliferation of cosy links between Russia and the Conservatives. Major donors include people such as Alexander Temerko, who worked for the Kremlin’s defence ministry and has given the Tories more than £1.3 million, and Lubov Chernukhin, whose husband Vladimir is a former Russian minister, and who has given more than £1.7 million to Tory funds since 2012, including an auction bid of £45,000 to play tennis with Boris Johnson. 

This could, in fact, become quite a money-spinner for the Conservative Party; what price for badminton with Michael Gove? Squash with Sunak? A blindfolded circuit at Brands Hatch with Dominic Cummings? A round of Snap or Uno with Dominic Raab? Badger Baiting with Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel? The possibilities are endlessly awful. Rumours are that an afternoon of Laser-Tag in Basildon with Mark Francois might be secured for free as long as you pay for the can of Fanta Fruit Twist and let him win.

With regards to broader issues of Russian interference, we must look at motive (undermining the west in general and EU specifically), means (vast reserves of illicit cash) and opportunity (a welcome environment for murky political donations), all of which criteria have been comfortably met in the recent years of drift, chaos, failure and incompetence amongst UK leadership.

Vladimir Putin was one of a tiny number of major world figures who publicly welcomed the EU referendum result: "I think it's comprehensible why this happened: first, no one wants to feed and subsidize poorer economies, to support other states, support entire nations. Apparently, the British people are not satisfied with the way problems are being solved in the security sphere; these problems have become more acute lately with the migration processes." (the others were Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, who is a kind of freaky Dutch Farage).

Putin wastes no opportunity to suggest that Western governments are hypocritical and their commitments to democracy confected. The shame is that, in the case of the UK, those suggestions are starting to have a ring of truth about them. Since Putin is now, theoretically, safe in his position until 2036, one wonders how bold his pronouncements and actions undermining international relations might become. Like a late-period Scarface, he is adopting the swagger of a man whose nefarious successes continue to be rewarded: make way for the bad guy.

For those of you who may have missed last week's briefing, you can find it here.

On Tuesday we learned that wearing a face covering will be mandatory in all shops and supermarkets in England, not straight away, (naturally) but 10 full days later, on July 24. This, very belatedly, brings the country into line with Scotland, Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece: it also represents another confusing, late-game shift on the topic, from ‘not useful’ to ‘completely necessary’, thereby leapfrogging all those countries that have been recommending the use of masks (and benefiting from it) these last weeks and months.

“There is no evidence that general wearing of the face masks by the public who are well, affects the spread of the disease,” Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van Tam said at the start of April. Of course, masks don’t affect the spread of viruses amongst healthy people in the same way that condoms do not stop pregnancy amongst men. It’s missing the point in a rather fundamental, one might even say in a ‘life and death’ sense.

"Masks all round... high-five anyone?"

In Japan, face masks have been commonplace for decades. Many Japanese think nothing of donning a mask at the first sign of a sneeze or cough, at any time of year, out of consideration to their fellow commuters, colleagues and society at large. In mainland Europe similarly, masks have been adopted quietly and consensually, without fuss and with nary a tantrum. In the Czech Republic, for example, the early, consistent and universal adoption of masks has been credited with keeping infections at very low levels.

Meanwhile, in the UK, MP Desmond Swayne (guess which party) branded the move a “monstrous imposition” in the House of Commons, stating, inaccurately, that “nothing would make me less likely to go shopping than the thought of having to mask up.” The residents of New Forest West may now, finally, be tempted outside, somewhat reassured they are less likely to encounter him than normal, nakedly maskless and wild, like an elderly cherub in Argos.

Similarly, the party’s ‘string ‘em up’ faithful have been cutting up their Conservative party membership cards (or asking friends with stronger grips to) in a seemingly US-inspired fit of faux-libertarianism - ‘Give me a mask-free trip to M&S or give me death.’ (though of course, a 2-for-1 deal on that proposition is always a possibility).

