The age? or my age?

I have tried so far to construct balanced blogs which add insight into an exhibition or a play or a moral dilemma. The kind of analysis which you would expect from “a very reasonable man”. This much briefer one will be closer to Grumpy from Clapham venting his fury at the radio. Hence the title. Is this really a new age of declining standards in public life and debate? Or is just my septuagenarian discontent with the speed at which the world is rushing away from me?

I am actually much more sympathetic towards political spin and aggressive tactics than most on the so-called liberal, progressive side of the fence. I am not even sure that I regard the government’s recent proroguing decision as such an unprecedented attack upon democratic rights and parliamentary rule. Indeed, many of the actions taken so far by the Johnson-led government strike me as logical and sensible. The loosening of public spending limits likely to be announced today is long overdue. The various trips to Merkel, Macron and the EU made total sense, even if they were largely for presentation and tactics rather than substance. The focus on education, police and health is all good grist to the mill.

So it is not the actions themselves which drive me to declare all-out war on this new Tory regime but rather the bare-faced lying which accompanies them. Spin has always been the pre-eminent skill in politics. Look at Churchill, the master of garlanding the truth to fit his version of events. But the straight delivery of obvious lies to camera and microphone, on a regular and frequent scale, from Cabinet ministers is a new one on me – at least this side of the Atlantic. There is a million to one chance of No Deal. We can and we will achieve a re-negotiation of the backstop. We shall not have an election (although Theresa May lied on that count as well). We are not proroguing parliament to prevent a law against No Deal, we are just doing so to clear the way for our raft of new policy measures. We are still actively seeking a negotiated withdrawal agreement. Removing the whip from all Conservative MPs who vote against us is not hypocritical (given our own past record of such voting) since this is an exceptional and unprecedented case of disloyalty.

A Conservative majority at the General Election would probably enhance my own financial position. And it would indeed remove the famous threat of a socialist government taking us back to the bad old 1960s and 1970s of trade union thuggery and public sector monopolies squeezing our competitive position. But it would establish in initially unopposed power (since such a mandate would deliver massive political authority to Johnson) a team committed to using whatever lies it takes to reverse the Big State. It would be a triumph of deceit over decent standards. I shall vote Lib Dem as usual but if the price of removing Cummings from control is a Corbyn government, then I would reluctantly accept that as worth paying.