‘Conservative International’ Battle with Britain
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Roula Khalaf, editor of FT, chooses her favorite story in this weekly newsletter.
Clubs offer theatrical yawning. We’ve seen this movie before. The 2016 Brexit combination and Donald Trump’s first victory in the UK saw that the American populist right was a fertile territory. He took it out. The connection with Trump was not optional useful. Now the film has a sequel in which Britain is less viewed as a potential soulmate than a weakened enemy who will attack the newly bouncing international right.
There is nothing new in political international. From a formal comedian to a sinful network for globalization and neoliberalism, there were always groups that wanted to export their worldview. Trump’s first -day strategist Steve Bannon dreamed of a global movement. National conservatismEvangelical ethno -nationalist faction with strong relationships with Hungarian Viktor Orbán, she worked on expanding her influence in the UK.
Neither did Britain use for external attacks – although in recent years Brexit has caused an arrival command from Europe and the White House.
The weakened Nations of the EU, especially Germany, also face the fire from the American populist right – Especially Elon Musk. But the UK has always been seen in a separate category: in Anglosphere, economically liberal and enjoys a “special relationship” with America.
Still, new attacks are focused on British culture and institutions. American Vice President Jd vance type This work turned Britain into a “Islamist country”. Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, he paused for the falsehoods lavied by the extremely right -wing activist of Tommy Robinson, speaking to Davos delegates to “while speaking, in the UK, citizens are closed for exposing scary crimes committed by Muslim migrants.” The men ran well documented, and his hostility was widely divided into parts of the American right. The ministers are soothing about the fact that Trump himself (so far) has refrained from joining incomplete attacks. But even so there are reasons to take it seriously.
The first is that the UK flutter. Sir Keir Starmer is unpopular. His new government faces both directions, increasing taxes and regulation, while growing in the main mission. Britain appears to capture (such as much of the Anglosphere, and Canada and Australia will turn right this year).
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, this new conservative international is not primarily an economic movement. Surely, technologically billionaires want to undermine a regulatory opponent in Brussels, but the Magonomy economy is populist. Its leaders are not problematic if it leads to incompetent policies adapted to the national level.
The defining feature of the movement – as evidenced by the focus on Islam – is cultural nationalism. Immigration is the top of this spear. What combines a variety of groups on the right is a central argument that is a canon “Judeo-Christian” Western values Inside, multiculturalism and progressiveism are inside. From the fear of immigrants to promoting policies to increasing the birth rate, it is a fundamental assumption that the West must act to save its culture.
The allies with this argument is that the same guilty liberals also tilted economic policy against ordinary people, through a deep state that does not even act very well. While European economies are stuttering, these cultural complaints accelerate the underpass and social media.
There is another key difference: the decontamination of Trump. This time, the new conservative internationary has the main bridges in the UK, both in Farage’s UK reform and much of the conservative party. The Tories who kept the distance in 2016 are now openly supporting. Boris Johnson, Foreign Minister Shadow presses Patel, Nigel Farage and Liz Truss have made pilgrimages to Washington on the inauguration.
The British right encouraged and copied political attacks. Suella braverman, Former secretary, Vance echoed. It distinguishes Robert Jenrick’s rhetoric slightly, spokesman Tory Justice, from male.
The British radical right -wing voices discern the winning program of Maga for the UK, based on immigration decays, deporting foreign criminals, abolishing the Net zero initiative, returning to the trans real and reduction to Whitehall bureaucracy. Only in their hostility in small countries towards the NHS,, the British populists offer an exploiting vulnerability.
Furthermore, the electoral system, so long, a bulk against new and hard parties, could now actually act in their favor. The conversation about the Reform Government is overly, but the current position of the party could give him a decisive voice in the next parliament. Fear of reforms pulls the conservatives to the same territory. An elder Tory complains “Labor became too unpopular. We didn’t have time to renew our brand.” Meanwhile, an older lacks communication skills to respond to assertive right.
And the victory does not have to be absolute. The movement has already moved the boundaries. Farage’s cheerleading party is now the main, and the conservatives have moved to the right. Progresses within the Government are in a retreat while ministers are worried about the threat of a reform.
There are early days. Work can be recovered. Trump’s glow can fade. But the conservative international has a new sense of momentum. This movie could still have a different end.