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| Calling Philip Hammond a ‘saboteur’ or ‘traitor’ reflects terribly on the Tory right | Calling Philip Hammond a ‘saboteur’ or ‘traitor’ reflects terribly on the Tory right |
| (4 months later) | |
| Fri 13 Oct 2017 16.04 BST | |
| Last modified on Fri 13 Oct 2017 19.20 BST | |
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| The Tories are coming for the grey-haired men in suits. It’s not something we are used to seeing from the Conservative and Unionist parties of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but we live in extraordinary times. This week, it is the turn of Philip Hammond to face the tumbrils. For the anti-Conservative crime of counting his pennies, the chancellor was described as “coming very close to sabotage” (by the former chancellor Lord Lawson), a colleague who deserves to be sacked (friends of Boris Johnson and Liam Fox) and a man who “ought to be tried for treason” (by rightwing commentator Julia Hartley-Brewer). Roll up, roll up, fresh heads on spikes for yer pleasure. | The Tories are coming for the grey-haired men in suits. It’s not something we are used to seeing from the Conservative and Unionist parties of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but we live in extraordinary times. This week, it is the turn of Philip Hammond to face the tumbrils. For the anti-Conservative crime of counting his pennies, the chancellor was described as “coming very close to sabotage” (by the former chancellor Lord Lawson), a colleague who deserves to be sacked (friends of Boris Johnson and Liam Fox) and a man who “ought to be tried for treason” (by rightwing commentator Julia Hartley-Brewer). Roll up, roll up, fresh heads on spikes for yer pleasure. |
| This week’s row is only one battle in the long war between those in the cabinet who voted leave and those who voted remain. The latest trigger came on Wednesday. That morning, Hammond published a piece in the Times. He promised to plan for all possible outcomes of the Brexit negotiations, but seemed to qualify it: “We are planning for every outcome and we will find any necessary funding and we will only spend it when it’s responsible to do so.” This was widely read as a refusal to spend money pre-emptively on planning for a “no-deal” scenario. | This week’s row is only one battle in the long war between those in the cabinet who voted leave and those who voted remain. The latest trigger came on Wednesday. That morning, Hammond published a piece in the Times. He promised to plan for all possible outcomes of the Brexit negotiations, but seemed to qualify it: “We are planning for every outcome and we will find any necessary funding and we will only spend it when it’s responsible to do so.” This was widely read as a refusal to spend money pre-emptively on planning for a “no-deal” scenario. |
| Later that day, Hammond appeared at the Treasury select committee. Again, he reiterated that his department was planning for all types of Brexit: hard, soft, floppy. But he pointed out that there are some consequences of a no-deal scenario that would require extreme levels of government spending. Consider what happens, to take one example raised at the select committee, if we had to reconfigure our airports to focus all air traffic on Commonwealth countries because we hadn’t obtained landing licences for any airport in the EU. Sound ridiculous? That’s because there’s no one – not even the most pessimistic remainer – who seriously believes such a situation would occur. Except for the leavers who’d like Hammond to start spending millions on the pre-planning now. | Later that day, Hammond appeared at the Treasury select committee. Again, he reiterated that his department was planning for all types of Brexit: hard, soft, floppy. But he pointed out that there are some consequences of a no-deal scenario that would require extreme levels of government spending. Consider what happens, to take one example raised at the select committee, if we had to reconfigure our airports to focus all air traffic on Commonwealth countries because we hadn’t obtained landing licences for any airport in the EU. Sound ridiculous? That’s because there’s no one – not even the most pessimistic remainer – who seriously believes such a situation would occur. Except for the leavers who’d like Hammond to start spending millions on the pre-planning now. |
