Politics: the supreme psychodrama

By Richard North - October 23, 2022

It is perhaps a truism that most political journalists have no real interest in politics – as in the development and implementation of policy. Rather, they are attracted to the field by the human interest drama, recording the bubbling cesspit of the Westminster (and Whitehall) soap operas – their WestEnders which outclasses the lower order version set in a fictional (and largely uninteresting) part of the East End of London.

So it is that even the Sunday Times hacks are describing this latest iteration of the never-ending Tory leadership contest as “the supreme psychodrama”, as they concede that [only] some senior Tories “are still thinking about the good of the country and the economy” – thus making the tacit admission that most aren’t.

But even if there is a vanishingly small number of Tories concerned with the national interest, they won’t get a hearing in the media today, as the soap opera narrative reigns supreme and the manoeuvrings of the dramatis personae dominate endless pages of print and the torrent of words flowing from breathless broadcasters.

In truth, although feeble minds might be attracted to the false drama of the soap opera, as is the moth to a flame, in the real world barely touched by the narrative, people are more concerned with their own daily lives, and the brutal struggle of making ends meet in a predatory system where millions are struggling with electricity bills and food banks are running out of food.

For people on the edge, and many more, it is a matter of complete indifference as to whether the Tory party members choose a congenital liar and bumbling fool for their leader, or a filthy rich “citizen of nowhere” who has just splashed out (to coin a phrase) thousands on a new private pool in the grounds of his £1.5 million mansion and finds no difficulty in paying heating costs of about £14,000 a year.

It is this, as I warned earlier, that ensures Sushi won’t pass the “f**k off” test. This is the one where he stands up and tells the nation: “We’re all in this together”, calling for unity in achieving a common goal. If he gets that reaction, which undoubtedly he will, he fails the test – ruling him out as a suitable candidate for prime minister.

Even if the others are even less credible, this was probably an unspoken element in the Tories’ choice of Miss Trussed as the replacement for the Oaf, and it may still be a factor in driving the members back into his arms when they are asked again to decide who they want as a leader.

And, although it will never be admitted openly, there are many who feel distinctly uneasy about giving the keys of No.10 to a man of Indian heritage, with a formerly non-dom Indian citizen for a wife, who has no emotional or financial commitment to this country.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the endless multicultural hectoring in TV adverts and in contemporary film and television drama, in a nation where 85 percent still identify as “white British”, it is too much of a leap for some to have the highest political office in the land held by a member of an ethnic minority.

Nevertheless, such is the detachment from reality of Tory MPs, locked in the unreal world of the Westminster bubble, that they are prepared to present their country members with a choice between the undesirable and the seriously unwanted, and expect them to make a rational decision.

To relieve the members from an impossible choice, some MPs believe they can stitch-up their captive electorate by brokering a deal between the Oaf and Sushi, in the hope that they will stand on a joint ticket and avert a Conservative civil war.

Since that worked so well last time, it is unsurprising that one former Cabinet minister thinks it is too late. “I am pessimistic about whether it can be achieved”, he told the Sunday Telegraph. “I suspect the party is too divided, with too much bad blood circulating over the last few years, to survive six to nine months, whoever wins the contest”.

However, it seems that a meeting is going ahead, even though there is a strong feeling that Sushi is surging ahead and the Oaf is struggling to attract enough MPs to support his leadership bid.

Although those supporting the Oaf claim that he has attracted 100 supporters, there are suspicions that this is an exaggeration and the actual number of confirmed supporters falls far short of the qualifying level. With that, there seems an outside chance that he might not even make it to the first vote, leaving Sushi as the last man standing, free to walk into No.10 after meeting the King.

Whether this will be enough to bring unity to the party cannot be said, but if the process leaves the constituency parties feeling cheated, it will not auger well for the general election when the members will be expected to turn out and campaign for their candidates,

For the future, much depends on what The Times suggests is the ability of the Conservatives to restore political and financial stability under their next leader. If they cannot, the paper says, a general election will become inevitable.

Above all, the paper says, restoring stable government means providing a government that is indeed stable. Britain, it tells us – as if we didn’t know already – faces immense challenges beyond the immediate priority of restoring market confidence and responding to the economic crisis.

No one will disagree with its assertion, though, that public services remain under unprecedented strain, inequalities between regions and generations are widening, and much of the country’s infrastructure is faltering. Addressing these challenges requires a period of serious sober government that does not over-promise and under-deliver.

That means, The Times tells us, there can be no repeat of the theatrics of the past few years. There can be no rerun of the scandals that dominated politics in the first half of this year, which culminated in the resignation of half the government. There must be an end to the hyperactive flow of half-baked policy announcements from Downing Street that fall apart under scrutiny.

But it is going to take more than a new leader to achieve this, even if by some miracle he is vaguely competent (which rules out the Oaf). Good policy and timely implementation are the end product of the political process, with multiple inputs and many different actors. Where the system is terminally broken, the amount a new face in Downing Street can achieve is extremely limited.

And this is where the emphasis on the soap opera is letting us down. As the hacks focus on the personalities, there is rarely any attention given to the workings of the political machinery which enable governments to deliver. Instead, politicians such as the Oaf have emerged, who feed the ravenous appetite of the media for personal drama.

While everything is attributed to a single leader, the media is creating an impossible challenge which would take a superman to meet. What is really needed is a period of undemonstrative consolidation where the emphasis is on rebuilding the machinery of government. In its emphasis on the performance of a single individual, the only possible outcome of the soap opera is political failure.

Whoever becomes the next leader, though, nothing of substance is going to change. The poison of the 24-hour media cycle is not going to allow any government a period of quiet retrenchment, and space to fix the broken bits – even if it had the capability and the will to address the issues.

Thus, we are doomed to be entertained by the never-ending WestEnders soap opera, where scrutiny of the detail of government is subdued by the constant appetite for stories about plots, controversy and personal conflict. And soon enough, we will get the election that Starmer so much wants, only to find that it makes very little difference.