It is glorious, unifying and a vindication of Western civilisation in an uncivilised age. It will build greater accountability by reviving in Britain the golden rule of democracy that the people govern the state, not the reverse.
The elitist ranks of the European Union failed to shame Britons into surrendering their sovereignty. The Brexit campaign led to an informal voting alliance between conservatives and the working class.
The long-held view that economics matters more than culture in predicting voting preferences is under scrutiny. Research conducted after the first Brexit referendum showed that, for Brexiteers, self-determination was a major issue. Britons wanted to exit the EU to regain power over sovereign borders and control the decisions that affected them most.
In the recent UK election, voters once again affirmed culture matters. In Lord Ashcroft polls, Tory voters ranked their top five priorities in order of importance as: Brexit; the National Health Service/hospitals; the economy and jobs; having the right leadership; and immigration.
The contest for Boris Johnson’s seat was a miniature version of the cultural clash between Brexiteers and EU loyalists. As the conservative candidate, Johnson defended the values of the West, namely freedom of thought and speech; public reason; an apolitical and independent judiciary; and the right to self-determination made manifest by democratic nationalism.
Johnson’s Labour opponent, Ali Milani, led a campaign of tiresome identity politics and xenophilia. In an interview with Left Foot Forward, Milani complained about racism and “Islamophobia”. He said that the first time he seriously considered standing for the seat was when “Boris Johnson made one of his racist comments”. Yet he could not remember the offending comment. Like many of the modern left, Milani appears so enchanted by identity politics that he resembles the second coming of Narcissus. Consider his stated reason for entering politics: “The reason I chose to stand is I think there is something deeply interesting and deeply attractive about someone who is an immigrant, who grew up on a council estate, who is a Muslim.”
Politicians are renowned for vainglory, but Milani’s heroic ode to self is delightfully comical.
Like many members of the modern left, Milani over-estimated his appeal and underestimated the intelligence of voters, who sought something more than a poster boy for identity politics. On election day, he tweeted: “We have RATTLED the PM! Now let’s *BEAT* him!” The voters didn’t share his enthusiasm. Instead, they returned the British PM to office. Milani suffered a 2.4 per swing against him.
The left is swift to denounce Brexiteers as uneducated, racist, xeno/homo/Islamophobes. Trump voters and conservatives in general receive the same treatment. But if leftists are so smart, why do they keep losing elections? The consensus opinion in green-left enclaves is that it’s “populism wot dunnit”.
The losers’ lament is amusing. Although not hilarious in the style of Democrat voters’ Twitter tantrums following Trump’s election, the UK left is holding its own. Witness TV producer Phillip Collinson, who lashed out at fellow Britons after the third democratic vote to get Brexit done. On Twitter, he exclaimed: “I’m done! Hard Brexit. Bring it on. Make Kent a car park. Serves all those stupid working-class voters right who believe Boris and his mates.” That should go down well with Collinson’s Coronation Street fans.
The illusion that only stupid people vote conservative cocoons the left like a tearstained comforter. It makes the progs feel better but prevents them from growing up. While research suggests people with lower levels of formal education are swinging away from the traditional left, there is little robust data on the relative intelligence of voting groups by party preference.
In the information age, the uneducated could be better informed about general politics than university-educated people who specialise in a technical field, for example. And there is no shortage of highly educated people who champion the conservative cause.
English philosopher Roger Scruton is a good example of a conservative English patriot dedicated to positive nationalism and Western civilisation. He left the left in the 1960s after the student movements for civil rights turned violent. He embraced conservative philosophy and became a professor. Scruton’s academic career came to an end after he made the editorial decision to publish an article critical of multiculturalism education in the Salisbury Review.
Earlier this year, Scruton was punished for his conservative philosophy once more. In the New Statesman, deputy editor George Eaton revised the text of an interview with Scruton and presented him as an anti-Semite. When the full transcript was later made available, Scruton was vindicated.
But the damage was irreversible. In the Daily Mail, Scruton wrote: “I am portrayed as some kind of racist bigot. Eaton gave maximum publicity on social media to the article and reaffirmed its accuracy when questioned. A statement was released by the Labour Party denouncing me in terms so damaging that I cannot bring myself to repeat them. The Housing Secretary, James Brokenshire, then reacted, without consulting me, and I learned of my dismissal as I travelled back that day from Paris.” A few months later Scruton fell ill and was diagnosed with cancer.
Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison and Donald Trump differ in important ways, but they represent what the West’s fashionable bigots detest: white heterosexual men of Christian faith and conservative inclination. Like Scruton, they have been smeared for their skin colour, birth sex and defence of free-world values. However, Western voters have rejected the left’s culture of fear, censorship and fashionable bigotry.
In Australia and Britain, millions of people have reaffirmed their faith in freedom, family and democracy. At the end of a difficult year, we can toast Christmas and know its legacy endures.
Labor is building a more resilient island for uncertain times
This election is a choice between the stability we are providing and our plan to build Australia’s future, and the risk posed by our opponents.
Sure, there’s some unity on defence, but we need a real strategy
We have a Coalition with a big pledge to increase defence spending with no detail and no plan, and a government with a detailed plan but not enough money.
The momentous verdict on Brexit should provide justice for a people wronged by their government and the political media class. The resounding election victory for British Prime Minister and Brexiteer-in-chief Boris Johnson is the sound of democracy roaring.