MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Tories must unite for the country’s sake
Who can now predict what will happen in British politics in the next few weeks, or even the next few days?
Stability has, for the moment, disappeared. In such times, events that might normally take a year can be compressed into a matter of hours.
One thing that is for sure is that the Tory Party’s disarray – which it brought on itself by ejecting Boris Johnson from No 10 – is doing great harm.
And the longer it persists, the more harm it will do. The tragedy of this is that the arrival in office of Mr Johnson, and his unification of the party around a swift and decisive Brexit, did so much to heal Toryism and to make it electable after the rollercoaster years of David Cameron and Theresa May.
One thing that is for sure is that the Tory Party’s disarray – which it brought on itself by ejecting Boris Johnson from No 10 – is doing great harm
The task for all sensible Conservatives now is to try to restore that unity. One interesting precedent is the 2003 unopposed election of Michael Howard (now Lord Howard) as party leader after the ill-starred era of Sir Iain Duncan Smith. Lord Howard’s stewardship led to a great recovery in the party’s fortunes and can be credited for its ultimate return to power. It is also notable that Sir Iain was treated with generosity after his departure and went on to make a distinguished contribution to welfare reform.
The basic point is this. For the sake of the country, which must be protected from economic chaos and the risk of another Labour-dominated government, all Conservatives should now sink their differences and pursue harmony and effectiveness. Recriminations and petty vengeances can be saved for memoirs several years hence.
It will be a hard road back to the standing and poll ratings they had before the ousting of Mr Johnson, but it is one they must tread. There is not much time to recover, and no time at all for public squabbling.
The Crown should be forced to carry a truth warning
How would the makers of the Netflix series The Crown like it if a drama were made and broadcast about their personal lives, in which wholly fictional and discreditable incidents were introduced into their biographies? Not much. But of course they need not fear this, as few people know or care who they are and they are not particularly important.
The Crown is often, if not always, superb entertainment. And that is the trouble. Such authenticity can easily persuade viewers that they are watching documentary rather than drama. Informed voices who point out that several of its claims are simply false will never be able to overcome the sheer power of gripping TV. Many who watch it will come to think that the scenes they see are history rather than fiction. Much of it deals with events well before our own time.
How would the makers of the Netflix series The Crown like it if a drama were made and broadcast about their personal lives, in which wholly fictional and discreditable incidents were introduced into their biographies? Not much
Now its fifth series will portray the most troubled and controversial years of the late Queen’s reign, in which the new King was profoundly and very personally involved. You might think that the closeness of these events and the fact that many deeply affected by them (including Princes William and Harry) are very much alive might lead to some restraint, if only out of good manners. But from what we can learn, this will not be so.
This is an abuse of the great freedoms that exist in our society. Imagine the fate, in China, of those who dramatised the truth about Chairman Mao with similar abandon, let alone of any who made worse things up about him.
Some profitable commercial products that might endanger their users must rightly carry a health warning. It is time this rule applied to those who seek to profit by making unreal things up about real people. It might say: ‘Warning – this programme may endanger the truth.’
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