I admit that I follow with a breath of fresh air the race for the leadership of the Conservative Party in Britain. Not because its results are objectively important. Britain has fallen from greatness. But she is the mother of all parliamentary democracies, and her politics is a fascinating competitive sport.
Even this is not the main reason. I am interested in this race because it reflects a huge historical change in Britain, in Europe, in the West. I think Israelis tend to miss this change, or misinterpret it. Missing out reduces the ability to understand the West, and in any case damages relations with it.
This list is written four days before publication. We still did not know who the two finalists would be, who will compete in the party’s national vote next month. But we already knew that none of them would be a white man. The leading candidate is a man of Indian descent. Two women reached the semi-finals and one was a native of Nigeria. Fifth place went to a Buddhist woman of Indian descent. In the first phase, two Muslims, one of Pakistani descent and the other of Kurdish / Iraqi descent, competed, and Nofo.
This is happening in the Thatcher party
What is interesting here is that this multifaceted, multi-racial, multi-religiousness is taking place within the UK’s main right-wing party. This is the party at least parts of which have been identified over the years with hostility to immigrants, with xenophobia, and of course with the nationalist disengagement from the European Community of Nations. The party continues to be right-wing. The promises heard throughout the election campaign are imprinted on the familiar imprint of Margaret Thatcher from the 1980s.
But go compare the party that ruled Thatcher 47 years ago with its current incarnation. In 1975 no white man wore the conservative benches in the House of Representatives. Even the left-wing Labor Party had only whites. The first two non-white conservatives were elected only in 2005. In 2010, the dam began to burst. In 2014, the first non-white (Pakistani Muslim) was added to the conservative cabinet. Only in 2019 were non-whites appointed to the most senior ministerial posts (senior British cabinet officials, outside the prime minister of course, are the finance, interior and foreign ministers).
Three years later, non-whites are running for prime minister with a considerable degree of reasonableness and credibility. What can be said about it other than “breathtaking”. Admittedly, the British / European / American media find it difficult to admire. Observers of British politics would have preferred Boris Johnson to be replaced by another caricature of the unfair, unprofessional and intolerant right (Boris was actually the man who appointed the non-whites to key positions in his government).
The renunciation of history
Multiculturalism was once the domain of the radical, ridiculous, annoying left. And here one morning we wake up and discover that multiculturalism is no longer an option. Is a fait accompli. All this is happening not in a binational state, but in a country where 85% of its inhabitants are white (according to the Government Bureau of Statistics, ons.gov.uk).
Has British society become color-blind? There is no point in asking people explicitly if they are racist, but other questions hint at a possible answer. One survey, in 2019, examined the distribution of opinions on immigration. 80% and more expressed opposition to further immigration, 44% wanted a “certain” or “large” reduction in the number of existing immigrants. It is an expression of prejudice and of reservations about multiculturalism.
Is it possible, then, that the political parties have lost touch with reality, perhaps as they lost it when they supported Britain’s continued participation in the European Union? And if this is the state of affairs, is it possible that masses of white and Christian Christians are gnashing their teeth? Could we have seen a backlash, from the Brexit, or Trump’s rise in America?
Y 0
It is possible. But the new state of affairs is neither accidental nor random. The scale of the change is so great, and it is reflected all over the political map, from right to left, that it is inevitable to talk about a post-racial society emerging not only in Britain but also in other parts of Western Europe. Portugal has had a prime minister of Indian descent for six years or more. Ireland has so far no longer had a semi-Indian prime minister (he is now deputy prime minister). Norway has an Iranian-born parliamentary speaker.
Twenty years ago, former French President Valerie Giscar d’Astan made an attempt to draft a pan-European constitution. In the introduction to the Constitution he hoped to point out that modern Europe came out of the salvation of a Western Christian civilization with roots in ancient Rome and Greece. The constitution was eventually rejected, and the attempt to recognize Europe’s roots did not even reach the draft stage.
Will Europe gradually cease to be Christian and Western? Maybe. But even if you do not stop, the weight of the historical roots will diminish and go away. An uprising against history has already erupted, manifested in the overthrow of monuments and the erasure of names. A renunciation of history will inevitably affect the European state of mind. One example: it will reduce the feelings of guilt that have influenced Europe’s attitude toward Israel since the Holocaust. This is a process in progress. The Israeli instinct is to respond with shouts and slamming doors. Mistake.
So what can be done? First of all acknowledge this phenomenon without panicking and without cursing. Second, stop basing foreign policy on guilt and the uncontrolled attachment of the “antisemitic” label. Third, to join the process of change (a Jew of Ethiopian descent for prime minister?). No one can hold on to all his power in the past without discovering that the future has skipped over him.