Even if you accept this view of international relations, these tweets suggest an extraordinary contempt for democratic government at home. Let's take a couple of examples. [Thread]
"Nobody ... incl the PM thought there wd be a US deal".
But Johnson repeatedly told voters that Britain was "first in line" for "a fantastic trade deal". The 2019 manifesto promised a wave of deals "starting with the USA".
If Cummings is right, voters were misled.
"We intended to ditch bits we didn't like".
No one told British voters that. The 2019 manifesto insisted that "we have a great new deal that is ready to go", which would "get Brexit done", secure "friendly relations" with the EU and let the country "move on".
Was that not true?
"I always intended an IM Bill after we won a majority".
But you didn't plan to tell the electorate that before they provided that majority?
It’s as if elections are just some obstacle to be navigated, before getting on with the serious business of government.
The idea that "cheating foreigners is a core part of the job" is bad enough.
The idea that cheating *the electorate* is part of the job is worse.
This isn't just a grim view of diplomacy. It's a grim view of democracy.
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If Lincoln spoke to "the better angels of our nature", Trump calls to our demons. His return is a moral as well as political tragedy.
As others study his example, progressives will need to think harder about how to respond. As so often, I've been thinking about Gladstone...🧵
Gladstone saw politics as a moral struggle, for the conscience of the people.
It was a struggle that could be lost: humans were sinful, and could be corrupted or deceived.
But ultimately, "the demos" was the only tribunal in which a progressive politics could put its faith.
So at moments of crisis, Gladstone would take his case to working-class audiences, speaking for hours on complex questions of foreign policy or finance.
He treated working people with respect, as people of conscience; people who could handle complexity & rise to moral judgement.
The 2024 election saw the worst Conservative defeat in history, producing their lowest number of seats, lowest vote share & highest number of ministers unseated.
I've been writing about the "crisis of Conservatism" for years, and have collected some key pieces below. ⬇️ [THREAD]
In 2019 I wrote in the @NewStatesman about "The Closing of the Conservative Mind".
"British Conservatism has broken with three of its most important traditions. It has stopped thinking, it has stopped “conserving” & it has lost its suspicion of ideology". newstatesman.com/politics/2019/…
Later in 2019, I explored the abuse of history in talk of "Global Britain", showing how Boris Johnson & his allies "use the past to imagine the future".
"As so often, history becomes the mask worn by ideology, when it wants to be mistaken for experience". newstatesman.com/politics/2019/…