Britain doesn’t need ‘reform’. It just needs to rejoin the EU
William
Keegan
Well-intentioned moves are afoot to ‘overhaul the
machinery of government’. But it’s the policies that are the problem
Sun 17 Mar
2024 08.00 CET
It was Dr
Johnson, not Boris Johnson, who declared “patriotism is a last refuge of the
scoundrel”. Some years have passed since Johnson, Shirley Williams and I were
guests of an institute outside Moscow. We were there to explain what we hoped
were the wonders of western democracy – the freedom, the politics and the
economic policies – to Russian politicians and academics who were glorying in
having shaken off the constraints of the Soviet Union.
Alas, the
glory days were not to last. Along came the so-called oligarchs, and then
Putin. The ancient Greek word oligarkhía meant “rule by the few”. But in the
post-Soviet world it came to denote a group of people who stripped the nation
of its prime economic assets and became very rich – more plutocrats than
oligarchs. We all know the consequences: the collapse of the Soviet Union
evolved into rule by dictatorship, with the plutocrats fleeing abroad from
Putin.
The
democratic values Williams, Johnson and I spoke about on that visit became
seriously threatened during Johnson’s premiership. The public is being reminded
of this by a television series which brings back the horrors of Johnson’s
openly contemptuous suspension of parliament – known as “proroguing” – in order
to have his way over Brexit. It also brings out the chaotic way in which
Johnson conducted his premiership. This is important because there is an
energetic and vociferous element on the right of the Tory party that wishes to
bring the miscreant back.
Meanwhile,
the Institute for Government, backed by the formidable team of former premiers
John Major and Gordon Brown, is urging fundamental reforms in the civil service
and cabinet – that is, in the machinery of government. The Labour party – the
government in waiting – is showing an active interest in all this.
Great
though my admiration is for the people involved in this exercise, I have to say
that we have been here before – many times. Indeed, I am tempted to say that
reshuffling the governmental deckchairs is a last refuge of – I won’t call them
scoundrels, but of oppositions nervous of their prospective inheritance. It was
noteworthy that Lord Butler of Brockwell, a former cabinet secretary and head
of the civil service, wrote a letter to the Times last week implying that in
his – pre-Johnson – day, things worked quite smoothly as they were.
Starmer and Reeves must surely accept Gordon Brown’s
advice that the British economy needs to be put on a 'war footing'
There is a
famous line in Lampedusa’s The Leopard in which Prince Tancredi says: “If
things are to remain the same, things have to change.” The approach to
government of Keir Starmer’s predecessors Harold Wilson and Tony Blair was on
the lines of “things have got to change”, but in due course the approach to
government remained very much the same.
The
machinery of government does not always have to endure the wrecking tactics of
people such as Johnson and his sometime henchman Dominic “Eye Test” Cummings.
It seems to me that, while there must always be scope for improvement, the more
fundamental problem Starmer should be focusing on has less to do with the
machinery of government than with, let’s face it, the mistaken policies that
have brought the economy to where it is.
Entry to
the European Union, and later the single market, had a benign effect on a
British economy that had some obvious long-term ailments. But along came 10
years of needless austerity, whose damage was, and increasingly still is,
compounded by the self-harm of Brexit.
The Centre
for European Reform has recently produced a disturbing study of the devastating
impact of surrendering the trading privileges of membership of the nearby
single market for the cloud cuckoo land of pathetically inadequate – or what
prove to be nonexistent – trade deals with far-off nations such as Canada,
Australia and India. The much-vaunted trade deal with the US suffered the fate
of the Titanic; but, never mind, there is a trade deal with Texas instead.
When
Starmer and his prospective chancellor, Rachel Reeves, weigh up the situation,
they must surely accept Brown’s advice that the British economy needs to be put
on a “war footing”. A necessary condition of this must surely be a return to
the EU’s customs union and single market.
Meanwhile:
back to the scoundrel. Can the rumours really be true that Johnson plans to
campaign in the so-called “red wall” seats where he lied through his teeth
about the advantages of Brexit?
Perhaps he
could take with him a copy of the front page of the Daily Express of the eighth
of this month: “BREXIT IS A GREAT BRITISH SUCCESS STORY WORTH BILLIONS”.
No, I did
not make this up.
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