OPINION
November 13th 2023
Remembrance weekend has come and gone. The main demonstration, although riddled with vile posters and banners and a minority (a big minority!) chanting antisemitic phrases, passed mostly without serious incident.
There was a last-minute anti-protest protest march which resulted in over one hundred arrests as they approached the Cenotaph on Saturday, against the police policy. The police kettled them in a pub and then arrested them under various public order offences.
This is in direct contrast to the arrests from the Palestinian supporters’ march where there were far fewer arrests (from an estimated crowd of three hundred thousand). The police either displayed their bias, as stated by Suella Braverman, or their reluctance to take action in a difficult situation. Members of the Jewish population have been advised by their community leaders against going into central London as their safety could not be guaranteed.
This morning came the bombshell of a cabinet reshuffle with Braverman being sacked from her position as Home Secretary to be replaced by the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverley. The even bigger bombshell came with the appointment of David Cameron as Foreign Secretary. Steve Barclay has been replaced as Health Secretary by Victoria Atkins, Finance Secretary to the Treasury. This looks like an attempt to get some control over the money pit that is the National Health Service.
The appointment of Cameron necessitates him being given a peerage as he resigned as an MP after the Brexit referendum. This has raised the hackles of the Speaker of the House of Commons as he wants assurances on how Cameron will report to the Commons and what oversight he will be subject to.
These moves strengthen the position of “remainers” in the cabinet, just at a time when eleven members of the EU are under pressure about immigration and are looking at tightening the concept of free movement of people throughout the EU and reducing immigration into the EU.
Suella Braverman had increasing support throughout the country as she had a forthright way of stating the obvious and reflected the views of the majority on marches, immigration and the poor policing taking place in the country.
Rumour has it that she was undermined by the chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, a well-known political player.
This just shows the lack of political awareness and an inability to “read the room” from Sunak. If he had backed Suella Braverman and gone hard on her proposals to tighten controls over protests, stop oil protests, and immigration policy and initiated greater control over the police he would have had an opportunity to come back from low polls and have a fighting chance of scraping a win at the next election.
It just shows his inability to lead and present winning policies to the electorate. Rumours abound that letters demanding his resignation are on the way to the 1922 committee of back-bench Conservative MPs.
He has in effect lost the red wall seats in the North that they won at the last elections.