This newest of policy shifts also represents a pivot from ‘use common sense’ (and blame the public) to ‘follow the rules’ (and blame the scientists). A clumsy attempt at foreshadowing is well underway with any number of unlucky dupes being teed up as potential fall guys for the failures of the Cummings/Johnson show. Senior and junior civil servants, Public Health England, scientists, care home staff and the NHS among them. Expect remainers, immigrants, experts, judges and the EU to join the list anytime soon. Government by the shifting of blame has become the default setting for a project that started with half a bad idea and now exists only to survive. Scapegoating is just cowardice by another name and it leads nowhere except embarrassment for all those who are touched by it and humiliation for those complicit. So there’s that to look forward to.

It’s a sign of how the Tories are becoming ungovernable. Pandora’s Box was opened when the leadership caved in to the crimson-cheeked wing of the party on the topic of Europe. They blinked once and are now vulnerable whenever an issue (even a serious public health issue) can be crammed into a Brexit-flavoured culture/identity narrative, as is happening here.

In spite of Johnson’s somewhat embattled countenance in recent weeks, he continues to bluster and force out jokes that appear in worse taste as our shameful situation worsens. At this week's PMQs, Johnson responded to a rather grave question on the government’s failure to save lives with a weak (and achingly contrived) gag about underpants.

In a time where both silver linings and reminders of a gloriously normal past are scarce, we can perhaps afford a melancholy smile at the familiar-feeling debacle of Chris Grayling failing to win a rigged vote for Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. It appears there remain a precious few in high places who baulk at the absurdity of allowing ‘Grayling’ and ‘Intelligence’ together in the same room.

Renew's leadership election is over and the results are in.

Congratulations to our new Leader, James Clarke, and Deputy Leader, Carla Burns. Thank you to everyone that took part!

News that the Pound Sterling is now effectively operating as an emerging market currency will, sadly, not come as a surprise to anyone following the soap opera that UK politics has become. It may even be considered a generous judgement, given that the term 'emerging' traditionally connotes growth and not decline. 

The Pound has never recovered from the referendum vote and anyone with savings in the UK will be pound-for-pound 14% less well-off than they were in early 2016 (not factoring in inflation or comparison with where the currency might have been if it's post-GFC recovery had not been curtailed). For those lucky enough to own property the aggregate loss will be higher.

Since currencies are based largely on trust and confidence in future performance, why on earth might markets feel that the UK is no longer a serious financial proposition. Well, let's have a look, shall we?

This week, the UK's much respected top civil servant and Cabinet Secretary, Mark Sedwill recently stepped down following a long campaign against him from Dominic Cummings and the Vote Leave cackle in Downing Street.

The culture war is being further pursued as Cummings has instructed his aides to read up on how the paranoid survive. The PM's advisor's gang of 'misfits and weirdos' now know what is expected of them. In terms of inspiration, 'They're All Out To Get You' is not quite 'Hope and Change', but, naturally, we know what we voted for.

In the 'Not Remotely Amazing, But True' file, a localised lockdown is already being introduced in Leicester following an uptick in coronavirus cases in the area. Durham will be bracing itself for an influx of short-sighted day-trippers from the East Midlands, possibly looking to sample its famous curative waters. The new lockdown, which looks like being the first of many, has been linked to the failures of its lockdown in its garment industry. 

The UK's travel quarantine will be dropped as clumsily as it was announced, with police forces across the country reporting a total of zero fines for people breaking rules, proving that recent travellers have been neither 'unlucky or stupid'. This will be welcome, if belated news to celebrity globe-trotter Stanley Johnson, embarrassing Dad par excellence, who offers us a tantalising glimpse of how our PM will be acting in 30 years, that is, if he is not still pantomiming as 'world king' in 2050.

As for the PM himself, he boosted national pride in an impromptu Vladimir Putin tribute act in the Mail on Sunday by volunteering to do some push-ups, "to show you how fit I am." Do not adjust your head, this actually happened (on second thoughts, maybe do adjust your head; it might hurt less). To be fair, in terms of excruciating attention-seeking, this stunt was no worse than rugby tackling a Japanese child or headbutting a German in the balls at a charity football game. 

