Corrosive influence of libertarians at the heart of government

This is the most unTory of UK governments. The Conservative Party used to be a party of pragmatism; conservative with a small ‘c’, defending the institutions of state, a mixed economy, accepting and sometimes initiating social and economic change as a necessity in its own right, and/or for maintaining power. Whilst always a coalition of the authoritarian right, economic and social pragmatists, pro and anti-EU supporters and some free market libertarians, it stood mostly on the centre-right ground.

No longer. The rot, so to speak, started under Thatcher who, whilst sometimes tactically pragmatic herself, encouraged right-wing, libertarian free market ideologues to enter the Party from the grass roots up. I saw several of them in student politics, some of which now hold or have recently held senior positions in the Conservative Party or government. They believed in the smallest of States or, at the extremes, hardly any State at all, allowing people to survive, prosper or fail with little government intervention. What was particular about their style was their refusal to compromise or brook any dissent and this led to what one would politely call ‘hard campaigning tactics’.

Move on to recent history, and many of those with a libertarian philosophy could be found at the heart of the Brexit campaign, believing in the concept initiated from Thatcher onward, that the EU was a socialist institution intent on shackling people to a super-state and, as a concept, ultimately doomed to failure. Brutal campaigning techniques won the day (that is not to dispute some valid arguments) and the rest is history as they say. The architect was one Dominic Cummings, ‘the great disrupter’. He is allegedly not even a member of the Conservative Party for which he has very little respect and is apparently almost anarchic in his beliefs.

Today, many Conservative moderates have chosen voluntarily or otherwise to withdraw from the Party, driven out predominantly by the hostility of the EU debate. There is a real vacuum left by the likes of David Gauke, Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin, Sam Gyimah, Amber Rudd, Rory Stewart, Ruth Davidson and Justine Greening to name but a few. The libertarian inclined Brexit team now lies at the heart of government and has a blank canvas to paint on which they have exploited ruthlessly. It is called Boris Johnson.

However unfair, Johnson is repeatedly criticised for having no guiding principles except to reach the top. It was victory at all costs, starting with weaponising the EU. Consequently, this is now a (Tory) government that has attacked Parliament, the courts, allegedly misled the Royal Family and generally treated institutions, and, until the coronavirus epidemic, experts, with contempt. Revolutionary in its zeal, it has ignored the potentially dangerous, longer term consequences of its actions, to shape a shorter term, impressive General Election victory.

And it is this libertarian influence which will be identified as one of the reasons of a late lockdown and its terrible consequences in terms of excess Covid-19 deaths. Johnson and his team simply couldn’t contemplate government telling the public what to do in such an extreme fashion. They felt it was a deeply continental European trait and there was a superior English way of doing things…

The contradiction to this argument is, of course, an almost socialist, deeply unTory approach to spending public money, identified before the arrival of Covid-19. These policies, many of which have merits post austerity, were also about upending the Establishment, protecting a new power base but leaving room to be radical elsewhere. Such policies are now rightly set in stone in exaggerated terms to recover from this crisis; but it will not stop the march of the breaking down of institutions, freeing markets on a US style basis (watch the EU withdrawal negotiations closely) and accepting the consequences of the rupture of the Conservative Party with glee in a drift to the Right.

But the triumphant libertarians in government should tread warily. Cummings has already tripped up once, the review of actions running up to the lockdown will be brutal and the consequences of a complete, almost contemptuous break from the EU will be plain to see. The essentially English view of being free from the yoke of Europe and showcasing the glorious days ahead of unfettered, home grown, competent government are currently hard to see…

If the Labour Leader, Starmer, becomes a real threat and incompetence becomes the hallmark of the libertarian approach shown to date, then Johnson’s hold on power will weaken. He is not widely trusted or liked by his colleagues but was seen as an election winner. It is very early days but at least one, not unsympathetic former Tory Cabinet Minister, predicts a possible Labour victory at the next election. As we emerge from this Covid crisis depressingly in some disarray, and if such disarray continues, then the Old Conservative Party might just find its teeth. But it is a long shot…