No. 120 - Two Nations Rejoined by a Common Language?

Dear James,

They used to say that the USA and the UK were two nations divided by a common language. Today, rather than dividing us, that language is re-uniting us in a most unfortunate embrace. It is the embrace of a new nihilism.  ‘Destruction must come before the Future can Begin’ and  ‘Everything is permissible if it achieves that end’. Your party is part of this James, even if you are not aware of it. 

First, a bit of history. In 1630 a guy named John Winthrop – from Groton in your own constituency - sailed to Boston with a group of Puritans proclaiming that he wished to establish, ‘A City on a Hill’. America was founded upon aspiration, hope and yes, idealism based upon the rights of the individual. Over a couple of centuries those principles morphed into one of the most wonderful documents of political history – the US Constitution. That document set out to prevent the tyranny of a king from ever occurring in their country. It set out a system of checks and balances within a tripartite structure of power – Executive, Legislature and Judiciary - where each was ‘co-equal’. As a final stop to the powerful they borrowed the idea of impeachment from their erstwhile rulers. The frame workers of this Constitution were way ahead of their time. In fact what we saw was an exporting of a British revolution that we never had. Since then we have had a ‘slow burn’ of reform but theirs was the ‘fast burn’ of justice. By 1787, while we bumped along under our Hannoverian kings, they were two hundred years ahead of us. 

Today, the traditional right wing parties on both sides of the Atlantic have broken with their moderate centres and created two unpleasant versions of themselves claiming to represent the interests of their respective ‘bases’. On Friday the UK left the EU. On the same day the Republican Party, for the first time in its history, decided to refuse the testimony of witnesses in the impeachment trial of a President. Last summer Boris tried to shut down parliament for five weeks in order to avoid scrutiny of its Brexit strategy. Both events were attempts to reverse the radical instincts at the heart of our constitutions. Boris was willing to break the law in order to go back to the glory days of proud independence while the USA is allowing a President to be acquitted from a clear misdemeanour. On Friday, Adam Schiff tweeted: “After two and half centuries of our nation’s history, it’s come to this: The President’s lawyers argue on the Senate floor that he can withhold aid, coerce an ally, and try to cheat in an election, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Our Founders would be aghast.”

Last year, fortunately, Boris was stopped by our Supreme Court. In the end of course he got his way and proved that a British government with a big majority can do what it likes. But what both incidents show is that both governments, to get their way, are ruthless in their willingness to strike at the heart of their constitutions. That is because they want power, no matter what. And they are willing to do it through bluster, lies and foul-mouthed slanders. Both the Neo Conservatives and the Neo Republicans are in the hands of vulgar obsessives. Last week Mr Trump tweeted: “Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democratic Party, starts today …”

Mr Trump though is in good company. Dominic Cummings is similarly equipped. He too is abusive, bad tempered and ruthless. He too uses the  gutter language of the schoolboy bully. Recently he was on Channel 4 being rude and abusive to a journalist who attempted to interview him in the street. At the heart of our new rightist parties, the worst kinds of politicians are now working their evil. As leaders, Trump and Boris should be setting examples to the rest of us. Instead they are giving a free pass to the racists and bigots of our world. Language has consequences and the great consequence so far has been the breakdown of political and social civility. Civility is the great lubricant of democracy. Without it, everything grinds to a halt. And without our aspirational ‘ideals’, developed through hundreds of years of astonishing thinking, none of our freedoms are safe.

Our Civil Service has a code requiring them to uphold the ‘core values’ of ‘integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality’. This is the antithesis of nihilism and the basis of good governance everywhere. So far James, our Constitutions and institutions are holding. But who knows how long they will survive when sociopaths like Trump and Cummings are pursuing their agendas? 

You have a minor role to play in this drama James. Please show some guts and play it well. For all our sakes.

Kind regards, 

BH – Your Concerned Constituent.