(*note, in a terrifying foreshadowing of 2020, in this 2006 Soccer Aid game between Germany and England, Boris came on as a substitute, embarrassed himself, and England lost. True story.) 

In the absence of competent governance, at least we have a PM that understands a good photo-op. If the R number starts rising, prepare yourselves for a photo-shoot of Johnson, single-handedly holding the gates of Leicester closed, Samson-like, his bingo-wings and blonde-mop flapping in late summer wind like the world's worst shampoo ad. Or hiding in a fridge, one or the other.

With that happy image, I'll leave you to return to a reality of millions unemployed, a crashed economy, a second-rate currency and a world-beating mortality rate, as Boris does his last push-up of the day and returns to his trough, as happy and oblivious as a butcher's dog.

Renew leadership election and voting

In a week where much of the country took to the parks, beaches and the occasional savage street party, it appears that the lockdown is now largely over. We must now hope that the 'R' remains below 1 and, somehow, drops at the same time as society re-opens in earnest.

In yet another example of the government's 'in-out-hokey-cokey' approach, the new rules will be lending themselves to a characteristically Johnsonian flavour of anarchic confusion. Pub landlords will be responsible for distancing groups of 'Super Saturday' drinkers, and failures to do so effectively can lead to, 'serious fines and even imprisonment'. Whilst pubs can open outdoor areas, including pavements and (yaay!) car-parks, in the event of sudden rain, pubs will not be allowed to admit customers inside the premises unless social distancing can be maintained. With the vision, wisdom and foresight we have become accustomed to enjoying, our government's plans are openly contingent upon the famously dry and reliable British summer.

Further, pub toilets must be cleaned with 'increasing frequency', which, judging by my distant recollection of the state of most pub toilets, can be interpreted as 'any frequency at all'. Perhaps Johnson could go one further and demand that toilet seats are re-hinged and toilet door locks fixed... we can but dream.

Also, in what appears to be a response to heavy lobbying by the Conservative swinger community, overnight stays by members of different households will now be allowed, including different households each week. Not for everyone, but still, good luck to them.

All of this, of course, would be far more welcome if we had a working app or an adequately functioning test and trace system. At PMQs on Wednesday the PM boasted that 87,000 people had been contacted by 25,000 newly recruited contact tracers within two weeks. Those numbers actually equate to 3.48 contacts made per tracer, or one person contacted per tracer every four days. If this is world-beating, we should probably ask which planet we are competing against, Alderaan, perhaps? Further, according to a friend of Renew, currently working as a contact tracer, the system is a farce. Some lowlights:

• For many, training was actually carried out and completed as early as mid-late May.
• Contact tracers receive e-mails from managers using 'no-reply' e-mail addresses.
• No facility to practice with dummy calls, meaning tracers must begin this crucial life and death work with an actual live call.
• Recruitment was carried out simply by submitting a CV followed by a five minute, non-interactive video call.
• Anyone who suspects a scam call is pointed to a gov.uk phone number, for reassurance.
• When a contact indicates they have been in close proximity to, for example, John Smith, the tracer is expected to identify and contact all the John Smith's in that town.
• Tracers have been told to keep busy by contacting three people per hour. If 25,000 tracers were actually able to contact three people per hour, the entire current job would be done in a single day.
• In fact, many tracers have not made a single successful contact call and have been paid just to stay logged on, with instructions to re-read the training material. There have also been pub-quiz type activities to keep the tracers engaged.

Fact fans: The test and trace contract was awarded to Conservative Party donors SERCO, who will earn fees of up to £90m for this service. 

In Labour news, Keir Starmer fired Corbyn loyalist Rebecca Long-Bailey for anti-semitism after retweeting an Independent newspaper interview with actor Maxine Peake. The interview included the following comment:

“Systemic racism is a global issue,” she adds. “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.” (A spokesperson for the Israeli police has denied this, stating that “there is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway”.)

