Reality TV has much in common with the Victorian novel. Themes of life, death and property provide edification as well as entertainment. So it is with the reality TV show that the Tory government has become.
Months of blunders and broken promise, betrayals and political assassinations have provided a cross between the gothic horrors of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here – something which may indeed come back to haunt Rishi Sunak sooner than he thinks.
The entertainment value of watching the machinations of Tory politics is undeniable but we in Ireland (who are equally gripped) have discovered – consciously or unconsciously – something else. The Tories are a mirror of the party which unsettles all political calculations – Sinn Féin.
This should not really surprise since elements of both parties are now dabbling with populist nationalism, even where it is at odds with stated party policy.
Last week the language used by UK home secretary Suella Braverman had a similar level of toxicity to that used by Sinn Féin councillor Michael Mulligan of Roscommon.
Asylum seekers are “an invasion”, said Braverman. “Nobody believes” they are all fleeing oppression, she said.
“A dumping ground” for refugees by the Government and “do-gooders”, is how Michael Mulligan described his town in an apparent break with the party’s stated policies.
Yes, anxiety about numbers exists – according to last week’s Irish Times/Ipsos poll 61 per cent of voters worry about accepting too many refugees – but that anxiety is clearly rooted in accommodation problems as nearly three-quarters support Ukraine even if it means hardship for ourselves.
Mulligan is a public representative. Does he realise Ireland acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has a legal obligation to provide safe haven for those fleeing oppression? Given that “non-re-foulment,” the core principle of the 1951 convention, forbids returning refugees to a persecuting country, the phrase “a dumping ground” is particularly obscene.
The UK, where Braverman has presided over shameful conditions for asylum seekers in a processing centre, is a signatory too. Which makes it all the more surprising that Sunak tolerates her tarnishing of the UK’s reputation in this regard. A large three-quarters of those seeking asylum in Britain are successful. We sometimes forget that only 51 per cent of the British voted for Brexit, and that despite the “borders” obsession of those who did, Britain institutionally is a decent civilised place.
Nobody wishes this winter of discontent on them – even if it was self-inflicted. Britain is in recession because an ill-conceived plan for unfunded tax cuts caused their economy – already severely tested by Brexit – to implode. Everything, pensions, government bond yields, mortgages, were affected.
It is difficult to decipher policies amid the Sinn Féin rhetoric but capricious unfunded tax cuts are in there. Its plans to abolish property tax will leave a hole in the exchequer – especially since corporation tax will be a declining commodity.
Then there’s the faint Euro-scepticism which can be detected between the lines of its tax statement; “the debt and deficit targets set up by the EU are designed to reduce the deficit, but carry a significant economic and human cost”. Is it seriously suggesting flouting the European Stability and Growth Pact which ensures fiscal responsibility? At a time like this? With the reality of our near neighbours’ experience under our noses?
And what about Mary Lou McDonald’s announcement at the ardfheis that Ireland under Sinn Féin will be “energy independent”. Whether she means energy nationalism or energy independence as spelt out in the EU plans for Green Deal targets is not clear. But the signs are not good.
Sinn Féin’s climate change policy is to oppose the carbon tax. In this – energy and climate change – the party is yet again in step with the Tories. Last year Boris Johnson’s cabinet rejected Sunak’s proposal of a “green tax” on road transportation, shipping, building heating and diesel trains which form 40 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions.
Perhaps this is why Sunak flip-flopped so damagingly on Cop27 – first declining, then acquiescing and finally robbing Keir Starmer’s policies. Only his sheer elegance as a person rescued his eco-reputation: he moved through the Buckingham Palace Cop27 reception as smoothly as if he shared King Charles’s passion for prioritising climate change.
It’s clear his U-turns will be executed as gracefully as Gorka Marques’s tangos on Strictly Come Dancing. Since Sunak is certain to surpass the Truss 40 days in the desert the behavioural insights of cabinet minister Michael Gove are handy. Last week he described how Johnson and Sunak “prepped” for prime minister’s questions. Sunak swotted every conceivable question Starmer might ask; Johnson got “a really intelligent aide to play Starmer”.
Cerebral Sunak replaces visceral Johnson but little changes. As Starmer has already found, for all his manners Sunak can strike below the belt. Former health secretary Hancock, having supported Sunak in all his leadership contests, waited in line to congratulate him on his victory. Sunak, in a lightning quickstep, ghosted him and was several ranks ahead before the hapless Hancock could blink.
Why? Certainly Hancock transgressed in lockdown – yes, but so did Sunak. Scott Fitzgerald would have a plausible explanation. Sunak is rich and the rich, as Fitzgerald said, are different. “They possess and enjoy early ... and even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they think they are better than we are.”
Forty-eight hours later Hancock signed up for I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here. Sunak has ensured the reality TV plays on.