Tory peer Baroness Warsi could not be clearer about her opinion of Suella Barverman. She has said that Braverman uses racist rhetoric. She thinks it so dangerous that she has advised her British Pakistani father to take extreme care when walking to his home from his mosque.
The Guardian has said in an editorial today, having referred to Lady Warsi's comments, that:
Braverman's recklessness is not careless. It is a strategy. She doesn't do nuance, accuracy or thoughtfulness. She does what advances the cause closest to her heart, of becoming Conservative leader.
They are accusing her of being deliberately racist to advance her personal agenda and career.
I have described Braverman as not just racist but fascist. I am quite convinced that is correct. Some Tories seem not far from that view and are worried by it. But as the Guardian also notes:
The question now, as Lady Warsi points out, is to know who owns the racist rhetoric strategy and then put an end to it. Is it a Conservative party approach that is intended to stoke fear and anger as the general election nears? Or is it part of Ms Braverman's own plans to keep herself in the headlines and parade herself as the candidate of the hard right? The real concern is that it is a mix of both, and that Mr Sunak, by embracing the stopping of the small boats as one of his five pre-election aims and putting Ms Braverman in charge of it, is himself complicit in the home secretary's theatre of cruelty.
What is your opinion?
Is Suella Braverman a lone racist in the Tory party, or is it becoming institutionally racist?
- The Tories are on the path to fascism (64%, 384 Votes)
- The Tories are becoming institutionally racist (28%, 167 Votes)
- I'm abstaining, but show me the results anyway (5%, 28 Votes)
- She and Sunak are acting in unison, but the party does not share their views (3%, 17 Votes)
- She is a lone voice (1%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 600
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I think that there has always been an undercurrent of racism in the country, see the Smethwick “if you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour” by election of 1964. Although I don’t think it was the real driver, Brexit was sold on visceral anti immigrant sentiment.
The difference now is that racism has become more visible and vocal and in a sense more acceptable. I do not believe that Mrs Braveman has thought through the wider ramifications. She does see this as a means to her personal ends and therefore justified in her eyes. The fact that it appeals to a swathe of the population is what makes her believe in it as a means to those ends.
I remember so clearly those days. I was involved in local politics and had just begun my first year ‘A’ Level studies at a Birmingham grammar school close to the border with Smethwick. The PM, Harold Wilson, greeted the newly elected Smethwick MP, Peter Griffiths, as a ‘parliamentary leper’, but it’s interesting that Mr Speaker, a Conservative, did not rule the PM out of order. Griffiths passed off the election slogan as never having said the words, but is reported to have said, ‘I would not condemn any man who said that.’ Although the wonderful Andrew Faulds took Smethwick off the Tories, we easily forget that Griffiths re-emerged in Portsmouth North from 1979-1997. I am afraid that Griffiths’s DNA still mutates in today’s politics, but also let’s not forget that in the 1960s, Smethwick Labour Club operated a colour bar.
The last was common
No blacks
No dogs
No Irish
Dogs and the Irish are now by and large welcome
But the racist sentiment survives
I think we have to be careful about making generalisations. On the other hand, we have to expect people to call out racism, and other isms, where they are seen. It’s called collective responsibility.
If people do not call our racism they condone it
My view is that Braverman my not be a fascist per se, and the Tory party may not be fascist per se, but under the guidance of their new election expert Isaac Levido whom I understand to have worked with Lynton Crosby (who brought fascism to Australia), they will be encouraged to use fascist political science of which racism is just one of its tools.
The whole idea is to whip up people’s dark side and prevent a significant rump emerging to knock the Tories off their perch and create conditions to perpetuate it creating the ground for a possible comeback if they lose the next election.
So, in my view the worst that can be said of Braverman and Co is that they are unprincipled – desperate even – and dangerous. Anything is worth doing in the pursuit of or retention of power.
At some point in what is left of our future, we must outlaw fascist rhetoric – excise it from public discourse. Because it’s only going to get worse.
The American essayist, H L Mencken said’ “To every complex problem there is always a simple solution and it is invariably wrong”. I think that we may be seeing that in action.
She is certainly not alone.
I think the Tory party is the home of the “I’m not a racist, but…” crowd.
Then there is this.
A Conservative politician is being investigated over racist comments after allegedly saying “all white men should have a Black slave”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/andrew-edwards-tory-racist-pembrokeshire-b2318637.html
It’s 2023 and whether the Tories are racist or just a home to some doesn’t alter the fact that they play to those that are racist, like stop the boats. They have been doing that for a long time, but it is just getting worse. They know it is an emotive subject and the Tories do love to blame foreigners for our often self inflicted (Tory inflicted) ills. Like the Dover crossing holdups – blame the French, they are punishing us for Brexit. Delays at Dover are what people, well, 52%, voted for whether they knew it would happen or not. It was inevitable, but Tories (Braverman again) say blame the foreigners. All the French are doing is taking back control. That sounds familiar.
Warsi is a one nation Tory. She is probably in a minority in the Tory party now. She is one of few Tories who is standing up and against what the modern Tory party seems to represent. Good for her.
Braverman has learned from Liz Truss and is playing the long game. The lesson of Truss’s rise (and an obvious one) is you need only focus your appeal on the next electorate that will further your political career. It’s clear the next election is already lost for the Tories, and that following that there will be a leadership election. So the relevant constituency Braverman has to appeal to (assuming she doesn’t lose her seat) is not the general public but firstly the rump of Tory MPs that will survive the General Election, and following that the Tory party membership. I suspect her present strategy is therefore politically coherent and fear it may well prove successful on both counts- witness her rising star in the Conservative Home cabinet approval ratings.
I’m pretty sure the Tories are already institutionally racist and so are Labour, the civil service, the legal system, the school system and the mainstream media. The whole thing about institutional racism is that it pervades all of society. So “are becoming institutionally racist” is not accurate.
There’s an interesting exploration of modern fascism on the Politics Theory Other podcast: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/fascist-echoes-w-adam-tooze