No democracy please! We’re British!

The first thing to be said is that this has nothing to do with them being Tories and everything to do with them being British. I long ago despaired of people learning that when it comes to the constitutional issue making distinctions between British parties is nonsensical. They are all British. They are all parties of the British establishment. They all regard the Union as ‘precious’. They all regard democracy as a frippery to be entertained only so long as it produces the outcome which best suits the structures of power, privilege and patronage which define the British state.

The British parties – ALL the British parties! – serve those structures of power, privilege and patronage because those structures of power, privilege and patronage serve them. The British parties are built into those structures. They cannot be considered separate from the British state any more sensibly than they can be…