Queen’s Speech: the doublespeak of an illiberal government

Boris Johnson has such a well-crafted and long-established image as a freedom-loving, instinctively liberal bundle of fun that it can distract from his government’s draconian nature. There was a clear pattern across the bills in the Queen’s Speech of illiberal policies designed to bolster the power of the executive and the Conservative Party.  

The Queen had to read out a statement made up entirely of doublespeak: “My government will strengthen and renew democracy and the constitution… Legislation will be introduced to ensure the integrity of elections, protect freedom of speech and restore the balance of power between the executive, legislature and the courts.”

What followed was a series of bills that will deliver the precise opposite of their stated intention and disingenuously claim to address problems that don’t exist. A pointless voter ID scheme is being introduced to address voter fraud despite there being scant evidence that it is a real problem. Thirty-two million votes were cast in the 2017 General Election. There were zero cases of in-person voter fraud that could have been prevented by voter ID. There were six reported incidents in the next election.

In-person voter fraud is not an endemic issue undermining the integrity of our elections. This is just a classic case of voter suppression with the Conservative Party hoping to reap the marginal gains they could achieve by reducing the number of votes from the young, poor and ethnic minorities. In the pilot undertaken in 2019, 819 people were turned away and didn’t return. Combined with evidence from the US, this unnecessary policy reduced democratic participation.

The judicial review bill which contains measures to “modernise” judicial reviews and prevent “abuse of the system” is just a thinly veiled act of spite in response to the judicial reviews on Article 50 and the overturning of the prorogation of Parliament. Both reasserted the power of Parliament – once lauded as a benefit of Brexit – but chief Brexiteer Boris Johnson clearly feels different now he is in power.

The rule of law requires that all public bodies comply with the law, and that recourse to the courts must be possible when they do not. Often the courts are all that can control the abuse of executive power. By clamping down on this the government is undermining the rule of law. The value of an independent judiciary to our democracy is clear and no good can come from a culture war stoked by the government that inflames tensions and a war of words between two pillars of the UK’s constitutional order.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which I have previously criticised in these pages, is an outrageous attempt to diminish our right to protest peacefully. Vague and ambiguous conditions will be placed on demonstrations which are bound to lead to an abuse of power by the police. The Bill is backed by Dame Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who had previously urged our Home Secretary Priti Patel to use the “much-needed opportunity” of the Extinction Rebellion protests to give police greater powers to curb protests.

During the parliamentary debate, there was little effort made to justify the measures on their own merit. Instead a blatant attempt to curb our liberties is being sold to the Tory base by exploiting culture war issues such as the Extinction Rebellion protests and the BLM movement. Actions such as vandalism, interfering with transport and blocking newspaper printing presses are already illegal so this is just another heavy-handed, knee-jerk response from the government.  

What’s most fascinating about the nature of this government is that, in practice, it is more of a threat to liberty than Theresa May’s leadership ever was. May was the bogeyman of liberal conservatives due to her record as Home Secretary and immediate rejection of globalism and the ‘libertarian right’ which she implied had been too influential on previous Tory governments. I remember the howls of despair from think tanks and pressure groups from the Conservative liberal wing, but now that Boris has happily violated his supposed liberal principles, they should direct their ire towards him.

There were high hopes that the instinctively liberal Boris would herald a new freedom-loving government. As it is, we could not even trust Boris to roll back the nanny state. Instead, he’s banning all junk food ads from television and online. As all bad legislation does, this has already led to confusion from businesses wondering how this will be applied. Yesterday Number 10 wasn’t able to say whether bakeries could have an Instagram account. This is ludicrous.

It’s time to look beyond the image and see Boris for what he is. In many ways, he better reflects the true nature of the Conservative Party than any MP with firmly and sincerely held convictions. The Tory Party may host many different ideological factions, but its true political strength is that it is an adaptable empty vessel. The Party’s ideology reflects whichever faction is in charge and, crucially, changes with the public mood. It’s an election winning machine above all else.

Boris Johnson has shown us that he too is an empty vessel. He claimed to have certain principles and instincts, but as they didn’t match those of the electoral coalition he has decided to build, he chucked them out and got new ones. Now liberals of the right must see past his words and freedom-loving image, and scrutinise his actions.