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| This was the Queen’s speech – as written by Dominic Cummings | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Boris Johnson’s chief adviser is clearly determined to make his mark, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins | Boris Johnson’s chief adviser is clearly determined to make his mark, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins |
| The Queen must be bored. “Her” speech today was a repeat of hers of two months ago, in which Boris Johnson pledged Brexit plus the moon to his new army of working-class voters in the regions. It worked, and now there will be Brexit. The hope must be that sanity can descend on this subject, and on what it means for Britain’s trading status with Europe and the world. Please let it be so. | The Queen must be bored. “Her” speech today was a repeat of hers of two months ago, in which Boris Johnson pledged Brexit plus the moon to his new army of working-class voters in the regions. It worked, and now there will be Brexit. The hope must be that sanity can descend on this subject, and on what it means for Britain’s trading status with Europe and the world. Please let it be so. |
| The rest of the speech was more intriguing. Stripped of waffle, it marks the emphatic arrival in the UK of the new politics, that of post-ideological populism. Its author was clearly Johnson’s aide Dominic Cummings, by whom he is said to be mesmerised. Under Johnson-Cummings, the age of “economic man” is over, replaced by the age of political empathy. The drivers are not “the economy, stupid” but traditional ideas of national pride, authority, group insecurity and fiscal promiscuity. They are rife in the United States and eastern Europe. Now they have come to Britain. | The rest of the speech was more intriguing. Stripped of waffle, it marks the emphatic arrival in the UK of the new politics, that of post-ideological populism. Its author was clearly Johnson’s aide Dominic Cummings, by whom he is said to be mesmerised. Under Johnson-Cummings, the age of “economic man” is over, replaced by the age of political empathy. The drivers are not “the economy, stupid” but traditional ideas of national pride, authority, group insecurity and fiscal promiscuity. They are rife in the United States and eastern Europe. Now they have come to Britain. |
| Gone from the Queen’s speech was much trace of Johnson’s once-vaunted social liberalism. Different buttons are now being pushed. The proposal to put £34bn of NHS spending on a statutory basis is a headline gimmick. Prime ministers can spend what they like on the NHS without acts of parliament. The measure will merely confirm the health service as, like defence, beyond budgetary discipline or control. More significant, there was no mention of how to support social care in the long term, beyond an ambition for “cross-party consensus”. Local government remains below the radar. | Gone from the Queen’s speech was much trace of Johnson’s once-vaunted social liberalism. Different buttons are now being pushed. The proposal to put £34bn of NHS spending on a statutory basis is a headline gimmick. Prime ministers can spend what they like on the NHS without acts of parliament. The measure will merely confirm the health service as, like defence, beyond budgetary discipline or control. More significant, there was no mention of how to support social care in the long term, beyond an ambition for “cross-party consensus”. Local government remains below the radar. |
| More notable were classic pillars of the populist agenda. There were anti-immigrant measures, with a blatant pandering to xenophobia against low-paid migrants. There were bills on that hardy perennial, getting tough on crime. Johnson-Cummings know that longer sentences play no role in combating drugs and gangland crime. The new populism cares nothing for evidence, simply for what people claim to want. The social scientist is dead. The pollster is king. | More notable were classic pillars of the populist agenda. There were anti-immigrant measures, with a blatant pandering to xenophobia against low-paid migrants. There were bills on that hardy perennial, getting tough on crime. Johnson-Cummings know that longer sentences play no role in combating drugs and gangland crime. The new populism cares nothing for evidence, simply for what people claim to want. The social scientist is dead. The pollster is king. |
| The speech also took forward Johnson’s manifesto commitments on boosting state authority. A commission will inquire into “the constitution, democracy and rights”, code for tilting the balance of power towards executive government, away from parliament and the judiciary. The fixed-term parliament act is to go. | The speech also took forward Johnson’s manifesto commitments on boosting state authority. A commission will inquire into “the constitution, democracy and rights”, code for tilting the balance of power towards executive government, away from parliament and the judiciary. The fixed-term parliament act is to go. |
