The Spectator’s Notes | 24 September 2005

Even in successful parliamentary democracies there comes a time when no political party is confronting the questions which matter most, and so the voter feels cheated. The worst time for this in Britain was the 1930s. Conservative appeasement seemed more and more inadequate, but the Labour party, then in pacifist mood, did not offer a convincing alternative. It is similar today, only the other way round in party terms. The biggest problem facing the country is Islamist terrorism, not so much because of the security threat (grave though that is), but because of the cultural and political war that is behind it. An effort is being made, like the effort once made by communists, to undermine our Western, plural, free, semi-Christian way of life. In a way it is more dangerous than communism was — at least in Britain — because it has more adherents and fellow travellers. Tony Blair and some in his government are very aware of this, and some of their ideas about it are right, but they are hamstrung by their own ideology which has for so long taught that a multicultural society is a self-evident good. Thus, for example, a Home Office charged with identifying Islamist threats has saddled itself with Muslim advisers who resist this at every turn. In these circumstances, the opposition should be supporting Mr Blair in a tough line, and embarrassing him and the government by exposing the weakness and ambiguity of so many of its members and supporters. Instead of which, the Tories have an obsession with ‘getting Blair’. They bore on about ‘spin’, really only because his is better than theirs, and are tempted to ally with the Left against the Prime Minister. Every time they do that they look less like a potential government, a lesson which Mr Blair learnt long ago when he positioned himself as a critical admirer of the Thatcher revolution.