With three days to go until 4 July, who else would you want to hear from but Rory Stewart? Cometh the hour, cometh the king of the centrist dads as the ex-cabinet minister today temporarily swapped his podcast for Times Radio. Appearing on Andrew Neil’s show this afternoon, Stewart was asked to give his thoughts on how to fix the world’s woes. With apathy and cynicism on the rise, the former Tory leadership contender suggested that one way of tackling the issue would be that age-old favourite, constitutional reform.
Asked by Neil to name a single ‘distinctive policy or position’ espoused by the One Nation Tory tribe to which Stewart once belonged, the ex-International Development Secretary replied:
RS: ‘I’d argue decentralisation, which is a kind of pompous way of saying that the basic problem with both the old Blairite vision of the world and the problem with the populists is that they’re both centralisers, they’re people who basically believe in concentrating power, industrial strategies, protectionism. So I think that the most radical thing that we should be pushing for as an alternative is to push power much further down…’
AN: ‘But decentralisation, it’s not really a policy, it’s a process because that was one of the arguments for Scottish devolution. I don’t think we’re going to file that under great success.’
RS: ‘Well, I think the theme generally of putting democracy closer to voters, having proper local mayors that are directly accountable, making industrial strategies in Manchester and Birmingham, instead of in London, these things are probably the key to actually getting democracy and our economy going again.’
AN: ‘Well France has proper local mayors, directly elected, with a lot of power, that’s decentralised and France has just gone populist right.’
Stewart then proceeded to discuss the French form of government before conceding ‘Maybe you’re right’ and switching the debate to one about, er, cost-of-living and the economy. The Customs Union, he suggested, was a way of guaranteeing prosperity. Other measures like artificial intelligence could help grow the economy, he mused, and, in so doing, slap the populist dragon once and for all. After a few minutes of discussion, Stewart’s musings prompted Neil to remark that:
Can I just point out that every country that has swung to the right is in the Customs Union. It didn’t stop that. And that America, which is the world leader in AI, has got somebody called Donald Trump ahead in the polls. I mean Rory, it’s just drivel to say that joining the Customs Union or that being good at AI is going to stop the Marine Le Pens of this world!
‘Well Andrew,’ began Stewart ‘you’re right that it’s very complicated. It’s not just about economics, it’s about culture as well.’ Who knows, eh? Maybe a podcast will do the trick…
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