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Cliffe notes; autumn changes

The following is a briefing on UK politics I wrote for my boss, Matthew Parris, on Tuesday 18th, covering the previous ten days. 

The air is chillier here now, and not just because of Autumn. Since you’ve been away, EU talks have stalled further. No Deal has risen in prominence. The prospect of economic disaster seems more real, and more worrying, than ever before. This is a step change. Speaking personally, the consequences of Brexit have always felt quite abstract for me. They still do, partly because there seem so many possible outcomes, but No Deal is beginning to get under my skin. Even worse is the problem we’ve had since the referendum: no big figure in either main party is willing to tell the truth, at least while the prospect of their own personal success still glimmers. But when has politics ever been different? The referendum, as we’ve said, changed those rules and those laws, but nobody seems to have noticed, and personal fulfilment, whether of ideology or selfish ambition, remains the interpretative lens for British politics, even as the eclipse of our status in the world suggests we ought to be reaching for a more existential one. 

The drift seems to be in Labour’s favour. At PMQs today, Jeremy Corbyn wiped the floor with Theresa May, as only both of them could. He was sharper than usual, tossing out whipsmart repartee, and trouncing the prime minister on the economy. As ever, though he won, he lacked anything resembling a killer touch. She went through the motions, like a Labour adviser playing the part of a generic Tory PM for the Leader of the Opposition to practice against. You know, ‘Labour government, debt & mess’, ‘Tories for the strong economy’. To jeers she talked about an energy cap bringing fairness, and you felt even more that her ‘Tory strong economy’ line was empty backbencher rote. 

Jeremy Cliffe, ex-Bagehot columnist and Economist Berlin Bureau chief, started a political party on twitter and then resigned twelve hours later from the leadership. I thought one of the more interesting aspects of his sally was the derisive reaction from political journalists. Put simply, there’s not much good faith out there. Yes Cliffe's idea was probably foolish and maybe it’s just Twitter. But Twitter can strangle things at birth. 

Another issue coursing through the body politic these last few days has been the continuing fallout from the Harvey Weinstein allegations. The hashtag #MeToo has been trending all over social media (by which I mean Facebook and Twitter), as women share their experiences of sexual harrassment, both in the workplace and in general life. The revelations have been astonishing and depressing. A huge portion of women appear to have been assaulted, groped, or aggressively pursued. It is generating a great deal of momentum. It may be that in twenty years we look back at the Weinstein scandal as a fundamental shift in male/female relations. There is a definite sense of watershed. But, as ever, the online world can be like sticking your head under the shower, you’re overwhelmed by the sound of the water, yet step outside and you can forget it in a moment. The trick is judging when the rubicon has been crossed, so to speak. At the least, I feel women will be much more confident in calling out, as the lexicon has it, inappropriate behaviour. There will too, no doubt, be a counter-revolution of sorts at some point. Indeed some of this has already taken place on the online pages of the Spectator, with the usual grim suspects (Young, Delingpole) duking it out with the forces of light. Fraser Nelson ought to cleanse the Spectator of their rubbish (the two predictables), no matter how many clicks they bring in.

In summary, there is, at some level, a sense of change: the Brexit talks appear to be going from bad to worse; the silent dominance of men over women appears to be close to ending. But support for Brexit has not fallen off a cliff, nor indeed has support for the Tories, despite their struggles. And it remains to be seen how quickly or effectively the online awakening about sexual harassment and assault will spread into the analogue world. 

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