A battle in a bigger culture war

I have tried over the last six years to look at the Brexit question mainly in terms of economics and deal with the politics only in so far as it distorts economic decision-making. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that Brexit is merely another front in what can broadly be termed a global culture war, defined as a conflict between conservative and liberal values. Perhaps the reason why I did not originally recognise Brexit in these terms is that we have never experienced such a phenomenon in the UK. Maybe the Thatcher era in the 1980s can be classified as a culture war but it always felt more of an economic than a social project, which is how I view it even thirty years on.

The election of Trump and the ongoing Brexit debate are merely the two most obvious manifestations of this clash. But it is happening elsewhere, too. In the course of this afternoon, I happened to read two German language newspaper articles within minutes of each other.  The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung led with a story about how the AfD in Germany “demands a "strong military" with "relentless" soldiers and a leading role in Europe. Their plans for the Bundeswehr are reminiscent of old times.” The subtext of the story was the appeal of the AfD to those wishing to relive past glories – something that the majority of Germans reject. Meanwhile in Switzerland, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung pointed out that not everyone holding views associated with right-wing politics are necessarily extremists (“to be against the "right" has developed into a kind of national  sport, particularly in Germany”). The warning from the NZZ was that we should beware the temptation to generalise, for in doing so we end up talking past each other and hardening attitudes rather than resolving our differences.

However, it is difficult to take such a stance when it has become apparent just how much damage is being inflicted on long-standing institutions in the pursuit of victory in the culture war. The office of President of the United States, to which large parts of the western world looks in order to provide moral and political leadership, is being used as a bully pulpit by a man not fit to occupy the Oval Office. The premiership of the UK is about to be handed to a man who has routinely lied in order to serve his own interests and is about to inherit a country whose institutions have been assailed as never before. Boris Johnson is one of the last people in politics to provide the sort of healing that his country needs.

Those promoting Brexit campaigned three years ago for a UK parliament to oversee UK laws (never mind the fact that it already did). Yet this did not prevent the government from trying to sideline it in a bid to deliver Brexit, and last year the government was found in contempt of parliament after refusing to publish the legal advice underpinning its Brexit decisions. Meanwhile the independent judiciary was characterised as enemies of the people whilst large parts of the press parrot politicians’ fact-free agenda, with one organ in particular paying a considerable sum to the man likely to be the UK’s next PM. The civil service has also come into the line of fire, with Sir Ivan Rogers,former Permanent Secretary to the EU, resigning in January 2017 when it became clear that ministers did not want to hear what he had to say. 

But the resignation of Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s Ambassador to Washington, following the leaking of confidential diplomatic information to the press, represents a new and sinister turn of events. We do not know who leaked the information and we can only speculate on the reasons. But the Ambassador’s position was totally undermined once Donald Trump refused to negotiate with him (and in the process confirmed Darroch’s views). By politicising diplomacy in this way, a line has been crossed. In effect, the US President has exercised his authority to determine who represents the UK in Washington. Where will it end? So far, the politicisation of central banking happening elsewhere has yet to infect the UK, but with the successor to Mark Carney to be chosen by the new government it is something to look out for.

It is all very well for the revolutionaries to want to overthrow the status quo but what do they propose to replace it with? To quote the late British politician Tony Benn – a firebrand member of the hard left in his day – there are five questions that should be posed to those seeking power: “What power do you have; where did you get it; in whose interests do you exercise it; to whom are you accountable; and how can we get rid of you?” These are questions that apply just as much to the defenders of the status quo as those who wish to overturn it, but what concerns me most is that the rebels cannot provide good answers to the third and fourth of these.

Any Leave supporters reading this will no doubt dismiss the arguments as more scare-mongering on the part of one who will not accept the democratic will of the people to leave the EU. But this is a much bigger issue than that. Whether or not the UK remains in the EU is far less important than maintaining the institutional framework around which the economy (and indeed the whole country) is organised. In the words of the economist Douglass C. North, “Institutions are the rules of the game in a society, the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction … They structure incentives in human exchange, whether political, social or economic.” Whether you are a Leaver or a Remainer; a liberal or a conservative; a supporter of the political left or the right, a country’s political and economic health is determined by the quality of its institutions. It is vital that they are not undermined.