In 2018 a return to the battle of Right vs Left
The new year has to herald a new politics. Brexit dominated 2017, and understandably so. It upended the establishment; it shook partisan loyalties. The negotiations have been tortuous; the legislative process will be a minefield. But one critical thing has not changed: Jeremy Corbyn is still Labour leader. In fact, despite being a Marxist with extremist friends, he ends 2017 stronger than he began it. The Tories need to start talking about him. They have to return to the battle of Right vs Left.
Every bone in Theresa May’s body probably cries out against this. Hers is the politics of good management: identify a problem, solve it, reap the rewards at the ballot box. Her Conservatism is centrist and, but for the issue of immigration, largely liberal. She sees Brexit as exactly the kind of challenge she was born to steer the country through, and the lack of any leadership challenge against her implies that most Tories agree. Plus, the Tories’ brief experience of negative campaigning was not happy. Relying on the IRA, nuclear weapons and republicanism to damage Mr Corbyn in June’s general election backfired.
Part of the problem, however, was that the Tory manifesto didn’t offer a clear enough policy divide between itself and Labour’s, which reduced the force of any substantive political attack. Too much was conceded to the Left and, offered a choice between a slice of socialism and the whole cake, a large number of voters obviously decided to fill their bellies with Corbynism. This is a challenge that the Conservatives have to address in 2018: they must articulate a post-brexit vision that puts liberty and economic opportunity back at the top of the agenda.
If they establish a moral case for themselves, then the contrast with Labour becomes sharper. Without it, it’s astonishing how well Mr Corbyn has turned his apparent disadvantages into strengths. His ambivalence towards Brexit allows his party to be the vessel of Bennite Eurosceptics and militant Remainers – movements that are totally at odds with each other. And because no one is explaining the history and reality of socialism, his support for nationalisation or higher taxes has become cast as fresh and radical – rather than outdated and economically illiterate.
The Conservatives don’t even have to return to the Seventies to make the case against collectivism, they need only point to Venezuela or the havoc that trade unions have brought to the British rail network. And it is in the course of explaining with passion how Conservative economics works – cutting taxes, encouraging hard work, generating growth – that the case against Marxism builds. Mr Corbyn threatens a run on the pound. He will drive away foreign investment. He will kill aspiration by penalising those who make more. He will bring back flying pickets.
And it is perfectly reasonable to point out that his political alliances are shameful. Calling Hamas and Hizbollah “friends” is unacceptable; as is associating with Sinn Fein or championing the authoritarians of Cuba and Venezuela. Thuggery has bled down through the Labour Party, making the lives of moderate MPS a misery. Whereas the thought of previous Labour leaders winning an election was depressing, it wasn’t always terrifying. Mr Corbyn’s potential victory is downright apocalyptic.
The Tories have to swallow their pride and admit that it is also quite possible. Labour is doing well in the polls, and while some Conservatives are satisfied to note that the Government is still managing despite its problems, it is more realistic to observe how remarkably well Mr Corbyn is doing despite his.
We have said many times in 2017 that the Tories need to revive their idealism and contrast it with the Left, and we said it not for the sake of some internal battle within Conservatism but out of horror of losing the war with Labour. The Tories have chosen, rightly, to focus on Brexit but, wrongly, to fudge their philosophy. Labour has fudged Brexit but, increasingly, committed itself to neo-marxism – and so the danger it now poses to the country is very real. The Conservatives must fight back in 2018.