Starmer has been praised for his swift and decisive action, in stark contrast with his predecessor, whose vacillations on anti-semitism did so much to harm Labour's reputation. One has to question RLB's wisdom in publicly sharing the (since retracted) political thoughts of that most revered oracle, the tv and film actor, but to be fired for it may be considered an overreaction. The fairly long and mostly tedious interview covered many topics and, as quoted, the specific accusation is rebutted in the text. 

Whilst many of us will be glad to see the back of RLB, Starmer appears to have set the bar for dismissal rather low and sets a dangerous precedent. The predictable backlash from Labour's intractable hard left is underway. Watch this space.

Lastly, there is hope that a coronavirus vaccine developed at Oxford University may be viable in the coming months. Let's keep our hopes up; perhaps Britain hasn't had enough of experts after all.

Article of the week

With faith in our government sunk in what looks like a long and dismal trench, it has taken a brave and principled intervention from that most-maligned of figures, the professional football player, to provide an encouraging story this week.

Manchester United and England striker, Marcus Rashford, who has helped FareShare raise £20m to provide 3m meals for vulnerable people during lockdown, managed, with an open letter to MPs, a few tweets and an excellent interview with the BBC, to shame Johnson into doing a u-turn on cancelling food vouchers over the summer holidays.

Rashford himself had relied on free school meals and food banks as the son of a single mother, with 3 siblings growing up in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester. 

Given the type of negative press young black footballers are accustomed to receiving, the willingness to go out on a limb and call out the government in this way was admirable, remarkable and a positive indication of civic activism.

Revealingly, it is understood that the decision to reinstate the vouchers was largely due to Rashford's massive Twitter following and the threat of a backbench rebellion on the topic. Whilst Tory instincts have not changed, their willingness to conduct humiliating u-turns to avoid bad headlines has (except, naturally, where Dominic Cummings is concerned).

'Just look at what we can do when we come together', Rashford, 22, wrote on Twitter in response to the turn-around.

*Reminder: in 1995, just 2 years before Rashford was born, our Prime Minister (whose personal record of keeping a family together is spotty at best) accused single mothers like Melanie Rashford of producing a generation of “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children”.

If you are struggling to digest the idea that football might be capable of providing moral guidance to the Conservatives, there's more to come; on Wednesday night the Premiership resumed with a distinctly contemporary social theme.

Players' shirts were proudly emblazoned with 'Black Lives Matter' across the shoulders where their names would normally sit and all players, staff and officials knelt before the kick-off in a unified gesture of solidarity with the movement. For a global multi-billion pound industry to take such an unambiguous stance was extremely encouraging, and the response to the move was also very supportive, particularly in the light of the controversy surrounding recent protests. Amongst many, the explicit position taken by footballers, teams and the authorities may work to diffuse a good deal of recent tension around the issue. The gesture will not go unnoticed in the US, either, where English football is broadcast and watched by millions.

Manchester City's Pep Guardiola spoke for many, "Maybe for our generation it is too late but for the following generations, they can understand the only race is ourselves. We are human beings. It doesn't matter the colour of our skin."

But of course, not everyone felt the same way (wait for it...):

The government's error-prone 'Dom Jr.' (Mr Raab, to you) decided to go on talkRadio to inform us that he felt the taking of the knee to be a 'symbol of subjugation' somehow connected to the TV show 'Game of Thrones', before contradictorily fantasizing that he himself would consider kneeling for our own throne-owner, the Queen. Though what Raab might get a knighthood for is a riddle for the ages; services to Anglo-French geography, perhaps?

As a fan of Game of Thrones, one can almost imagine Raab with a cameo role, perhaps cast as 'Dim Spannister' who dies 10 minutes into his debut after getting lost in the dark and drowning in a moat. Or being easily tricked into eating a poisoned baguette from Pret. Or choking to death on a long word.

No one expected better from Raab (or any member of Johnson's cabinet), of course, but Rashford's contribution to public discourse was fresh, frank, thoughtful, honest and hopeful.

