'Where is our Churchill?'

Sovereignty and our votes in the election next week

The EU and its disenfranchisement of part of the United Kingdom

In this context what do you do if the first thing Parliament does on liberating itself from its self-imposed subjection to the EU (courtesy of the 1972 European Communities Act), is to disenfranchise you? This is what has happened to UK citizens living in Northern Ireland. Rather than suffering from the democratic deficit of old, they have been completely disenfranchised by the decision of Parliament to subject Northern Ireland to what is now a foreign legislature in 300 areas of law. This idea that this is only a problem for Northern Ireland citizens is for the birds.

While in our United Kingdom, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not collapsed into each other, obliterating English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish identities. Instead we operate as a single political community when it comes to outside threats.

Existential threats to us all

Moments of existential pressure from the outside world come in many different forms. The most obvious is war where an aggressor state seeks to annex part of a country. If the Government of the country concedes, it persuades itself that it is worth giving up the best interests of some of its people for the benefit of everyone else. The justification? We sacrifice the unfortunate inhabitants of the annexed part of our country, making them a means to the end of buying peace for the rest of us.

While ‘utilitarian politicians’ will persuade themselves that buying peace in this manner is justified, they will dishonour their country, enfeebling its undergirding sense of community, bringing shame and reproach upon its people. They will also create an opportunity for politicians with a greater sense of honour to seize the initiative, demonstrating the courageous leadership that the utilitarians could not understand, let alone provide. This was essentially the difference between Chamberlain and Churchill. Notwithstanding the fact that Czechoslovakia was not part of the United Kingdom, the sense of UK moral failure implicated in making some people a means to an end - and trading them for a particular outcome - was the same.

Protecting the integrity of political community from outside pressure is not confined to war, however, which brings us back to the EU.

Rishi Sunak and his involvement in acquiescing to the EU threat

The United Kingdom was confronted with such a question when the European Union offered to keep Northern Ireland under its governance for many economic purposes in return for avoiding a no-deal Brexit. They offered a trade deal which would would benefit Great Britain but disenfranchising the 1.9 million UK citizens in Northern Ireland in some 300 areas of law.

In embracing this deal, the UK Government - especially that led by Rishi Sunak whose Windsor Framework makes this disenfranchisement semi-permanent - entered into a utilitarian compact that has placed the UK political community in jeopardy instead of standing up for its ongoing wellbeing. Rather than treating all UK citizens on the same basis, it allowed 1.9 million of us to be sacrificed and made a means to an end, namely avoiding the perceived costs of a no-deal Brexit.

The consequences of this appeasement

While I am not suggesting that the above analysis is consciously informing the thinking of voters up and down the country, it is not possible to live through such dishonourable misgovernment without its effecting national confidence, generating a widespread sense of national discomfort and attendant lack of belief in ourselves. People know that something is very wrong and that is undoubtedly why, at least in part, the party that has brought this dishonour on us is now facing the prospect of the worst electoral defeat in its history.

In response to this some might say: “But isn’t Northern Ireland a bit different? Did it not vote to remain in the EU anyway?” The truth is that no one in Northern Ireland, neither those voting for Brexit nor those voting against it, voted to be disenfranchised.

Moreover, the notion that the decision to vote to remain part of the EU - which Northern Ireland had been in for less than fifty years - should be interpreted as a vote to leave the UK which is has been part of for over 250 years - is absurd. As if this were not enough, Northern Ireland polling regularly demonstrates more support for remaining in the UK than was expressed in Scotland during the 2014 referendum.

If Northern Ireland had voted to leave the UK, then, while I and many others would deeply regret its departure and feel a keen sense of loss, no permanent damage would have been done to the moral integrity of the UK as a nation. But that has not happened in this case.

Where is our Churchill?

We now need a Churchill to restore our honour and integrity (in every sense of the word), so our country can stand on its own two feet once again. Clearly that person is not Rishi Sunak nor anyone from the current Cabinet, and neither is it Keir Starmer, or anyone in Labour. In this context eyes naturally turn to Reform UK, the only UK party to have a manifesto commitment to removing the Windsor Framework.

- Dr Dan Boucher, Sat 29 June 2024.
[Editor's note : This piece has been edited down a little to enhance the number of readers. All headings are ours.]