THE RIGHT AND THE CULTURE WAR
The Civil Service employs more than 400,000 people. So, when people moan about politics being mentioned on the “wrong” platform or in the “wrong” setting, it really irks me. The business of politics affects many more people than we think. In very real ways. Leadership is not just limited to corporations and SMEs. Pull up a chair.
The UK has a new PM - Liz Truss. Only the third woman (all of whom Conservative) to occupy this position. In addition to the PM, we have a new Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary (making up The Great Offices of State). They, for the first time, are not white, middle-aged men. Add to that a new environment secretary and international trade secretary. The Conservatives have somehow assembled one of the most visibly diverse Cabinets in government history. BAME representation for this Cabinet stands at 30%, compared to a national average of 13.7%.
However, ideologically they are one of the most unapologetically right-leaning governments since Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, many of them go to great lengths to uphold Thatcherism. Members of this Cabinet have been vocal opponents of inclusion and any programmes, initiatives or narratives that promote it. They have gone so far as to sponsor policy changes and reports that play down inequity of any kind.
The irony is that the Labour and Lib Dem parties, which pride themselves on being more inclusive, don’t have leadership or representation in this way. They don’t even come close. The prequel to black squares and broken promises it seems.
Whatever our views on Brexit, immigration, economic disparity and other issues that put some off voting Tory, they have been in power for 12 years. Unchecked because the opposition opted for weak instead of brave leadership. Labour, under Jeremy Corbyn, came a bit close. Still, even then, typical Labour strongholds voted against him and switched to Tory.
I would argue that for now, the right has won the culture war and not just because the Health Secretary has a Dr Dre song as her phone alarm.
With this kind of Cabinet, the Conservatives can push back against accusations of Britain being a racist country. The media are behind Liz Truss - at least until she drops the ball on a big issue or two. But ideologically, this motley crew have won the culture war, and I am hard-pressed to see how other political parties could steal this march from them.
We shall see.