As the government sheds its moral authority like skin off a reptile, it's encouraging that younger voices from outside politics can step up, invigorate the discussion and perhaps get more people to think more practically about political participation.

It's certainly something that chimes with what we have been working towards with Renew and intend to continue, with your help. We need to add our voices to help humanise and universalise politics to include everyone, to be open and to take part.

"It's one thing thinking about it... in your house, but if you don't get that message out to the people, and to the people higher up that can possibly change the way things are going then there's no point in having those thoughts."

Article of the week

This week, the news has been dominated by passion, aggression, protest and counter-protest. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, underlying political and cultural tensions are boiling over into acrimonious, bordering violent behaviour.

In an orgy of condemnation, statues have been vandalised, torn down and also quietly removed, and films and TV shows are being withdrawn.

Some examples:

• The removal of the intelligent, liberal and hilarious, 'The League of Gentlemen' (and the not-so-much Little Britain) from Netflix and the iPlayer.
• Leigh Francis' ludicrous tearful apology, for racial caricatures in the gleefully asinine 'Bo Selecta', 18 years ago (but not also, sadly, for his moronic shows in general).
• 'Defund the police'.
• J.K Rowling's 'transphobic manifesto'.
• And, naturally, Donald Trump, trolling the dead in a new new low, proving that when we thought we had hit the Mariana Trench, this pioneer of exploratory offensiveness will always dive the extra mile.

The ramping up of inflammatory rhetoric and action makes us all losers in our own game. To take Rowling as an example, depending on who you talk to, she is now either still a national treasure or an unforgivable hate-monger.

In truth, Rowling is neither a secular saint nor an intolerant monster, she's a person with opinions that some agree with and some don't, just like any of us. People are being reduced to binary categories, or worse, one-dimensional emblems of what is wrong with the 'other' side. We have to live in a society where competing ideas and opinions can be discussed openly and honestly, without fear of losing one's livelihood or worse. We are witnessing the active pursuit of cultural confrontation by escalating means; the attacking of totems like Churchill's statue is a perfect example.

Whilst most in society may fairly be characterised as mild-mannered, kind and thoughtful of others feelings, public discourse is now dominated by the extremes, the intolerant, the illiberal, the hyper-sensitive and the censorious on both sides of the culture war. It threatens to turn us into a culture dominated petty informants, for whom the reductive, mean-spirited ethos of reality TV and an appetite for the modern-day equivalent of public executions becomes the social reality, corroding the nature of our everyday interactions.

This is not to say that campaigns for social justice are not welcome and essential, but political activity is not and should not be about expressing oneself, it should be about pursuing positive change whilst constantly building a viable and sustainable consensus.

Whilst the excesses of nationalists and populists in recent years have shocked and scandalised many of us, the excesses of the left have driven many directly into the arms of the reactionary right. For those who have knocked doors and stood in high streets listening to the public in recent years, it is obvious that grievance against real or perceived liberal bogeymen (and, of course, literal bogeyman Jeremy Corbyn) has driven Brexit, defenestrated the thoughtful wing of the Conservative Party and delivered an 80 seat majority for Boris Johnson. Opposition to this sorry state of affairs will not be well-served by copying and mirroring the Farage/Cummings playbook, but by providing a caring and viable alternative that listens.

There remains in the UK a significant number of people who feel we should bring back hanging and imperial measures and also a significant number who feel we should unilaterally disarm and abolish the Royal family. Serious political operators on the right and left focus their energies on neither of these groups. The battle to win elections and ultimately drive the direction of the country is always won in the centre, with the non-ideological, with fair-minded people and with swing voters. These are the hearts and minds that need to be won, not with negative, vituperative, zero-sum campaigning, but with appeals to hope and the seeking of consensus.

There is a kind of empty, futile joy to be had in sneering at strangers online, piling on to the enemy of the day and trashing ideas and symbols treasured by others. It's like scratching an itch, knowing that the more you scratch the more it will itch. Not to pursue this analogy in too revolting a direction, but when you scratch too much, you bleed, then you have a scab, which you pick at, which gets infected, then... well, it's often best not to scratch the itch.

