No. 268 - What to Do About Suella?

Dear James,                                                                                                                                             

How much longer can our nation put up with this madness? Suella Breverman is running riot making poor, little Rishi Sunak look even poorer and littler. Stuck in his Goldman-Sachs ‘process’ straight jacket, our PM appears weak and indecisive. Should he kick her out or should he yet again show his feeble grasp on power and let her continue to make trouble from her free wheeling right wing extremes? Whatever the decision, Rishi’s showing his colours. Washed out grey, he droops like a limp pennant from within the political doldrums that your sad Party currently inhabits. It’s almost embarrassing to witness. 

Of course, it’s not just Braverman that’s causing your Party’s troubles. That one time ‘Get me out of here…” beacon of Tory sensibility, Naurine Doriess, has been injecting her fevered brain into the political mix, poisoning your party’s good name with garish conspiratorial theories of how ‘bad actors’ have plotted and are plotting against the brave, theologies of your post-Brexit triumphs. Who is ‘Dr No?” Who plotted to get rid of Boris? What dastardly gang upset the Truss bandwagon? It does not seem to occur to the lady that much of the trouble she identifies has happened because Tory Party fantasies of the last ten years have been proven to be exactly that. Empty efforts - by manic political personalities - that explode as soon as they crash into reality. 

Suella Braverman has clearly been on manoeuvres for months. Dog whistling to far right zealots, she has called out homelessness as a ‘life choice’, threatened to confiscate tents donated to keep the streets clear of these urban wasters, fed her followers with the red meat of ‘invasion’ by boatloads of immigrants and now, her latest gimmick, calling the current pro-Palestinian protests ‘hate marches’. She’s not just restoring your party to its old status as ‘the nasty party’; she’s actually upping the ante to make it,’The Hated Party’! 

James, you know that the general British public despises bigotry. We remember Hitler and the ruthless way he acquired power and used power. He started with language to goad the ‘opposition’ but those diatribes led to actions which within ten years had morphed into the holocaust. Such is the destination of extremism of all kinds, left or right. 

Now, in pursuing her aims to be the leader of your Party after the next ‘lost’ election, Suella is playing with fire. She claims she’s just a good, old fashioned Conservative, even though her words are inflammatory in the same way that only that long shamed adherent of the method, Enoch Powell, bettered in his notorious ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968. In her most recent outburst, she seems to be attempting to politicise the Metropolitan Police by blowing up one of the fundamental precepts of a free society and putting policing under political control. Is she just stupid, or does she really want to change our society into a Police state like Russia and China? 

Any responsible politician should be defusing tensions rather than raising them but, instead, Suella’s fanning the flames ignited by the Nigel Farage brigade and his mates at GB News. The majority of British people, James are horrified that someone as patently unsuited to high office has been able to use her position as Home Secretary to stir up hatred. 

Thankfully, we are approaching the end of this dreadful government. As I’ve said several times before, the nation needs a total constitutional reset. No more first-past-the post conspiracies between the two main parties in the interests of strong government but the adoption of a voting system that reflects the real views off voters and leads to sensible discussion rather than the ‘ya boo’ politics of our country. A system that allocated political power in proportion to views expressed by the people would be breath of fresh air. Extremists like Braverman would still have a voice but they would not hold all the power and would not be in total control of our country’s direction.

No doubt you James, as usual, will keep your head below the parapet and hope to survive this latest earthquake in your party’s misfortunes. If only you could for once show an ounce of courage and stand up for the common decency that your party long ago stood for. But I know I’m whistling in the wind. You’ll continue, endlessly tacking with the Tory wind, dodging responsibility and commitment to the national interest and looking forward one day to a quiet retirement. Great for you! What a disappointment for the rest of us!

BH - Your Concerned Constituent

To see all 268 Dear James Letters please go to dearjames.uk