For for as long as I can remember, our country has been defined by what we might call three fundamental truths that we consider British: firstly, our commitment to freedom, tolerance and the rule of law; secondly, our instinct for fairness; and thirdly, as an island and a trading nation, our commitment to engage with the world.
And while in the heat of an election battle it is hard to see beyond the claims and counter-claims on taxes, spending and immigration, it is clear to me that there is much more at stake on 4 July than the headlines suggest. For while the prejudices of Nigel Farage and his supporters dominate right-wing thinking and poison the national debate, it is these three core British values that he and his fellow travellers reject that I believe must be defended.
By pandering to Farage’s whims, the Conservatives have given in to a far-right agenda. While Farage has belatedly disavowed the racist views of some reformist candidates, He refused to expel Bexhill and Battle standard-bearer Ian Gribbin, who had said Britain would have been better off if we had “accepted Hitler’s offer of neutrality”. Gribbin later said “I apologise for those old comments and withdraw them unreservedly”, but his remarks had already been amplified by the party’s official response that his “historical perspective of what the UK might have done in the 1930s… is probably true”. A new, entirely inaccurate history of Britain is being written by Farage and his cronies, and recent weeks have seen the right capitulate to the far right which is dividing the country into those who are “in” and those who are considered “out”.
Let us take the idea of fairness first. What George Orwell called “decency” has always been underpinned by a strong sense of civic responsibility. As all the polls show, our country has never long believed in the idea that we are just selfish individuals, with no obligations to one another beyond the garden gate. This is reflected above all in the widespread support for pooling and sharing our resources fairly to fund our national health system, which Farage now wants to privatise.
But what is equally worrying is that the consensus that has been established since the Beveridge Report of 1942 – that through a distinctively British welfare state we could prevent “the five evils” of want, sickness, idleness, ignorance and destitution – is being undermined by Tory vindictiveness. By capping welfare benefits regardless of the family’s needs, by limiting rents regardless of the landlord’s asking price, by denying every newborn child the right to benefits, the Tory government has broken the link between the mouths we need to feed and the basic support we need to do so. It was once widely believed that ‘social security’ was there to rid us of the shame of need, but today it is the food bank, not the welfare state, that is becoming our national safety net, and people are being forced to rely on charity rather than universal credit as a last line of defence against destitution. I have never seen poor people so humiliated and stigmatised.
Second, we have consistently championed and, more importantly, popularised around the world the importance of fundamental civil liberties and the rule of law. I and many other British leaders have spoken glowingly of the “golden thread” that connects the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Bill of Rights of 1689 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) of 1950 and the Human Rights Act of 1998. Yet, from Boris Johnson’s unprecedented prorogued Parliament to avoid scrutiny and his denigration of judges in the exercise of their constitutional function, to attacks on the very legal instrument – the ECHR – that Churchill and his colleagues created, his successors have now systematically undermined the rule of law. In fact, the law and order party is now considering abandoning the ECHR – something that even Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has no intention of doing.
The measures follow ministerial orders to government lawyers to proceed with the drafting of legislation that ignores international legal conventions and aligns the UK with “illiberal democracies” such as Hungary and Turkey. Five more years of Conservative rule puts Britain at risk of becoming an outlier in the truly democratic world. As Keir Starmer has said, a Britain that sticks to its values should never find itself an international “pariah”.
Thirdly, the British have never seen the Channel as a chasm that separated them from Europe and beyond, but as a highway to the world, making us a country of traders, merchant adventurers, missionaries and diplomats. The far right wants to pretend that Britain is better off when it stands apart and aloof, rejecting what it calls “involvement” with foreigners, on the grounds that cooperation between countries will always undermine national sovereignty. By leaving even more European bodies like the ECHR, we would be admitting that we can never again be a leader in Europe. Such thinking is based on the illusion that closing the door to cooperation will make us stronger. But Britain is at its best when it is outward-looking – as it was when leading the last century’s struggle in Europe against fascism, totalitarianism, anti-Semitism and racism, and as it could be again under the aegis of the internationalism articulated by David Lammy.
We face a more fundamental choice than whether to cut or raise taxes, whether to cut or raise spending, or whether to reduce or increase migration. It is really about what kind of country we are and what kind of country we want to become. This general election offers us the chance to reject Farage’s version of Britain and reclaim our true country, and to show that greatness comes from standing up for our principles. To show that greatness comes from standing up for our culture, our history and our values. Indeed, July 4th would not only be the day we become independent from the Tories, but also the day we return to the values that make us British. And in a world that is burning, that choice is more important today than it was a decade ago.
What turns pessimism into optimism is my firm belief that in the years to come, the values we traditionally defend can inspire a new generation of young people. Instead of the populist nationalism we see rising in France, a Labour government can strengthen cross-border cooperation to solve international crises, from pollution to pandemics, from poverty to migration, from financial instability to international terrorism.
So this election is going to be a test of whether we succumb to pessimism or embrace hope. In this election, we can either add to the despair or we can give people hope. I choose hope.
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Gordon Brown was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010.
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