Danny Kruger has just published an essay setting out Reform UK’s ‘doctrine for government’ on his Substack. Although it is unclear whether this is an officially-endorsed document or Kruger’s bid to fill a gap in Reform (the party has policies but, like Farage, lacks a political philosophy), or perhaps both, it is of real importance. Beyond familiar arguments concerning the need to reduce welfare, cut taxes, encourage enterprise, get tough on crime, rebuild our armed forces, secure our borders, and reduce energy costs, there are two points that stand out.
The first is that Kruger develops a powerful argument for a restoration of ‘the Crown in Parliament’, our ancient pre-Blairite constitution, in which power was exercised democratically by the people through their representatives (not by unaccountable public bodies and quangos answerable to international human rights lawyers), the civil service was the servant of the elected government, and judges were appointed by the Lord Chancellor. The éminence grise here is David Starkey, and this is very good news. For as Starkey argues (see his interview in our summer edition), this restoration, this wresting back of control from our liberal elite, is the necessary pre-condition for saving our country.
The second is that Kruger clarifies what it is about our country – our nation – that is worth saving. The most striking feature of the essay is Kruger’s emphasis on our country’s unique historic and cultural inheritance, dating back to Bede’s reference to the ‘gens Anglorum’ in the early eighth century; and on the central role Christianity has played in shaping both our moral norms and our traditions of liberty and democracy. Mass immigration is therefore not only damaging on social and economic grounds; it represents an existential cultural threat: ‘We are threatened with the cultural extinction of Britain as a distinct European civilisation’.
This is the great truth that the Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch will not, and perhaps cannot, admit. That our nation is more than a set of civic ‘British values’ that can be written on the back of a postcard, or chanted in schools and at citizenship ceremonies: it is a living cultural inheritance that goes back over a thousand years.
Instead of the simplistic ethnic identity brandished by Restore’s young zealots (‘You can’t be British unless all your ancestors were British’ – which, as many have pointed out, disqualifies our own Royal Family), Kruger argues for ‘a singular national identity to which all citizens subscribe, and to which all secondary identities submit’. As to what constitutes this identity, he does not elaborate. But it is implicit in the rest of the essay that Kruger has in mind something more substantial than those airy ‘British values’ to which all can ‘subscribe’ – something with real cultural and emotional ballast that speaks to the heart.
Kruger argues that for our society to work, there has to be a sense of ‘we’ consisting of ‘common memories, attitudes, rituals and habits’. Our national culture and institutions, including the Church of England, must therefore be privileged. And that since the forcible deportation of millions of our legally-settled fellow citizens is not an option (interestingly, there appears to be no difference between Reform and Restore on the need to deport those who are here illegally), the only option is ‘a deliberate strategy of compulsory integration’. Again, the form this would take is not specified, other than to insist on reinstating our national story in schools (which is important, of course), but Kruger is clearly going beyond what is called for by proponents of a bland, all-inclusive civic nationalism.
Moreover, Kruger does not mince his words in identifying the main threat to our national culture. He explains that the dominant creed in the mosques of the North is ‘the Deobandi doctrine’, which preaches ummah (separation) and jihad to ensure an Islamic world. The resulting parallel Islamic societies, governed by Sharia Law, are, he argues, ‘incompatible’ with the traditions of our country. We must therefore ‘stop the proliferation of mosques’, end segregation, enforce UK law over Sharia, prosecute those who preach ‘sedition’, and defend apostates. This is much stronger than anything we have heard so far from a mainstream politician. Gone are the usual euphemisms – that it is only an extreme ‘radicalised’ fringe that is the problem, that ‘Islamism’ has nothing to do with Islam etc.
Just how those British Muslims calling for an Islamic state (up to a third, according to recent polls) would be forcibly integrated, or how their resistance would be managed, is not elaborated by Kruger. For, as Ben Jones argues in his recent book Island of Strangers (see his article in our forthcoming autumn edition), some form of conflict is inevitable if free speech, which necessarily includes the right to blaspheme, is restored in this country. But Kruger has at least identified the challenge we face.
A plausible doctrine for government? A conservative doctrine? Much still needs to be worked out. For example, talk of unleashing free enterprise is well and good. But laissez-faire needs to be tempered by a strong state prepared to intervene to ensure long-term investment (domestic not foreign) – not asset stripping by private equity to maximise short-run profits or the selling off of our strategic national assets to the Chinese. On families, Kruger writes that the state cannot be neutral because ‘a society that has more stable families is a better society for everyone’. The argument is compelling, but Reform has yet to commit to the radical policies that would support families – for example, the full sharing of tax allowances for couples raising children. On communities, Kruger argues it is vital that communities be strengthened, enabled to ‘renew themselves’. Yet no specific policies are offered – indeed, communities do not feature in any of the twenty policies listed on Reform’s website. Clearly, more work is needed here. For as Roger Scruton argued, it is families, communities, and the nation – not markets – that lie at the heart of conservatism.
Nevertheless, Kruger has identified something more important than the state of our economy. It is the civilisational challenge. It is our country, our nation, that is ‘threatened with extinction’ – and the greatest threat comes from within. If Reform can hammer that message home, even at the risk of alienating some sections of the population, they may yet win the next election, either on their own or in coalition. Whether Reform, or even the Conservatives, can rise to the challenge and save our country remains to be seen.