I'll leave you with the key scene from Brexit: The Uncivil War, where Remain's Craig Oliver and Leave's Dominic Cummings meet in a pub shortly after the murder of Jo Cox.

O: Strange week.

C: Yeah. Drink?

O: I didn't think it would be as bad as this. You? 

C: No.

O: But, then again, isn't that what these types of questions do?

C: Force people into tribes.

O: Still, I think it should be possible, vital even, for a country to be able to ask itself a question and to be answered without... all this. Without such hate. Without fucking death.

C: Yeah.

O: Seems it's moved... way beyond our relationship with an economic bloc. It's... it's about the soul of our country. I worry. I worry that we won't be able to heal... that this has created...

C: Exposed - we didn't create it.

O: ... a type of debate, a politics that is unsophisticated, uncivilised and, worst of all, unkind. Seriously, though, you... you don't worry about the long-term repercussions of all this? Of undermining the very concept of expertise, of independent authority?

C: Your experts had an agenda.

O: Based on their knowledge. You are feeding a toxic culture, where nobody can trust or believe anything...

C: That is not what I'm doing at all.

O: ... where nobody listens to each other, they just yell. And the loudest and the rudest gets heard... 

C: And give people a voice who have been ignored for years. 

O: You're not giving them a voice, you're inciting them.

C: Don't confuse me with Banks and Farage, they're the ones who are inciting people.

O: How convenient that you had them to do your dirty work for you. Have you ever, ever REALLY tried to stop them?

C: You and your lot have dominated politics, political discourse, for decades, Craig, and what have you done with it? What?

O: You can't close the box, Dom, once it's been opened. This is the new politics now, the way we will conduct...

C: Change is exciting.

O: What's your edge? What are you doing, what have you found?... It's the sleep I miss.

C: I miss sleep. God I do, too, I miss sleep.

O: I honestly think I had more hours a night when my kids were born than this. You're having a baby, aren't you?

C: Yeah. What have you got, two daughters?

O: Three. I think about it, you know? About the kind of country that they'll grow up in.

C: What is this? A 'think of the children' appeal? Please, Craig. I am doing. I'm trying to get us ready. The train coming down the tracks isn't the one that you expected, it's not the one advertised on the board? Well, tough. It isn't even the one that I imagined. But I accept it. You can't stop it. You're right, there is a new politics in town. One that you cannot control.

O: Be careful what you wish for. You won't be able to control it either.

As the world is discovering, again, stoking populism is a dangerous game. But so is promoting intolerance and censorship. You can't close the box once it's opened. A question for those on both sides who are agitating for worse and less tolerant behaviour, 'Do you still think you can control them?' If not, then tomorrow belongs to them.

Congratulations to our new board member... Dan James

This week, our attentions have shifted a little, from domestic concerns to those across the Atlantic; centred around the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests and civil unrest which have resonated around the globe. Two things stand out in this story: firstly, the revolting nature of the killing itself, all 8 minutes and 46 seconds of it, with colleagues present, bystanders filming and an audible victim, exclaiming "I can't breathe".

The second, which is what I want to dwell on today, is the response to it. What, in a healthy society, would be uniformly condemned as a shameful, unforgivable incident, has been swept up in broader social issues, co-opted for political purposes and forced through the toxic lenses of identity politics. George Floyd's death is now a lightning rod for the culture war, with those who are rightly outraged by it demonised as opportunists and troublemakers. Battle lines are now drawn between the libertarian, pro-gun, anti-lockdown, pro-Trump contingent and the progressive, liberal, anti-gun, pro-lockdown, anti-Trump contingent. 

The other victim, as in every war, is the truth. The internet is now flooded with rumours that all protesters are in the pay of George Soros (or Bill Gates) and that Antifa are advertising for rioters at a rate of $18/hr.

