So-called moderates are mimicking populist demagogues, with potentially disastrous consequences
It was once known as the “centre right”, and this was the year it definitively perished. It never had a coherent political philosophy, but it tended to blend deference to the perceived needs of large business interests, the championing of so-called traditional values that were actually longstanding prejudices, and admiration for established institutions. Above all else, it supposedly offered a cordon sanitaire, preventing anything further to the right from acquiring political legitimacy.
That hasn’t quite worked to plan. Nigel Farage now claims his populist-right Reform party has a higher membership than the Tories: if true, it is the first time in British history that members of a rightwing rival have outnumbered the Conservative party’s. Nearly two decades ago, then Tory leader, David Cameron, dismissed Farage’s Ukip as “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists mostly”; but today, Cameron’s party has ceded ideological ground to its challengers and the current Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, is fighting Reform on Farage’s terrain...
Despite his Ukip-bashing, Cameron played a pivotal role in making immigration the toxic centrepiece of British politics, and was a key architect of Brexit. Former Tory peer and party chair Sayeeda Warsi voiced her concerns about key Cameron ally Michael Gove’s views about British Muslims. Zac Goldsmith’s vile Islamophobic campaign for London mayor happened under Cameron’s watch. Liz Truss was one of the rightwing firebrands promoted by Cameron’s “A-list”.
Brexit was a watershed moment that saw the party adopt a populist demagoguery that breached the walls of any remaining cordon sanitaire. Theresa May lobbed grenades at it with her notorious 2016 “citizens of nowhere” speech. Boris Johnson found himself applauded by far-right extremists. After her benighted premiership tanked, Truss joined the US far-right speaker circuit, savaging the “deep state” alongside the likes of Steve Bannon.
https:// www .theguardian .com/commentisfree/2024/dec/27/centre-right-extremism-the-west-moderates-populist