| Johnson comes to power under a new star, that of a democracy uncomfortable in its skin and unsure of its direction. He reportedly told his new MPs at the weekend that his was to be “a totally different party” which “can’t go back to being the Tory party of the old days”. His drift is away from traditional Tory concern for economic rectitude and less government. The Queen’s speech hardly mentions taxation or budgetary targets. The Office for Budget Responsibility is reputedly about to declare the government in breach of its fiscal balance, even before its new spending splurge. I can sense Cummings’s eyes glazing over. To him the Treasury is a broken reed. Politics is about spending, not saving. Johnson will build anything so long as it is flashy, costs billions and has his name on it. | Johnson comes to power under a new star, that of a democracy uncomfortable in its skin and unsure of its direction. He reportedly told his new MPs at the weekend that his was to be “a totally different party” which “can’t go back to being the Tory party of the old days”. His drift is away from traditional Tory concern for economic rectitude and less government. The Queen’s speech hardly mentions taxation or budgetary targets. The Office for Budget Responsibility is reputedly about to declare the government in breach of its fiscal balance, even before its new spending splurge. I can sense Cummings’s eyes glazing over. To him the Treasury is a broken reed. Politics is about spending, not saving. Johnson will build anything so long as it is flashy, costs billions and has his name on it. |
| Populism is also about delivering headlines, not services. Austerity will linger on, but it will be hidden and local, to be eased, should it break surface, by a central initiative for which Downing Street can take credit. Thus the Queen’s speech trumpeted trivial changes to hospital parking charges, plastics disposal and “minimum levels of service during transport strikes”. Police and schools are local responsibilities, but if more is to be spent on them, Johnson must be cheered. Local government in all its guises remains Cinderella in the scullery. | Populism is also about delivering headlines, not services. Austerity will linger on, but it will be hidden and local, to be eased, should it break surface, by a central initiative for which Downing Street can take credit. Thus the Queen’s speech trumpeted trivial changes to hospital parking charges, plastics disposal and “minimum levels of service during transport strikes”. Police and schools are local responsibilities, but if more is to be spent on them, Johnson must be cheered. Local government in all its guises remains Cinderella in the scullery. |
| How this will play to the current extraordinary upheaval in the electoral classes is unclear. Now, Conservative means poorer and less educated, and Labour the reverse. Some of Johnson-Cummings’s radicalism is undeniably refreshing. Commitment to the north, with ostensibly vast infrastructure spending, will mean something, at least if Theresa May’s ludicrously costly projects for new London railways and airports can be scaled back to allow for it. Provincial awareness is a welcome feature of the new politics. | How this will play to the current extraordinary upheaval in the electoral classes is unclear. Now, Conservative means poorer and less educated, and Labour the reverse. Some of Johnson-Cummings’s radicalism is undeniably refreshing. Commitment to the north, with ostensibly vast infrastructure spending, will mean something, at least if Theresa May’s ludicrously costly projects for new London railways and airports can be scaled back to allow for it. Provincial awareness is a welcome feature of the new politics. |
| Cummings has clearly read the runes and seized the opportunity. A recent profile in the New Statesman emphasised his overtly Leninist approach to disruptive reform. He does not care whom he offends or what process is disrupted. He has signalled his enmity towards the elite defence ministry. He wants to cut the cabinet down to size and get judges, MPs, out of his hair. He may not be long in the ascendant, but he is clearly determined to make his mark. | Cummings has clearly read the runes and seized the opportunity. A recent profile in the New Statesman emphasised his overtly Leninist approach to disruptive reform. He does not care whom he offends or what process is disrupted. He has signalled his enmity towards the elite defence ministry. He wants to cut the cabinet down to size and get judges, MPs, out of his hair. He may not be long in the ascendant, but he is clearly determined to make his mark. |
| Conventional politics has yet to adjust to this upheaval. Globalisation has lost its glamour. Liberalism has suffered its greatest trauma in modern times. The Johnson-Cummings world is introverted and chauvinist. But it is neither indolent nor, for the most part, conservative. A shift in ideological emphasis from 20th-century materialism to a sensitivity for the concerns expressed by ordinary voters cannot be altogether a bad thing. | Conventional politics has yet to adjust to this upheaval. Globalisation has lost its glamour. Liberalism has suffered its greatest trauma in modern times. The Johnson-Cummings world is introverted and chauvinist. But it is neither indolent nor, for the most part, conservative. A shift in ideological emphasis from 20th-century materialism to a sensitivity for the concerns expressed by ordinary voters cannot be altogether a bad thing. |
| It is true that honesty in politics has taken a beating. Just as Americans seem not to care if their president is a rogue, so Britons seem not to care if their leader is set on doing them economic harm. They even claim not to trust their politicians any more. But they do clearly welcome on stage a new narrative, and with it a new roughness and a new optimism. They are about to get what they wanted. | It is true that honesty in politics has taken a beating. Just as Americans seem not to care if their president is a rogue, so Britons seem not to care if their leader is set on doing them economic harm. They even claim not to trust their politicians any more. But they do clearly welcome on stage a new narrative, and with it a new roughness and a new optimism. They are about to get what they wanted. |
| • Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist | • Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist |
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