Sunday 22 October 2023

Andrew Neil

Any serious student of British politics knows that Andrew Neil is of the right and a Brexiteer. He has always denied the latter of course, but you don’t get to be editor of The Sunday Times or Chairman of The Spectator by being anywhere near the left and it's pretty obvious that he supports leaving the EU. I've never seen him offer the slightest criticism of Brexit ever and more often than not the articles he writes for The Daily Mail look like they could have come from John Redwood or Bill Cash. I would go so far as to say Neil is on the extreme right.

His latest effort for the Mail is this one: If Rishi Sunak loses the election next year, it'll be because he's not been Tory enough - or even AT ALL

I assume the title came from a sub-editor as clickbait rather than Neil himself but nonetheless, it's a fair summary of his piece:

Note this was tweeted approvingly by Getting Britain Moving@UKAndNIasOne, an account with 18,000 followers which describes itself thus: Stop this Woke virtual signaling Now #NeverLabour Defund the BBC & start watching GB News. Enoch Powell was Right. Be like Poland/Hungary. Stop Imigration [sic] Now

Frightening isn't it?  I suppose I ought to be shocked that the views of a man like Andrew Neil - a former BBC political show host - could be retweeted with the blessing of someone who thinks Enoch Powell was right and wants to defund the nation's premier and globally admired broadcaster. But I'm not.

Neil rips into Sunak and his record after the disastrous losses in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.

This is part of it:

"It is a dismal catalogue of woe which has condemned the Sunak government to inaction. No radical supply-side reforms — such as a bonfire of red tape — to pep up the economy, a la Thatcher (the Treasury has convinced Sunak they don't work), no tax cuts to encourage enterprise and incentives (we 'can't afford them'), no strategy for growth, without which nothing is possible. Instead, the policy is simply to plough on regardless."

Seven years after the referendum, with him having interviewed all the major protagonists several times and after the Tories have spent thirteen years (they began in 2010) and five (5!!) prime ministers searching without success for this "bonfire of red tape" he still believes it exists.

And this is despite Neil living a life of ease in France where all the EU red tape he complains of is still extant and arguably makes that country what it is and what he likes about it. It is like sawing through the branch you're sitting on.

Truss and Kwarteng tried the tax cut routine last year and we all know how that went.

Neil's piece popped up in the very same week that the credit agency Moody's dropped its negative outlook on the UK, saying that "policy predictability has been restored" following last year's mini-budget as it noted the UK's "more conciliatory" approach to EU trade, an approach which Sunak has been forced to follow.  What Neil is calling for is more policy unpredictability and a less conciliatory approach to EU trade.

Moody's also said:

"Increased friction due to Brexit had slowed the UK's bid to reduce inflation, which it sees returning to its 2% target in 2026" and "Greater co-operation with the EU may reduce Brexit-related uncertainty and boost the UK's economic growth."

It follows the move of S&P, another credit reference agency, which also dropped its negative outlook in April.

I am not sure Andrew Neil realises what a precarious state the UK's finances are in with debt interest expected to reach £100bn this year, the highest in the developed world according to the FT.  Sunak or whoever replaces him will face the same problem.

And on that topic, note our fiscal problems haven't prevented 20-25 letters of no confidence going into Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 backbench committee. There are Tory MPs who want to see Sunak ditched with a little over 12 months to go to an election and with Britain relying more than ever on international bankers to prop up government spending.

I think it shows just how deranged right-wing politics has become under the Tories, ushered in firstly by David Cameron who at least tried to fight it, and later by Boris Johnson who kicked out any remaining moderates and invited a lot of UKIP/Brexit Party types in. 

This hasn't stopped the inexorable pull to the right with Tice and his Reform Party having taken over the reins egged on by GB News - Britain's answer to Fox. For some, there is no such thing as too far to the right. In fact, wherever on the right a UK prime minister positions themselves, it is never quite far enough.

Labour needs to win in 2024 so we can remove these fringe elements from any further damaging influence before Britain goes totally bankrupt.

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