08 December 2016
Left a Bit, Right a Bit
What it says on the tin.
by J.R.Thomas
A thoughtful sage on the BBC last week referred to Mr Trump’s victory in the Presidential contest as a part of an international phenomenon in politics: the rise of the extreme right. Mr Trump campaigned, readers may recall, on the basis of taxing the rich more so that they contributed to the reconstruction of the economy, of intervening more in the business arena to ensure American worker’s jobs were protected, and a programme of deficit financing with increased expenditure on public infrastructure to give the USA economy a kick start. A rather similar programme, in fact, to that of Bernie Saunders, the Democrat contender for the Presidential nomination in the primaries, defeated by Hillary Clinton. Although Mr Saunders had little to say on immigration; Mr Trump had a great deal to say – he is, in case you have forgotten, against it.
On Sunday last the Austrian Freedom party suffered an unexpected defeat in presidential elections, when the Green Party won by a margin of about 6%. Neither party was of any significance in Austrian politics ten years ago and their policies are rather similar, though the Freedom Party is very much against freedom of immigration and the Green Party less so.
In the UK, Mrs May replaced David Cameron as Prime Minister, this being characterised by the Labour party as a swing to the right. Some modernist Conservative Party members agreed, but more traditional Thatcherite Conservative Party members saw the party as moving left.
In the Richmond by-election last week, held so that liberal leaning (Gladstonian, that is, not Farronian) Zac Goldsmith might purify his soul in relation to his opposition to the proposed Heathrow Airport extension (a position largely shared by his constituents though a survey a few years ago showed that those same voters are amongst the highest air mileage users in the country), Mr Goldsmith was defeated by the Liberal Democrats (Farron, not Gladstone). The Liberal Democrat leader said this showed them to be the new party of the left. Voter surveys in the by-election showed however that the result seemed to be a rejection of Mr Goldsmith’s pro “Leave” views, a position supported in other parts of the UK by Labour voters – though the leftwing Labour Party leadership continues to generally take a Remain stance.
Confused? Let us try France. Mme Le Pen, leading her right wing National Front Party (though her father says it is his National Front Party and that she is a dangerous lefty) continues to dominate the debate in the forthcoming Presidential election. Not so far right, ex-President Sarkozy was beaten by his former protégé Francois Fillon, who also saw off Alain Juppe in the primary for nomination for Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. This must not be confused of course with a party of a similar name in the United States of America. The French Republican Party is a loose coalition of right leaning groups which come together every five years or so to argue voraciously amongst themselves and to select the candidate that is least disliked by party members. Actually, maybe it can be confused very easily with American version but certainly it has not produced a French Donald Trump this time (M. Sarkozy might have fulfilled the role, but that was ten years ago). M Fillon is described as old right, which we are told characterises him as being against immigration, a traditionalist, supporting the Catholic Church but distrusting Islam, wanting to cut tax rates, and as a free marketer wanting to bring a dose of Thatcherite economics to France. Mme Le Pen, further right, is against church involvement in France, wants an interventionist approach to the economy, higher tax rates on wealthier citizens; she is also against any large scale immigration and does not like Islam.
Meanwhile on the Left, M Hollande, the present President has announced that he is withdrawing from the fight, fearing being beaten in the Left primary by his former protégé Manuel Valls. Mr Valls is described as a member of the moderate left; unlike M Hollande who in his five year Presidency has been seen as Left, Right, and Centrist, sometimes all at the same time. None of these positions did him any good though – he is the least popular President in French history.
The fight now begins to avoid coming third in the first round of the contest next January – only the top two get to go through to the second round a week later. Current betting is that it will be Mr Valls who will be taking the early bath, leaving a straight fight between the right and the right. Not bad for a country where the left is seen so often as the dominant force.
Having clarified France, let us move on to Italy. Well, maybe not.
You probably are getting the idea that the western world democracies do seem to be swinging to the right; and that there is a strong feeling on the right against immigration. This is now been labelled as “populism” in some quarters. You may also recall that there was a strong swing to the right in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, led by the election of Mrs Thatcher in the UK and President Reagan in the USA, and the adoption of the policies pioneered by them across the world. But those right wing policies, never described as populism, are not those of today’s right wing. Those right wingers were liberals in the old fashioned sense that WE Gladstone would have cheerfully espoused. They wanted lower tax, less state spending, less regulation (remember Big Bang?), more freedom. They did also, it is true, want more spending on defence and on the police. And generally, given that immigration is usually something that voters are not keen on, they were not pro-immigration, but not especially against it either, and understood its economic benefits in allowing free movement of labour to maximise liberty and efficiency just as free movement of capital did. Mr Trump does not represent much, if any, continuity of thought or belief from the Reagan Republicans – although Gary Johnson, the third placed, Libertarian, candidate did.
What the modern right want is more controls, and less liberalism. They tend towards the isolationist, the interventionist, and the removal of the privileges of the rich. They are in truth not that different from modern Leftists in policies and practicalities, though very different in philosophy and in vision. The big difference from their predecessors is the approach to immigration, of both the economically mobile and of impoverished refugees. To a greater or lesser extent, that is now a given for all major western political parties, for opportunistic reasons in left circles; the politician who would dare say now ““Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” would very soon be looking for a new career.
Eighteenth century England had Whigs and Tories, evolving into nineteenth century Liberals and Conservatives. In spite of some dilution of the conservative aspects of Conservatism by Disraeli, who never could resist pulling a fast one on Mr Gladstone by stealing his policies , those names also described pretty accurately what went on inside the tin. And Labour and Socialism gave a further and accurate description of who the target voters were and what the objective was. And the Green Party, we concede, is an accurate description of what that political phenomenon is about – and not infrequently as to its newbie innocence.
But Conservatives? Liberals? Labour? Time for rebranding surely, to end the labelling confusion. Let’s abandon the old Left/Right nomenclature. Given that all of the parties seem to currently espouse more or less the same policies on economics, and are not that far adrift on many social issues (we except Brexit and the degree of anti-immigration rhetoric) that is not easy. But if Sainsbury and Tesco and Asda and Morrison can achieve clear differentiation then surely politicians can? Any ideas, dear readers? Maybe the editor will allow a small prize for the most suitable new name for each of the three historic UK political parties (no vulgarities please (unless very funny)).
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