Telling words from the last statesman

Observing the continuing turmoil in the United Kingdom Parliament and country, it seems that for many Britons history began on June 23, 2016.

I suppose in the 24-hour news cycle with clickbait continuously churning out sensational headlines on mundane reports, it is inevitable that anything more than a day old is quickly consigned to the archives, at least in popular memory.

At a time when it is most needed, a knowledge and understanding of the historical currents that have led to the present sorry state in the UK are shoved aside by breathless coverage of the latest uproar and outrage. 

The dangers were noted in 2001 by former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his book Does America Need a Foreign Policy?

He wrote: “The study of history and philosophy, the disciplines most relevant to perfecting the art of statesmanship, are neglected everywhere or given such utilitarian interpretation that they can be enlisted in support of whatever passes for conventional wisdom.”

No more apt description could apply to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, both Oxford classic scholars who have allowed their learning to be subsumed by ego and ambition.

In this frenetic atmosphere, it has not been possible to canvas all statements and opinions, but I have not come across a single detailed discussion of the historical context of the UK’s engagement with Europe.

Does anyone today realise that the Conservatives were the original ‘Party of Europe’; that both Tory and Labour Prime Ministers sought to enter the then exclusive six-nation club before a Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, finally achieved membership?

Brexiteers, who continually try to recruit the ‘bulldog spirit’ of wartime leader Winston Churchill to their cause, conveniently forget (or perhaps they never knew) that Churchill was a proto-European.

Not only did he propose union with France in 1940 as a way of keeping his ally in World War II, he later advocated a “United States of Europe”, 10 years before the Treaty of Rome.

Churchill was in retirement by the time the treaty was signed and his successor, Anthony Eden, a hangover from the days of empire, neglected to be part of it. However, his disastrous Suez campaign demonstrated once and for all that the UK’s days as a stand-alone world power were over.

His successors, Harold Macmillan and Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, both made applications to join, both thwarted by French President Charles De Gaulle who did not want Britain in the way of his dream of a Europe dominated by France.

Finally, after de Gaulle had left the stage, Heath negotiated entry, which took place in 1972.

It is hard to pin down the tipping point in the Conservatives’ attitudes to Europe, but the change certainly began in the 1980s with the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and hardened during the years the Tories spent out of office during the Labour Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

David Cameron, a moderate Eurosceptic, was kept in check while in coalition with the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, but after winning Government in his own right succumbed to his more militant colleagues and announced the 2016 referendum.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Ken Clarke, the longest serving MP in Parliament is one of the last survivors of the ‘Party of Europe’. Sitting several rows behind Johnson this week he rose to give this withering assessment of his leader.

“His obvious strategy is to set the conditions which make a no deal inevitable, to make sure as much blame as possible is attached to the EU and to this House for that consequence and then as quickly as possible fight a flag-waving general election before the consequences of no-deal become too obvious to the public,” he said.

“Would Mr Johnson let me know whether that clear explanation of his policy is one he entirely accepts?”

The answer was expulsion from the party Clarke had served with distinction in Parliament for almost half a century, along with other Tory rebels who voted to outlaw a no-deal (among them Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames).

At 79, Clarke is one of the last true statesmen in this Parliament of fools. Attuned to history’s inevitable march, it has sustained him in the past few years as the party he loved gradually moved away from much he believed in. The final break this week was inevitable.

He has remained loyal to his values that have guided him over his long public life. Unlike so many of his former colleagues, he can now leave holding his head high.