As the political temperature rises in the US and elsewhere, I am reminded of the excellent essay, 'The Paranoid Style in American Politics' by Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter identified a pattern of regular spasms of hysteria in the US over phenomena as varied as, 'Illuminism', Masonry, Catholicism, the 'International Gold Ring', Mormons, Jews, Austrians, Communists, Black Muslims and the United Nations.

The most fascinating thing about the essay is that whilst it so perfectly captures our world of Trump and Brexit, it was penned, with a knowing and world-weary tone, a full 56 years ago in 1964.

It is worth delving into a few quotes, to see the parallels:

'In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the [Goldwater] movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority.'

'I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind.'

And for proof that there's nothing new in the world:

'It is a notorious fact that the Monarchs of Europe and the Pope of Rome are at this very moment plotting our destruction and threatening the extinction of our political, civil, and religious institutions.' - Texas newspaper article, 1855 

'Every device of treachery, every resource of statecraft, and every artifice known to the secret cabals of the international gold ring are being used to deal a blow to the prosperity of the people and the financial and commercial independence of the country.' - Populist Party manifesto, 1895 

How can we account for our present situation unless we believe that men high in this government are concerting to deliver us to disaster? This must be the product of a great conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man.' - Senator McCarthy, 1951  

'We hate to see a corporation of this country promote the U.N. when we know that it is an instrument of the Soviet Communist conspiracy.' -  San Francisco Chronicle, 1964  

It is the simplest thing to replace 'Goldwater' with 'Trump', and secret cabals, Popes, Monarchs and Soviets with George Soros, the New World Order, Bill Gates, vaccination, COVID-19, 5G and China.

Please look at the following quote and reflect that it was written not about Trump vs Clinton in 2016, but Johnson vs Goldwater in 1964, 52 years earlier.

'the modern right wing... feels dispossessed: America has been largely taken away from them and their kind...The old American virtues have already been eaten away by cosmopolitans and intellectuals; the old competitive capitalism has been gradually undermined by socialistic and communistic schemers; the old national security and independence have been destroyed by treasonous plots, having as their most powerful agents not merely outsiders and foreigners as of old but major statesmen who are at the very centers of American power. Their predecessors had discovered conspiracies; the modern radical right finds conspiracy to be betrayal from on high.’

Identity politics and culture war have so poisoned the political discourse in the US and the UK, that almost any issue can now be delineated along identity lines, from police brutality, to lockdown, Brexit, immigration, taxation, international aid, etc etc. To illustrate with an example from the UK, a small story caught my attention last week; footage captured a man being cuffed for a drug search by a female police officer in Lewisham, apparently without good cause. On the face of it, the police officer looked a little zealous, a bit unprofessional, perhaps under-trained and/or nervous. The man turned out to be an ambulance driver, no drugs were found, and he was released without charge. However, in the comments sections on Twitter, the Metro, The Mirror and The Times, all hell broke loose. For every viewer incensed at the video, another saw no issue, and very quickly it became obvious that this incident was a proxy for the culture war in the UK. Brexit-orientated commentators would accuse those critical of the police as being 'typical leftists' and vice versa. The facts evaporated and what was left was loud and ugly.

This strikes me as a very dangerous moment and we need to be prepared to respond in the right way. Tangling with strangers on the internet has somehow become a perfectly normal activity, especially during lockdown, but I think we all agree that it is broadly a corrosive activity; minds are not being changed by this, but moods are being darkened.

When I think of this, I try to think not about all the online abuse involved in political activity with Renew, but with face-to-face interactions. In real life people are perfectly capable of reining in abusive tendencies and finding common ground or agreeing to disagree. This being the case, we should consider discounting our online political interactions, especially those with strangers, because, as the saying goes, 'Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about'.

Having said that, there really are some extremely provocative idiots out there...

An old quote says that 'When America sneezes, the world catches a cold'. If we are to avoid the worst excesses of our cousins across the water, then we should consider wearing metaphorical masks as well as real ones.