Lindsey German on Tory nosediving and the weaponisation of history

Two events changed the election last week: one was the entry into the race by Nigel Farage calculating that he would boost the profile of the Reform party and present a direct challenge to the Tories ideologically. The other was Rishi Sunak’s astonishing decision to miss one of the D-Day ceremonies for a pre-recorded interview.

Both will have the effect of further sinking the already leaking boat that is the current Tory party. And in the process Farage standing will have the effect of moving the election campaign and British politics further to the right.

First Farage. Despite his stance when the election was called – that he was going to sit this one out – he rapidly changed his mind. Conveniently for him, there are no democratic structures in the Reform party, and Farage is the major shareholder in what is a privately owned company. So he was able to simultaneously declare himself leader and candidate to stand in Clacton, which previously had a UKIP MP.

In an instant this transformed the election campaign – Rishi Sunak had been channelling right wing Reform party politics only to find that the original was now high profile and aiming to replace the Tory party. There is much speculation that Reform’s poll standing will even overtake that of the Tories – this may be far-fetched and would be an incredible fact given that Reform is likely to get at most one MP.

What is guaranteed is that the election agenda will be as right wing as possible. Already immigration, militarism, attacks on the unemployed and disabled are all featuring highly – and there is little opposition from Keir Starmer, whose whole electoral message is to underline that he is a safe pair of hands for British capitalism and that his main interest is in winning disaffected Tory voters.

Then there’s D-Day. It seems almost inconceivable that Sunak would have been stupid enough to leave the D-Day commemorations in Normandy early, but he did, to the disgust of many of his natural supporters. This may well be the final nail in the coffin for Sunak, but it also underlines how much this campaign is centring on nationalism, jingoism and racist attitudes.

The D-Day events were used by all the leaders there to cement ideas of national pride and patriotism at the time when the world is becoming ever more dangerous and when military competition between major powers is at a level of intensity and destructive power unknown in recent decades. The completely justified sentiment of the need to honour the war dead in Normandy and elsewhere should not hide the fact that these deaths in the past are being used to justify present and future wars.

The way in which these events are commemorated is also profoundly dishonest about the nature of the Second World War and its aftermath. Despite the BBC news claiming that Normandy on 6 June 1944 was a turning point in the war that is not really true. It was important, but the turning point had already taken place and it was on the Eastern front. The battle of Stalingrad in 1942 was key to inflicting a German defeat. At the time of D-Day there was already a Russian advance across Eastern Europe which ended in their taking Berlin and the finish of the Hitler regime.

This does not signify support for Russia’s rulers past or present but it is the truth, and one which the west, engaged in a bloody proxy war in Ukraine through NATO, is not willing to accept. In the last years of the Second World War there was a radicalisation across much of Europe with resistance movements in a number of countries key to their liberation from Nazi occupation. In Britain the Beveridge Report presaged a welfare state which would turn its back on the unemployment and desperation of the 1930s, and in 1945 Labour won a landslide against all expectations – the radicalisation strongest among those in the armed forces.

So when we hear talk about honouring those who died in that war we should remember what they wanted and it wasn’t a right wing jingoistic Tory government or the pale imitation Starmer’s got on offer. They wanted housing, education, decent jobs, healthcare, nationalisation and a better future for their children. None of this is on offer from Labour this time round. Not remotely close.

So the current narrative from the war is not to build the welfare state, or to nationalise, or to diminish inequality, but to promote more war and nationalism.

In addition, the dominant issues in the election ignore what is majority opinion on a range of issues. Keir Starmer is disregarding the views of millions of Labour supporters over dealing with child poverty, nationalisation and Gaza. Many of them will still vote Labour in order to get the Tories out, but many also will refuse to do so and look to left independents, Greens or other parties.

In other news, the freeing of four hostages in Gaza has been greeted with jubilation by the British media. Little is said about the around 200 dead Palestinians who died as a result of this operation which was deemed a ‘surgical strike’ by one paper. It says a lot about the dehumanising of Palestinian lives that the media can treat such an event as a success.

That’s why Palestine has to remain central to this election – and why we have to insist that there is no separation between solidarity there and equality at home.

This week: I am travelling to Scotland to speak at the national Palestine demo in one of my favourite cities, Glasgow. I’m also speaking at a meeting on the elections with Preston candidate Michael Lavalette on Wednesday, and to Devon & Cornwall Counterfire on Tuesday (both online). And I’m going to watch the new series of Rebus which comes highly recommended.