Tired and world weary, the British electorate went to the polls on Thursday. Rarely in history can there have been such an assemblage of unelectable or disappointing types standing for office or trying to remain in it. It proved to be an ugly boredom, though it was uglier for some than others.
The Conservatives, with Boris Johnson at the helm, battled on the premise that this was the Brexit election, effectively turning it into a de facto second referendum on Britain leaving the European Union. 'Get Brexit Done' remained his primary and misleading slogan, best exemplified by a bulldozing effort through a wall of foamed bricks titled 'Gridlock'.
But his populism, belligerence against the courts and Parliament, and a manifest streak of authoritarianism, disturbed such veteran scribblers as Peter Oborne, who, despite being conservative by creed, admitted that he could not vote for the Tories. 'Johnson has become the leader of a project — his adviser Dominic Cummings is an important part of this — to destroy Conservatism.'
Johnson the autocrat and the bully was in evidence in the last days of the campaign. He procured the immigration card again, claiming on Sky News that 'quite a large [number] of people coming in from the EU — 580 million population [were] able to treat the UK as though it's basically part of their own country'. Jobless unskilled workers were promised as favourite targets should he be returned to office. This was Johnson in jingoistic mood, changing his tone from a few weeks prior when he claimed migrants were his 'friends, family and neighbours'.
While the platform of Labour's Jeremy Corbyn aspired to be more humane with greater expenditure on services (health, education), he also dissembled about his attitudes to Brexit. Through the campaign he promised to remain resolutely neutral in any future Brexit referendum, hoping he could rebadge the election as one without the need to ever mention the 'B' word. This was slanted as virtuous partiality.
For his critics, it merely confirmed his weakness on the EU. Besides, went the sentiment, he really did not want to be in at all, but was not particularly clear on how to leave either. This was Labour's big problem of self-addling: whether the election would consolidate those voters wishing to remain in Europe, or see them defect to the Conservatives. As it transpired, Labour politicians might have, in the main, been Remainer types; part of their base, however, was not.
Nerves were aplenty before polls closed at 8pm. There was a sense that the Conservative lead in the polls had shrunk, with YouGov projecting a modest majority of 28 in the House of Commons.
"The hope that 'other issues would cut through' never materialised. The vote showed, again, a fractured sceptred isle."
The exit poll, with its 10pm release anxiously awaited, shelved any speculation about a hung parliament. Johnson, deemed a buffoon and bumbler by many even within his own party, had gone one better than his own previous prediction that becoming prime minister was as likely as being blinded by a champagne cork or decapitated by a frisbee. With a projection of 368 seats, it would be the best showing since Margaret Thatcher's thumping victories in 1987 (376) and 1983 (397).
The British Labour Party, in contrast, was facing its worst result since 1935. Labor-held constituencies such as Sedgefield, former prime minister Tony Blair's old seat, were voting Conservative for the first time in a century. Bishop Auckland was predicted to become Tory for the first time in its 134 history. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell found it 'extremely disappointing', refusing to blame Corbyn's leadership. The hope that 'other issues would cut through' never materialised.
The vote showed, again, a fractured sceptred isle. It was a reaffirmation of divisions through the country laid bare by the 2016 Brexit referendum. London did not budge from its Remain stance, but even there, a split between Labour and the Liberal Democrats saw the return of pro-Brexit Conservatives. Scotland went further in affirming its pro-European credentials; an improved nationalist vote suggested the possibility of another independence referendum in the offing. Westminster, however, is unlikely to grant Nicola Sturgeon that wish.
Through the rest of the country, the divisions were deep, the losers feeling surprised, bruised and sore. Celebrity Remainers such as thespians Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan were lacerated as enemies of democracy by television heavyweights such as Piers Morgan. Despite being a Remainer, he conceded that 'the only party that campaigned to honour the result of the EU Referendum won'.
Coogan did himself, and Labour's cause, few favours in attacking Conservative voters on the eve of the election, referencing his own comic character, Alan Partridge. 'Alan Partridge', he explained on a Channel 4 panel, 'is ill-informed and ignorant and therefore he's a Conservative and Brexiteer.' Coogan had suffered a Hillary Clinton 'basket of deplorables' moment. Never, say the wise heads of politics, attack the voter.
The Conservatives saw a chance for a neat subversion, a strategy deployed in Labour seats that had backed Brexit: wealthy progressives who wished Britain remain in Europe could not be trusted. A firm conservative majority was needed to ensure the break from the EU, without obstacles, and without empowered opponents on the court benches or parliament. This will come to be seen as a crude, simplified fantasy, but for the moment, the image of bold Britannia cut loose will be reiterated with self-deluding triumphalism.
Dr Binoy Kampmark is a former Commonwealth Scholar who lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Main image credit: Ben Stansall — WPA Pool/Getty Images