Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Lament; a noun. As in “a week-long lament for the rule of law and Britain’s standing in the world”.

To lament; a verb. As in “I lament the end of a credible Conservative Government”.

Either way, it’s a sad tale and a sorry state of affairs.

Having focused my attention on the small “p” politics and goings on in Harrogate and surrounds for the past 16 weeks I find I need a refresher, to avert my gaze and take in vistas new.  It’s not so much that I’m tired, or that I think that the performance of Harrogate Borough Council is not worthy of attention.  Quite the reverse.  The great American Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas “Tip” O’Neill had it almost right when he said that “all politics is local” (when in fact it may be that ‘all that’s local is politics’).  No, it’s rather that, in respect of the council, I find myself in the first stage of grief; one of shock and denial, in which I inhabit a state of disbelief and numbed feelings.  I need to look away for a moment and think of something else, to find some hope.

So to Westminster, to the excitement and derring do of the national scene and to the swashbuckling antics of Enid Blyton character and Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.  The mop haired titan must be feeling the pressure.  On two fronts, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and the haunting return of Brexit.

Coronavirus rates of infection are climbing alarmingly again in many of our towns and cities.  Published by Public Health England, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and NHS Test and Trace, the government watchlist, in which places are categorised as places of ‘concern’ (green) as warranting ‘enhanced support’ (amber) or as requiring ‘intervention’ (red), is beginning to resemble New York’s 5th Avenue when the traffic lights turn and stop all north/south traffic.  The trend is not good.

In an attempt to avoid a second national lockdown and never one to let a good slogan go to waste, on September 9, the PM announced “The Rule of Six,” which means that, from tomorrow, no more than 6 Englishmen and Women can gather, indoors or out.  If we do we will be breaking the law.  But, I hear you cry, it would only be in, as Brandon Lewis MP said, a “very specific and limited way.”  Hang on.  Wait a minute. My apologies, I got my wires crossed there for a moment.  When the Northern Ireland Secretary said that he was actually talking about the fact that Britain looks like it is going to break international law by putting a bill to Parliament overriding elements of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.  Including parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiated and signed during Ripon’s own MP Julian Smith's tenure as predecessor to Brandon Lewis.

I’m of the opinion that the Conservative Party is the party of freedom.  Guardians of a rule of law based on the notion of individual sovereignty and responsibility.  Boris Johnson, if he believes anything, is a libertarian who thinks we should all be left alone to control our own lives, in so far as moral conduct and the law allows.  So it’s a world turned upside down in which this Prime Minister inflicts upon us restrictions on our movements and associations unprecedented in peacetime.  Rather than appealing to our moral code, appealing to our better angels if you will, the government is instead imposing a new penal code.  Clearly our government doesn’t trust us to behave properly and wants us punished when we don’t.

I’m also of the opinion that the Conservative Party is the party of law and order.  Which is to say that rules and their observance matter if we are to maintain a functioning and civilised society.  But Britain’s leaders govern by consent, within a legal framework. We have to trust our leaders to do the right thing, by us.  And our leaders have to work to maintain our trust if they are to have our consent to govern.  Yet the Rule of Six has a disquietingly fascistic sense to it, if not a black-shirt vibe then certainly brown.  Governing by consent this is not.

And breaking international law when it becomes inconvenient cannot be right.  The law is not an a la carte menu available only to the few, it’s a prix fixe with set options, for the mass market.  If our government feels able to break the law when it chooses then why shouldn’t we?  With our international reputation already tarnished badly by our Brexit shenanigans to date, redacting unilaterally the bits of the (already signed) Withdrawal Agreement is dishonourable and edges toward tin pot.  The government has lost credibility.  The EU says told you so.

Finally, all of this has wound up a bizarre coalition of Tory Big Beasts.  Thatcherite, Brexiteer Lords Howard and Lamont are joined, in their spluttering outrage at the latest turn of events and the actions of their own party’s government, by One Nation, Remainer Lords Heseltine and Gummer, as well of course as by Sir John Major.  I share their view.  So should every Conservative.  So should everyone.  If we don’t we are all diminished.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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