It’s time we learned the ABC of politics

Watching Tory hopefuls jousting on TV, it was clear they were all ignorant of the basic principle I call the ABC of politics: Anyone But Corbyn.

The consequences of Marxist thugs taking over the government would be so comprehensively – and perhaps irreversibly – catastrophic that not just the Tories but all sensible politicians should set their squabbles aside and concentrate on just one goal: stopping that blight.

Can they? Will they? I’m not so sure.

Modern politics throws up characters singlemindedly committed to their own bono, not bono publico. I can’t think offhand of any who would put the country’s interests ahead of their own.

Their whole being is permeated with the urge to fulfil personal ambitions by scoring points off rivals. Whoever scores most points will see himself as the winner – even if the country ends up the loser.

Witness the Rory Stewart phenomenon. This nice chappie who looks like a cartoon character is moving up the charts even though anyone with a modicum of political nous will know that a vote for Stewart is a vote for Corbyn.

Corbyn’s message to the masses is simple enough for the masses to grasp. Marxism is monstrous, but it has an advantage over conservatism: it’s readily reducible to catchy slogans.

Thus its core slogan ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’ is instantly understandable even to the dimmest people.

But even the brightest conservative would struggle to counter with a catchy phrase of his own. To argue against the Marxist slogan, he’d have to explain that for this idea to be applied in practice there would have to exist an authority empowered to decide what constitutes both ‘ability’ and ‘need’. Such an authority would inevitably become downright despotic.

This is true, but a catchy slogan it isn’t, and it’s presuming too much on human goodness to believe that voting throngs are averse to demagogic sloganeering. They aren’t; quite the opposite.

Hence there’s a distinct danger that the electorate will fail to realise that all Corbyn slogans are reducible to one: eradication of everything that makes Britain British. Corbyn’s economics, for example, is tantamount to an all-front assault on private property with the ultimate goal of its elimination.

His foreign policy is circumscribed by seeking alliances with every avowed enemy of Britain, while alienating our friends.

Corbyn’s domestic policy will involve curtailing law enforcement, inviting as much immigration of cultural aliens as Britain could physically accommodate, destroying what’s left of decent medicine and education, and tacitly encouraging the abuse of whites in general and Jews in particular.

As to his stand on Brexit, which is the central issue of today’s political discourse, it depends entirely on the damage it could do to the Tories.

In that spirit he is expected to come out in favour of a second referendum, which is the most cynical of all available options.

An honest statesman believing that Britain’s interests will be best served by leaving the EU would declare his commitment to doing so with or without a ‘deal’. Conversely, an honest Remainer would promise to keep Britain in the EU, regardless of the referendum results.

“I realise,” he’d say, “that you voted for Brexit. But my remit as prime minister is to act in accordance with your interests, not your wishes. Therefore, since I’m convinced it’s in your interests to stay in the EU, I intend to exercise the Royal Prerogative and do just that.”

Such a politician would be sorely misguided and in my view even treasonous, but at least he’d have the power of his convictions. A demand for a second referendum, on the other hand, is an attempt to get the same result by disgraceful subterfuge.

And it’s not even the result Corbyn would want ideally – the EU is evil enough, but it’s the wrong kind of evil as far as he’s concerned. Commitment to permanent class struggle under the red banner is regrettably lacking there, so the EU isn’t ideologically pure.

However, a second referendum or even a demand for it may deepen the rift within the Tory party, thereby smoothing Corbyn’s way into Downing Street. QED.

The only way to stop this calamity is for the Tories to unite behind a candidate best able to beat Corbyn – and also to ally themselves with the Brexit Party that’s threatening to siphon off millions of votes from the Tories if they continue to vacillate on Brexit.

Yet vacillating on Brexit is precisely what Rory Stewart proposes. He’s committed to keeping Mrs May’s ‘deal’ alive – this though it has been thrice comprehensively defeated in Parliament. His goal isn’t so much reanimation as resurrection, and I don’t think Rory possesses such powers.

In other words, he’s proposing nothing but political impotence, intellectual vacuity and moral decrepitude – which is to say he’ll hand to Corbyn the keys to 10 Downing Street.

Much as it pains me to say so, the only candidate capable of uniting the Tories, creating a quasi-conservative Brexit coalition and ultimately defeating Corbyn’s Marxists is Boris Johnson.

He’s louche, unreliable, unprincipled and dubiously moral – but he’s all we’ve got. Johnson can match Corbyn demagoguery for demagoguery, except his will be cleverer, more erudite and better delivered. Moreover, he has twice defeated Labour in its own backyard, London.

Johnson’s professed refusal to take no-deal Brexit off the table will attract Farage fans and possibly many non-Corbyn Labourites – even though I don’t believe he’ll have the guts to deliver on such a promise. But that’s not the point: we’re talking stopping Labour here, nothing else.

So far Johnson has fought a clever campaign following the strategy associated in marketing with brand leadership. The runaway leader should say nothing but say it well: he doesn’t need to score any more points; all he needs is not to lose any.

Once Johnson has won the Tory race, his strategy will have to change. At that point he’ll have to do two things: first and foremost, to communicate to the public how catastrophic a Corbyn government would be; second, to come up with sound alternatives to Corbyn policies.

The two objectives are in a descending order of priorities, but with one exception: Brexit. If Prime Minister Johnson fails to deliver it quickly, his tenure will be brief. The sun will then shine on Labour, and they’ll make much hay.

This is a distinct possibility, considering how hard the Tories have made the task of leaving that vile contrivance. But at least Johnson offers a sporting chance of stopping Marxism. No other Tory candidate does, and the sooner they, their party and the rest of us realise this, the better.