Now is a time for stateswomen
In the weird chaos of the past few days, one tweet doing the rounds has simultaneously amused and terrified me. It’s a joke, featuring a mug shot of the chancellor, George Osborne, fashioned into a missing person poster.
The height of twitter banter, I’m sure.
But seriously, we’re now into day day three of a major national crisis. Tomorrow, the markets will open again after a weekend of zero public assurances from the UK’s finance minister.
It’s an extraordinary — indeed, unprecedented — abdication of leadership. And George Osborne is not alone. The prime minister is nowhere to be seen. Nowhere. Boris Johnson, the leader of the Leave campaign, has made no public appearances since morbidly declaring victory on Friday morning. He’s playing cricket. Daniel Hannan, the MEP at the forefront of the Leave campaign, is taking a break from social media. Pet. It’s not his fault the country has descended into fear and loathing. Oh, wait…
Labour, of course, are obsessed with themselves — battling with the latest in a series of existential crises.
In this country’s greatest hour of need — in the eye of a storm entirely of their own making — our political leadership has evaporated.
The government barely functions, now. Consumed by his own leadership manoeuvres, Boris Johnson’s failure to speak directly and regularly to the British people has created a vacuum which is being filled with confusion, and rage. More and more, as leading lights from Leave back-track on the very foundations of their campaign and retreat into nowhere, it’s becoming clear that few of these people believed they could win.
That vacuum matters. It’s being filled with hate. As the prime minister huffs and his heir-apparent plays cricket, eastern European residents of this country — many of whom have called the UK home for years — face intimidation of the most vile order on the streets of our ‘brave new country’.
This is a heartbreaking time. It frightens the living hell out of many of us to see flagrant racism make its way into our day-to-day life.
“When are you lot going home?”
That is our new Britain.
What happens after another week of this vacuum? How about two weeks? What kind of country will we live in by October, when we are set to have a prime minster chosen for us who does mind “doing the hard shit.”
Where are the statesmen? Gone.
The stateswomen, on the other hand — here, there is hope. Nicola Sturgeon is a redoubtable voice of decisive reassurance in the deluge. The first minister’s address on Friday was calm, and assuredly authoritative. Viewers will have been left in no doubt who, in Scotland at least, was in control of the state of the nation.
The first minister’s subsequent interventions over the course of the weekend have been designed to build a narrative around the Scottish government’s actions to secure the future in the EU that Scots voted for in large numbers.
We have seen the first minister moot a #indyref2, sure. But what will cheer the portion of the population who voted Remain but are still unsure about independence is the first minister’s willingness to keep all options on the table — including refusing consent from the Scottish parliament, and exploring a solution akin the arrangement of the Danish states’s relationship with the EU.
Crucially, every day since the referendum result, the first minister has been able to report progress in her efforts. Her ability to engage with European leaders stands in the starkest of contrast to virtually every single political leader in London.
In Scotland, our first minister has given us hope. My heart goes out to friends in England. Their leaders’ silence bodes ill for their political prospects.
On Wednesday, I wrote about my post-Leave fears. I genuinely fear a weakened EU which gives succour to the Putins, Orbans, and Le Pens of this world. I fear for the rise of strident illiberalism on this continent.
Oddly, part of me has always sought comfort in feeling like the UK, for all its many flaws, would counter this tidal wave of autocracy. That we would stand as a remedy to darkness choking European politics.
No now. Not in a country where racial intimidation goes without condemnation or answer from our prime minister. Not in a country where our incoming class of political leaders are allowed to disavow themselves of fundamental promises that were blatantly untrue to begin with.
In answer to a tweet from Sky’s Adam Boulton in which the anchor reported an incidence of racial intimidation he had witnessed, the leader of Leave.EU campaign replied by mocking him — saying he doubted he knew any Leave voters. This anecdote requires no embellishment.
Now is a time for statesmen and stateswomen. While Nicola Sturgeon delivers a masterclass in crisis management and genuine political leadership, London’s burning. And Boris is playing cricket.
