BRIAN READE: Nigel Farage’s solely promoting level – vote for me and I’ll drag us again to Nineteen Thirties’
THE 1980s Boudica once famously defined critics who accused her of running Britain into the ground as “moaning minnies”.
So let’s hope that Margaret Thatcher is spinning in hell, sorry in her grave, as she hears incessant whines from those who once idolised her about how her country has gone to the dogs.
The Right’s default position has become a hatred of all things good about Britain such as its rule of law, tolerance, free healthcare, strong communal spirit and creative talent.
Nigel Farage ’s only selling point seems to be “it’s really awful living in this godforsaken land, so give me your money or your vote and I’ll drag us back to the 1930s”.
He never wastes a chance to suck up to the MAGA crowd by regurgitating the myth that every part of Britain is a crime-ridden hellhole overrun by illegal immigrants. He even told Washington’s House Judiciary Committee that Britain had “become North Korea”.
Small wonder voters are tiring of this phoney patriotism. Reform has fallen to third place in the polls and their lowest popularity rating for 18 months, partly because people can only take so much negativity.
Talking of phoney patriotism, Sir Jim Ratcliffe who earlier this year said the UK economy was unsustainable because Britain had been “colonised by immigrants” (before wildly exaggerating their numbers) and has too many welfare claimants, has piped up again to say the country is “on the slide” due to the levels of immigration and taxation.
So just another obscenely rich but grossly pessimistic right-whinger, who, despite earning billions on the back of a country that educated him and now provides him with the infrastructure and labour to succeed, can’t stop running the place down from the comfort of his Monaco tax haven.
This instinctive pessimism about Britain and its people, which is echoed by Kemi Badenoch ’s Tories and their media cheerleaders, offers a big opportunity for Labour and Andy Burnham. Reform lost its lead in the polls when Burnham took office and he has now extended Labour’s advantage over Farage’s party to four percentage points. The main reason? He offers hope of a better country for all, not just one where the rich get richer and the weak go to the wall along with public services.
British people know our eye-watering debt mountain has to be tackled but they want to hear solid, inclusive solutions, not fantasies scrawled on the back of a fag packet.
They want positivity from leaders, not constant assertions that this country is in terminal decline, especially from politicians whose governments (or ones they once sat in or supported) helped cause that decline with their austerity, Brexit and emaciated growth.
At next week’s Labour conference Burnham needs to offer honesty on topics like welfare, illegal immigration, defence and job creation then present us with an optimistic vision. He needs to draw a line under the past, economically dismal, 16 years, and, despite extreme global challenges offer a plan filled with hope.
We can’t carry on this cycle of doom-mongering and self-flagellation. At some point we need a roadmap back to a bright future.
A truly great political figure from Thatcher’s era, Nelson Mandela, once said “may your choices reflect your hopes not your fears”. As the Right plays on fear, Labour needs to show us why we should choose hope.
