The silence of really important issues barely discussed, if at all, is incredibly worrying. The debate between the two leaders last night lifted a tiny lid on a pot of issues that have barely surfaced and yet are really important to debate. The emphasis most of the media have chosen has been on some of the most basic stuff that ends up being an open goal for Keir Starmer and Labour - something that is a really big problem.
Last night we saw a tentative foray into the huge issue of the ‘Trans’ debate. It is really difficult calling this a debate because it is really a debate between an individual’s right to do what they want and biology. It’s a fight between interpretation and science. The social ramifications come afterwards and are no less important, but there is no honest discussion about what this is all about. The Cass Review and the closure of the Tavistock centre showed the direction of travel as the scientific community unvelied the findings that ‘Trans’ ideology had no basis in science whatsoever and the worry over the sterilisation and mutilation of gay children was so great that guidance for schools was to ban Trans ideology was soon to give way, if it was at all, to a full outright ban on the ideology itself. Labour want to reverse the bans, want to allow gender reassignment and let children self-identify completely without parental guidance or approval, paving the way for child gender reassignment surgery down the line. The Labour Party have confirmed this. Keir Starmer himself is wedded to the Trans lobby and has iterated that he does not have a rigid definition of a woman.
This debate seems to be out of reach for most of the time, though it was finally mentioned last night in the TV debate to a certain degree, and Starmer looked visibly worried; reaffirming his support for the Trans lobby would lose him votes. But the central argument is something that seems to be very quiet outside of the tiny flashpoints about an issue affecting children up and down the land and in a way that is truly worrying according to the NHS who have stated that they will no longer engage in child gender reassignment. Will they be forced to by the incoming Labour Government under an amended Equalities Act they plan?
Next, there is the foreign policy issue. No, not what Nigel Farage said, that’s a small part of a bigger issue. What is the UK’s foreign policy outlook to be? Is it a Liberal one or a Realist one? On leaving the EU is that us turning our backs on European interests or us being able to act more nimbly on the world stage? The Brexit benefits really lie here with the absence of anything economic (another debate we aren’t having about the lack of de-regulation and market competitiveness after Brexit) and yet there is no mention of it at all. We can have an independent foreign policy about the Russia-Ukraine war. We can have an independent foreign policy about the Israel-Hamas war. We have weekly demonstrations in London about the war and yet there is no discussion about this. Whether you are interested or not in this conflict, why there isn’t a discussion about the demonstrations, the rise if anti-Semitism and the rise of Islamism in this country, is weird. From Abdul Azidi to Hiz But Al-Tahir, to the extraordinary survey of British Muslims finding 40% want a Muslim political party, a similar percentage wanting Sharia Law. From Shamima Begum to the Green Party councillors being elected ‘for Gaza’ there is silence about what people think about all of this. It doesn’t matter if you like what’s going on or not, the fact that there is no discussion about this is worrying. What is there to discuss? Is the rise in sectarian politics in this country good or not? There is no discussion and that suits the Labour Party who have committed to recognising a Palestinian state (though is this the one run by Abbas/Hamas/Fatah or the PLO?) and supporting the introduction of more stringent blasphemy laws, but aside from that is this a sign of things to come or is it something people don’t like? What is the place of British Jews in this country who feel violently under threat on a regular basis? Nothing. Silence.
Labour’s constitutional reforms are hardly discussed at all. Labour, under the watchful eye of experienced lawyer Sir Keir Starmer KC, have planned with Gordon Brown to continue to change the constitution to make the Labour Party and Labour policies harder to change or reform. From votes to 16 year olds to further devolution, from amending the Equalities Act to granting more power to the Supreme Court, Labour is going to change the rules and to redouble their efforts from the Blair/Brown years. They want to extend the size of the state to make governing from Number 10 close to impossible if it doesn’t satisfy dogmatic centre-left ideology when it comes to economics with the OBR, to climate when it comes to the Climate Action Committee, to doing politics with the Supreme Court, to social issues with the Equalities and Race Act, to government contracts with the implementation of a Race quota, to make these changes easier with the reformation of the House of Lords, and a greater ability to sue the government with devolution. There is no discussion about this fundamental change the the British constitution that will be skewed to basically remove choice, democracy and changing minds. Labour have expressly made this their reason for being from as far back as the 1930s when they first campaigned to essentially change the system to suit them and to make an actual change of direction next to impossible. The Tories aping the Labour Party in government is a testament to their success, and they will make it worse. Why is this not being discussed? The media are not doing their jobs.