| Back in the misty realms of memory, some of us can remember a time when the Conservative party stood for the principle of restraint on the public purse. Sure, things are different now: both I and Rafael Behr have previously written for the Guardian of the speed with which the party of calm and quietude has transformed itself into the party of revolutionary destruction. Even so, the lust of the bloodhounds after Hammond is startling. Imagine getting a call from your accountant, warning that a big tax bill may be on its way. Some of us ask the accountant for advice. Johnson and Fox, it seems, dream of shooting the accountant and zooming into the sunset. Westminster’s boomer-generation answer to Bonnie and Clyde, a dashing pair whose fast cars keep them one step ahead of the consequences. Until suddenly the consequences catch up. | Back in the misty realms of memory, some of us can remember a time when the Conservative party stood for the principle of restraint on the public purse. Sure, things are different now: both I and Rafael Behr have previously written for the Guardian of the speed with which the party of calm and quietude has transformed itself into the party of revolutionary destruction. Even so, the lust of the bloodhounds after Hammond is startling. Imagine getting a call from your accountant, warning that a big tax bill may be on its way. Some of us ask the accountant for advice. Johnson and Fox, it seems, dream of shooting the accountant and zooming into the sunset. Westminster’s boomer-generation answer to Bonnie and Clyde, a dashing pair whose fast cars keep them one step ahead of the consequences. Until suddenly the consequences catch up. |
| Yet the fiscal irresponsibility of the Tory right isn’t the saddest part of this sorry tale. What should worry us most is the language used. It is one thing to call for the sacking of an opponent. It is another to demand treason trials for those with whom you disagree. (Treason was, of course, a capital offence in recent memory.) The cry of “saboteur” has already cropped up too often in recent debate.Lawson should know better than to raise the cry of the mob against the scapegoat. | Yet the fiscal irresponsibility of the Tory right isn’t the saddest part of this sorry tale. What should worry us most is the language used. It is one thing to call for the sacking of an opponent. It is another to demand treason trials for those with whom you disagree. (Treason was, of course, a capital offence in recent memory.) The cry of “saboteur” has already cropped up too often in recent debate.Lawson should know better than to raise the cry of the mob against the scapegoat. |
| Michael Fallon, another wise grey man of the Tory cabinet, gave a speech this July at the Policy Exchange thinktank. This was not the time for infighting, he reminded his party. Instead, Conservatives should focus their energy on challenging the decline of the public sphere. This was a speech riddled with conventional Tory wisdom about western democratic exceptionalism. “We have to stand up for … our democracy, our tolerance, our freedom under the law that enables our people to flourish … the threat to that western narrative is now ferocious, based on misinformation, new media, and a callous disregard for facts.” In a final flourish, Fallon declared that for democracy to thrive, “we need to call out aggression and intimidation” in our political life. | Michael Fallon, another wise grey man of the Tory cabinet, gave a speech this July at the Policy Exchange thinktank. This was not the time for infighting, he reminded his party. Instead, Conservatives should focus their energy on challenging the decline of the public sphere. This was a speech riddled with conventional Tory wisdom about western democratic exceptionalism. “We have to stand up for … our democracy, our tolerance, our freedom under the law that enables our people to flourish … the threat to that western narrative is now ferocious, based on misinformation, new media, and a callous disregard for facts.” In a final flourish, Fallon declared that for democracy to thrive, “we need to call out aggression and intimidation” in our political life. |
| Fallon is, of course, right. Enemies of liberal democracy are everywhere – and most of them seem to cast themselves as conservatives. In the White House this week, President Trump described the basic principle of press freedom as “disgusting”. British conservatives haven’t quite reached that rhetorical nadir. If they want to retake the moral high ground of the west, however, they might start by cutting out the language of heads on spikes. | Fallon is, of course, right. Enemies of liberal democracy are everywhere – and most of them seem to cast themselves as conservatives. In the White House this week, President Trump described the basic principle of press freedom as “disgusting”. British conservatives haven’t quite reached that rhetorical nadir. If they want to retake the moral high ground of the west, however, they might start by cutting out the language of heads on spikes. |
| • Kate Maltby is associate fellow of Bright Blue, a thinktank for liberal conservatism | • Kate Maltby is associate fellow of Bright Blue, a thinktank for liberal conservatism |
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