Theresa May is following Enoch Powell...

Original link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/07/theresa-may-is-following-enoch-powell--by-actually-listening-to/
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Theresa May is following Enoch Powell – by actually listening to what British people want
SIMON HEFFER
7 October 2016 - 4.00PM


[Picture: Theresa May. Caption: It has taken two centuries for the idea of democracy to really get going. Credit: Nick Ansell/PA Wire]

Many will recall the conflict in the Conservative party in the late 1960s and early 1970s between its then leader, Ted Heath, and its great ideologue, Enoch Powell. Powell took issue with Heath on various points, and two resonate today.

[Callout: "For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, [Britain's existing residents] found themselves made strangers in their own country." Enoch Powell]

One was mass immigration, in those days from the Commonwealth rather than Europe, which had happened without the British people being consulted, and [which Powell saw from his perspective as an MP in Wolverhampton was causing tension and unhappiness][1]. The other was Heath’s ill-fated project to take Britain into what was then called the Common Market, which Powell saw as an outrageous sacrifice of British sovereignty, the end not just of our nationhood but of the right of the British government to do what its electorate wanted.

It was hardly surprising that, [as I listened to Theresa May’s speech last Wednesday][2], I was reminded of Powell. When she told some of her colleagues, and their tame pundits in the media, to stop whining about Brexit and instead to respect the votes of more than 17 million people who had found the EU unpalatable, she made a profoundly Powellite point. She accused such people of sneering at the majority who voted in the referendum. In truth, it is a sneer that has lasted for decades.

[Video: Theresa and Philip May. Caption: Theresa May's conference speech: Come with me and together let's seize the day]

Even during the Thatcher government, when it sought to return power from the all-knowing state to the individual, there was still a coterie of ministers who thought they really did know best. Powell understood the feelings of the people: it made him, in the eyes of his opponents, a dangerous politician and rival, [which was why they rushed to accuse him (falsely) of racism][3] for his warnings about the unpopularity of mass immigration and of Little Englandism for his views about Europe. Mrs May seems to have learned from this – and, as prime minister, is in a strong position to invite those in her party who disagree with her to defy her if they dare.

Britain has lurched slowly towards democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832. It has taken some in our political class 184 years to realise what democracy really means: the paramountcy of the will of the people. Ironically, it required not a general election but a plebiscite to have that will properly expressed.

[Picture: Enoch Powell. Caption: Enoch Powell speaking in a lunch time dialogue with Malcolm Muggerdige on God and Caesat at St Mary-Le-Bow, 1977. Credit: Michael Webb]

Those who for decades have wanted to leave the EU went to one general election after another feeling utterly disfranchised, because neither party likely to be elected had any intention other than to stay in the club, at vast expense to the taxpayer, at ever greater sacrifice of our sovereignty, and with an open borders policy imposed upon us that caused social problems and made us more vulnerable to crime and terrorism. [That we now have a prime minister who sees the irreconcilability of those policies with the views of the majority of the British people][4] is a great advance for democracy.

[Callout: ""Just listen to the way a lot of politicians and commentators talk about the public. They find your patriotism distasteful, your concerns about immigration parochial" Theresa May]

In a country such as ours referendums are only acceptable when a matter of potentially huge constitutional significance is contemplated, as it was on 23 June. They cannot be a substitute for thoughtful, responsive government that understands, as all governments should, what the public really wants. Nor does this mean governments have to engage in followership rather than leadership. But the lead a government should give is one that goes with the grain of public opinion rather than against it. The growing vote for Ukip in recent elections was a portent of the referendum result, even if Ukip has only one semi-detached MP as a result. That the Cameron government chose to ignore this before June was just one aspect of its fatal arrogance.

With the sort of clear choice before them that did not exist between potential governing parties at the last election, the British people gave a clear signal in June not just of their true view on the EU, but of the frustration and annoyance they felt at being treated with contempt by the political class. Mrs May has received and understood this. Her fellow Western leaders have generally not.

For them, [democracy is a tiresome advisory process][5] that they can feel free to interpret as they wish, not a guide to public opinion which, if ignored, will build up to a quiet – or perhaps not so quiet – revolution of the sort we have just had in Britain. It is why Donald Trump stands such a good chance of winning the American presidential election next month. It is why Marine Le Pen will do so well in next May’s presidential election in France. And it is why Frauke Petry’s AfD party is eating into support for Angela Merkel in Germany, and may well help depose her as head of the ruling coalition there next autumn.

[Callout: ""We will decide for ourselves how we control immigration. And we will be free to pass our own laws" Theresa May]

[Given the pitiful state of the Labour party][6], Mrs May could have ignored public opinion and allowed the Government to carry on sneering. That she did not is a refreshing sign that she genuinely understands that things cannot carry on as before.

Not every aspect of her conference speech was so admirable, though. If she is seriously thinking of pursuing a sub-Keynesian approach to the economy, with state intervention in the private sector, she should think again before the markets force her to do so. In the post-Brexit world she is commendably determined to bring about, interfering with a free-market approach in business and imposing regulation will be the easiest way to shoot our new economic and trading arrangements in the foot. There are certainly abuses of remuneration in some companies, but it is the shareholders’ job, and not the state’s, to sort that out.

That vital consideration aside, our new Prime Minister has connected with the Zeitgeist of the British people. She can lead them properly and confidently once she has won their respect in this way. She deserves the unqualified support of her colleagues for this. It has taken almost 50 years to learn Enoch’s lessons about accommodating the will of the people, but better late than never.

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Links - The Telegraph's link/article system has the original or intended title of the article in the link, compare against the actual article title as currently found.

[1] Article title: Paris is tragic proof that Enoch Powell was right about threats to our country.  Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/12009577/Paris-is-tragic-proof-that-Enoch-Powell-was-right-about-threats-to-our-country.html
[2] Article title: Remember the good that government can do, says Theresa May as she vows to intervene to help workers.  Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/05/theresa-may-patriotic-speech-conservative-party-conference-live/
[3] Article title: Enoch Powell's monstrous reputation hides the real man.  Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11294064/The-Conservative-Party-need-to-rescue-Enoch-Powells-name.html
[4] Article title: Theresa May has closed the liberal era. Bring on Christian democracy.  Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/05/theresa-may-has-closed-the-liberal-era-bring-on-christian-democr/
[5] Article title: Why do our politicians hate democracy so very much? Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/04/why-do-our-politicians-hate-democracy-so-very-much/
[6] Article title: Labour reshuffle: Shami Chakrabarti promoted to Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet three weeks after controversial anti-Semitism report.  Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/06/jeremy-corbyn-appoints-diane-abbott-and-shami-chakrabarti-in-sha1/