The most critical issues to the effective functioning of any democracy were ignored in the UK Tory leadership debate: immigration (which drove Brexit), the freedom of speech (the cornerstone of democracy) and the rule of law.
Economics and international engagement were the central focuses, and were subject to heated argument. These are indeed important issues, but the candidates made no mention of the fact that reckless open-door immigration is a massive drain on the economy, and includes tangential costs associated to national security. On the issue of international relations:
The establishment favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, former Goldman Sachs banker and World Economic Forum acolyte Rishi Sunak has received the tacit backing of the Chinese Communist Party this week.
It isn’t looking hopeful for Britain following the sudden resignation of its failed prime minister Boris Johnson. A prime minister even worse than Johnson is likely to replace him, given the politically correct pressure for the Conservative party to fully abandon its grassroots in favor of a globalist agenda.
“Tory Leadership Debate Ignores Immigration, Law and Order, Free Speech,” by Jack Montgomery, Breitbart, July 17, 2022:
Five MPs vying to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister engaged in a lacklustre but sometimes testy debate that ignored immigration, law and order, and free speech issues on Sunday.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, former communities minister Kemi Badenoch, former trade minister Penny Mordaunt, and backbencher Tom Tugendhat clashed on issues including the economy and cost of living crisis, whether public sector workers should get a five per cent pay rise, and the net zero green agenda, but ignored issues that are traditionally of concern to the public but not the political and media class, such as immigration and crime.
Most failed to set out any firm policies on the issues under discussion — Sunak, for example, provided the content-free slogan “investment, innovation, education” as his “plan” — but they did not shy away from taking shots at each other on their records, or lack thereof.
Several proposed minor tax cuts — which would represent a sea-change from policy under Johnson and Sunak, who have increased the tax burden to its highest level in generations — to alleviate the cost of living crisis, Sunak strongly suggested that he would continue on his current trajectory and that doing otherwise would be left-wing.
“I’d love to stand here and say I’d cut this tax, that tax, and another tax, and it will be OK, but you know what, it won’t,” he said, insisting that “something for nothing economics isn’t conservative, it’s socialism” and emphasising his focus would be tackling inflation.
This is in line with the view of establishment figures like Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who advised workers not to ask for pay rises and accept a “painful” fall in living standards to control inflation.
On proposals that public sector workers should get a five per cent pay rise with inflation running at ten per cent, candidates left workers with little to hope for, either fobbing the question off to independent pay review bodies or warning outright that the economy could not support “inflationary pay rises”.
Turning to internal and personal matters, all of them said they would not have Boris Johnson in their Cabinet if he wanted to serve, while Mordaunt bridled over a brief mention of her alleged support for trans people being allowed to self-identify their gender.
She called the discussion of her view that “trans men and men” and “trans women are women” an “unedifying” attempt to “paint me as an out of touch individual”, insisting “my constituents do not elect people who are out of touch” — although they have previously elected a number of Labour MPs.
The views expressed by Mordaunt her book last year, endorsed by Bill Gates and Tony Blair, certainly do not seem especially conservative, harping on the fact that Britain’s leaders too often hold a “long-term, male, patient, predictable, factual, planned, heterosexual, white, Christian, Western” worldview and claiming that the late Kenneth Clark’s legendary Civilisation series, beloved by many conservative history lovers, “explained how superior Oxford-educated British middle-aged white men were.”
The contenders managed to land some good blows on one another, with Sunak asking Truss if she regretted having been a Remainer or a Liberal Democrat more, for example, and being grilled in turn on whether he still wanted to get closer to an increasingly belligerent Communist China.
Sunak, who has been effectively endorsed by Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times, paid lip service to the fact that China has been deemed a threat, but added that “when we can protect ourselves that shouldn’t stop us from engaging with countries around the world” — suggesting that he would indeed seek to increase links in some areas.
Sunak was also pressed on the parlous state of the British military, with Tugendhat — who mentioned his own service with the Army Reserve frequently during the debate — noting that 10,000 troops were being made unemployed when he suggested he had boosted Ministry of Defence pay considerably.
Candidates also landed some blows on themselves, as when Mordaunt called her own campaign video “legendary” and said “[t]here’s a couple of things we need to win the next general election, one of them is me as Prime Minister,” making her come off somewhat conceited….
Jayell says
‘Five MPs vying to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister engaged in a lacklustre but sometimes testy debate that ignored immigration, law and order, and free speech issues on Sunday’.
In other words, they’re not concerned with anything that concerns the British people whom they’re supposed to be representing and who are paying their inflated salaries. So, if ‘democracy’ actually means ‘rule by the people’, none of these characters should get anywhere near the corridors of power in the UK. But if that does actually happen, why and how is it happening and why are the British people supposed to tolerate it?
