Vest Is Best

This is the first of many Vesting Days. The Government's logic for renationalising Northern Rail applies to all of the franchises, and there will be many more nationalisations besides between now and the General Election of 2029. 

The line above which social democracy is allowed and even required because "that's what they like up there" has been moved from the Scottish Border to a frontier that runs from the Wash to the Bristol Channel. But public demand further south will see it moved to sight of France over the next decade, especially since, for example, you cannot abolish NHS charges in the North of England but not in the South. It cannot be done.

Tim Leunig's position of pulling out of the "failed" North has always also been the position of pulling out of any British food production sector as well. I am all in favour of farm subsidies, but the economists whom the British Right usually revere not only despise them, but do so with a particular venom, and correctly point out that they subvert their argument against all sorts of other things. But the Conservatives are the farmers' party. In the end, everyone else is just a guest.

Still, the logic of pulling out of the "failed" North is to stop all food production in Britain as well. And vice versa. But Boris Johnson understands perfectly well that he owes his majority to people and places that voted for Jeremy Corbyn for 2017, and which would have done so again if it had not been for the Brexit that will not be an issue in 2024. He took 47 seats from Labour in 2019, and not only does he want to hold them, but he wants at least 47 more. Cash will be splashed as central government both directs the economy and participates directly in it.

There are those on his own side who have still not got the message. The Budget is going to come as quite a shock to them, and it will not be the last. Not only are they opposed to the implementation of John McDonnell's economic programme, made possible by Brexit, but they are also opposed to the increasing post-Brexit emergence of a fully independent British foreign policy in all directions, including in relation to the United States. Oh, well, they could always vote for Keir Starmer.

They are also stuck forever in the mindset of "thick Northerners", "funny accents", and so on. They themselves tend to have the non-posh Southern accents that, unlike Northern ones, rarely turn up at all in cultural or political life. But hey, ho. 

And on this Saint David's Day, they might confront their derision of the Welsh language with a constituency map of North Wales. This is not new. In 1979, North Wales was such an important battleground that Labour and the Conservatives both had manifesto commitments to set up a Welsh-language television station. Margaret Thatcher honoured that commitment.

When it comes to the characters that were once portrayed by Harry Enfield, then it is not their party now. It is just that they have nowhere else to go. Well, unless you count Starmer's Labour. And the Conservative Party knows it. Elsewhere, however, the Conservatives do need to face the competition in which they profess to believe. 

Ours is the 2020 Vision of a new political party, a new think tank, a new weekly newspaper, a new monthly cultural review, a new quarterly academic journal, and so much else besides. I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.