Lastly we are not discussing debt. This country is broke. Over £2tn in debt, and yearly repayments on just the interest that is the same as the education budget. Labour have committed to £20bn worth of cuts but they will have to raise taxes, though so would the Tories if they were to remain in power too. Neither of the main parties are being honest about the state of public finances. All it takes is for Britain to suffer the same fate as France in terms of credit value downgrading for this country to spiral towards a state where we require an IMF bailout. Britain is in such great debt, with something close to £400bn added in 2 years during COVID. The only discussion on this are the plans to ‘grow the economy’ but neither Labour nor the Tories have actually set out a plan. It’s why their manifestos are meaningless in terms of being costed. Britain has seen growth of between 0-1% GDP per year for the last 20 years. GDP per head has fallen for the last 2 years consecutively. The tax burden is the highest at 36% of income and is set to get to 37% next year under new tax plans. Labour plans to raid savings through raising inheritance tax, raising capital gains tax and by raising corporation tax. This will happen. But even then, the wealth creators are leaving the country. Over 6,500 millionaires have left the country recently. That’s tax gone in real terms (if you’re saying good riddance then you are financially illiterate and too dogmatic to engage in this). There is no serious plan to reduce debt, and the commitment to expensive projects like Net Zero and decarbonisation of industry will only make this worse. The Tories have failed and in all likelihood looking at the manifesto Labour will fail too. The media don’t want to talk about t his. There is silence on the real issue of debt, tax and the commitment to a welfare state that doesn’t work from health to law and order.
There is so little talk on immigration from both parties but that has been mentioned before. The Tories have let in 2 million in 2 years, Labour want to keep immigration at at least 250,000 net per year though the real figure will probably remain the same as it has been recently at 750,000. There’s no talk on the effect of mass immigration, certainly not in the media.
All we really talk about are things that are open goals for Labour. The Tory record is awful on things like high rates of tax, immigration and levelling up across the UK, and this is easy for Labour to attack. They haven’t unveiled any real meaningful plans outside of their wish-washy manifesto aside from saying they’ll just reverse what the Tories have done with things like Rwanda and the Trans ban. Ultimately, Labour will do the same economically as the Tories and push the pedal down on ultra-progressivism in social issues. That’s it. But the media has obsessed on the open goals for Labour and so this election has not been a brainstorm of ideas or options. This has been a media procession of social liberalism, a procession of Labour plans and a procession of hatred of the Tories and the right.
This is why social media has completely changed; that’s where the actual discussion has to go and sadly social media discussions inevitably lead to echo chambers. Amongst other aspects, the reason for Reform having far more engagement online by a factor of over a million more mentions to Labour is that there is where actual engagement in true options for politics in this country is. It will probably not lead to much as social media hasn’t really changed the game in British politics, but it might have to. YouTube and Facebook helped get the Brexit campaign up and running because it was shunned on normal media channels. X and Tik Tok will have to be the engine for Reform in this and probably subsequent elections as the media continue to suppress alternative views.
This is where there is some genuine confidence in Reform’s chances versus the uniparty veneer of consensus you find on TV and radio from the mainstream media. Polls reflect what people have seen and read, yet the polling done purely online on social media always sees Reform as streaks ahead of all of the other parties. In the actual vote next week we think there will be a shock as the mainstream and the social media polling will meet in the middle and people will be shocked by how the discussion had away from the usual places has fuelled something that will be, frankly, remarkable.
This article first appeared on the TDL Times. For more information, articles and more please visit www.thetdltimes.com.
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