Andrew Blackadder says
NONE of them are worth the words they spew out on a daily basis… The worse is Sunak as he holds a Green Resident Alien Card for the USA, owns property in California, is first generation Indian, and so to my mind his alliance is NOT with the UK, though Im surprised Javid didnt get further up the chain of command as he is a muslim and they are a special people in the UK these days and he being PM would be welcomed by many as the first European country to have their very own wee muslim fellow in the top leadership position in the country beating Belgium, Sweden,France or Germany to the punch.
However it aint over yet, even though the UK has many fat ladies that cant sing… Ba-Boom.
Jayell says
Muslims have certainly become ‘special people’ in the UK since a certain Labour PM of a few years ago signed an agreement with an unnamed foreign entity, guaranteeing that disciples of the Great Prophet would be able to ‘practise their religion unhindered’ in the UK in return for some financial favours; since which time, the law has been twisted to suit our Friends of the Desert Religion of Peace, including forcing our school children to consume halal meat, leaning on our media to be ‘islam friendly’, allowing muslims to obtain finance dirt-cheap with ‘sharia-friendly’ mortgages, etc., and, of course, allowing English girls to be grossly sexually abused in their thousands as the police and local authorities do nothing apart from following advice from ‘on high’ to treat certain complaints from under-age girls and their parents as ‘unfounded’ and harassing parents and victims who demand that the British law is enforced properly
Michael says
I guess you refer to the instigator of the Arab Armaggedon, the effeminate warrior / scholar, Tony of Arabia. I did not know of this disgusting quid pro quo. More details please.
Grace says
The sandpit is replacing the green grass of freedom in Britain.
Infidel says
Under other circumstances, I might have proposed Priti Patel as a better alternative, but given her disastrous tenure as Home Secretary, I’ll pass. I think that Trereen below has it right, and that there’s nobody in the current party better than BoJo
Infidel says
I agree. Sunak is a globalist who’s become a part of the elites through marriage, and is pretty much at one w/ the Davos crowd. And has anyone ever asked him what he thinks about even muslims, let alone islam? The Indian media is excited about him becoming the PM, as if ethnicity is all that matters. It’s depressing to see what has happened to Britain in just 20 years
mortimer says
Horrible. The British have lost their way. They are no longer proud of their national accomplishments. British people have been brainwashed by their Leftists to hate themselves. Shameful. I hope the British recover their self-esteem.
Wellington says
Agreed. And not all this rot can be laid upon the overt bad guys but on the meek, apathetic and ignorant as well.
British decline proceeds exponentially and there are many culprits for this, not just the Left and Muslims.
Treereen says
There will not be anyone “better” than Boris Johnson. The so called Conservative Party is incapable of fielding anyone who would turn this around. What’s floated to the top of the Party manure pile are the inevitable political dog-eat-dog products of the gradual corruption of British politics where the first loyalty is to ones who put one where one is, not the country one runs, and winning elections is an end, not a beginning.
It’s interesting to note that to the prospective trough-master contenders issues such as immigration, free speech and crime are not of paramount interest. It’s obvious such “illustrious people” live in areas where they are not affected by any of it and make sure they are not affected by any of it, send their children to £35,000 a term private schools not yet gutted by wokeness and don’t wonder if they are on Candid Camera or Jeremy Beadle when there are no white faces to be seen anywhere in the street they live in, at many times of day. Or what those gaunt- and crumpled-looking people, exchanging their £20 notes for tiny bundles or bags of something from a window of an idling black Range Rover with blacked out windows, are really doing. Same as Range Rover dealers goes for those turning up at various times on mopeds and bicycles. Or why doesn’t the police do something about those drunk or high prostitutes shouting their heads off in the quiet street at 2AM every time it’s warm at night. Or have to look at a prostitute, nesting in a doorway, openly smoking crack in the street, in broad daylight, while children are passing by on the way from school. Or have to block their front gate with bins so moving them sets off the dog barking inside the house that puts off the prospective door pissers.
I could go on but I’ve already missed enough of my classic Dr Who episode “Image Of The Fendahl”.
James Lincoln says
Treereen says,
“the gradual corruption of British politics where the first loyalty is to ones who put one where one is, not the country one runs, and winning elections is an end, not a beginning.”
Unfortunately, the same thing is now happening in the United States.
Michael says
Better hacks than smug, woke Guru-Murthy and gorgeous, pouting Julie Etchingham could have drawn out Kemi on immigration and Islam.
As a Yoruba Christian from overcrowded Sharia – Nigeria, she must have strong views, behind her smokescreen about the socialist hell of Nigeria -a nonsense concocted by Gove for the family audience IMO.
zeprin says
Remember when the UK was a beacon of Freedom and Civilization?