The Irish Savant : What do Conservatives actually conserve?

What do Conservatives actually conserve?

 

The Irish Savant

http://irishsavant.blogspot.com/2020/02/what-do-conservatives-actually-conserve.html

 

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

 

The Conservative Party in Britain has been returned to power with a massive majority. But how much of a victory does this represent for British, or more relevantly English nationalism? Well here's a clue. Look at those who occupy the three most powerful Cabinet positions, those controlling home affairs, foreign affairs and the Treasury. The rest of the Cabinet positions are in reality second-tier, all subject to the whims of one or more of the Big Three. (Maybe the Big Four if you include the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.)

So who are these patriots charged with leading Britain into the dangerous and unpredictable post-Brexit world? Presumably their every waking hour is taken up with furthering the interests of British factory workers, farmers and pensioners with whom they share a visceral love of country? Presumably they chill with a frisson of patriotism every time they hear God Save The Queen? Presumably they share a vicarious pride in Britain's glorious history, a history shaped by their ancestors over many centuries?

It's possible. But I doubt it. Because here are Britain's new de facto rulers:

Home Secretary:
Name:  Priti Patel
Ethnicity: Ugandan-Indian
Religion: Hindu

Chancellor of the Exchequer:
Name:  Sajid Javid
Ethnicity: Pakistani - although he looks like he's from another galaxy
Religion: Muslim

Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Name:  Rishi Sunak
Ethnicity: Indian
Religion: Hindu

Foreign Secretary
Name:  Dominic Raab
Ethnicity: Jewish/English
Religion: Unknown

Now Patel and Raab seem to be sounder on the 'national question' and other conservative touch-points than many of their Cabinet colleagues and were unwavering in their support for Brexit. At the same time you'd have to wonder when an Indian Hindu whose parents fled Uganda and a Jew whose father fled Czechoslovakia control, inter alia, the immigration spigot that threatens to irretrievably destroy Traditional Britain. And God alone knows what the two Punjabis in the Treasury will do when they get their hands on the loot. Javid had an undistinguished banking career before he was miraculously magicked to the top of the Tory pyramid while Sunak worked for Goldman Sachs in their notorious scandal-wracked Investment Banking arm.

So here's a closing thought: The British ruled over and transformed what's now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (current combined population 1.8 billion) for two centuries with a tiny number of administrators and soldiers. Surely this speaks volumes for the governance capabilities of the respective peoples? Is it not truly bizarre then that just a few decades after relinquishing this control the British have recruited their former subjects to rule over them?

Well it's not if you believe that a Greater Power is orchestrating the nation's affairs.