The politics of integrity
“These are odd times in British politics,” said Philip Collins in The Times, and above all in the Tory party. It always used to make “good sense and survival” its priority – and with that in mind made sure to attract liberals into its fold. But now “everything solid has melted into air”. In a survey of Tory members last week, Jacob Rees-mogg emerged as clear favourite to be the next party leader. This is a man who denies climate change, who was a big fan of Donald Trump, and who, in a TV interview last week, declared he was against same-sex marriage and “completely opposed to abortion” – even in cases of rape. As if infected by “a Corbynism of the right”, the Tories seem to be opting for “ostentatious integrity” over stable leadership.
Rees-mogg’s views on abortion sparked outrage among those who’d earlier seen him as a loveable caricature of Britishness, said Holly Baxter in The Independent. What did they expect? He’s never pretended to be anything but “a relic of a bygone era”: he happily admits to never having changed a nappy for any of his six children. Why assume his reactionary nature stops “at the aesthetics”: the accent, the nanny, the Mayfair abode? Why, indeed, asked Suzanne Moore in The Guardian. He isn’t a “charming upper-crust throwback”. He’s a “thoroughly modern, neoconservative bigot” who uses his Catholic faith to excuse “appalling” anti-women views. He was happy to be guest of honour at the annual dinner of the Traditional Britain Group, an outfit that wants to return black people to “their natural homelands”. Sure, he later sought to distance his views from theirs, yet he still went ahead and spoke at their do. I don’t agree with Rees-mogg’s take on abortion or gay marriage, said Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail, but I salute him as a man of principle. He doesn’t tailor his ideas to ingratiate himself with “fashionable feminists”. He doesn’t apologise for his belief in “core family values”. He appeals to people precisely because “he possesses something that too many politicians do not: authenticity”.
There’s something disturbing about this new tendency to admire the Corbyns and Rees-moggs of this world just because they stick to their principles, said Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. Why applaud them for the courage of their convictions if their convictions are inflexible and unpleasant? Would we say of Ayatollah Khomeini: he may not have been “politically correct in hanging prisoners from cranes, but at least he stood for something. At least he was authentic?” I think not. We should be wary of moral certainty. “Give me a politician with doubts,” not conviction. Don’t fret, said Janan Ganesh in the FT. Rees-mogg is history: right or wrong, his views “are being eclipsed by the passage of time”. In Britain, 71% of 18- to 24-year-olds claim to have no religion, and they are increasingly liberal in their attitudes to sex, gender and immigration. Demographics, social and cultural mobility – the impersonal processes that underlie attitudes over time – are all ranged against traditional conservatism. The general trend, here in Britain, is “away from Rees-moggery”.