Theresa May is the silent executioner of liberalism

In her party conference speech, Theresa May spoke of a new “centreground in which government steps up”. But what centreground can she even talk of that is in existence right now? The Brexit result has given her the license to tend to the whims of both the angry white “forgotten” and the more rabid members of her party.

She fans the flames against foreigners, pursuing her statist vision for Britain in which shaming firms into hiring less foreign workers is taking back control. In reasserting her Party’s conservatism, she stuck a knife through liberalism at a time where a free-market dynamic is crucial to offset the Brexit damage. It isn’t a coincidence that every time Theresa May reasserts that Brexit actually is happening, the pound plunges. Indeed since June 24^th, the country has suffered a currency devaluation of at least 13% and the average consumer is becoming poorer – but hey, at least it’s good for exports!

Her prerogative to push the Tories economically to the left stands in stark comparison to her rightward pummel into the dark depths of social conservatism. In the name of “British patriotism”, May continues to legitimise hostility and the exclusion of foreigners. Having essentially adopted a UKIP-style manifesto, the Tories are becoming the leading proponents of nationalism; not even Farage had suggested forcing firms to disclose how many foreign workers they employ.

In fact, “British jobs for British workers” is a former BNP slogan. If the concern is about foreign labour undercutting British wages, how about raising the minimum wage rather than calling out companies on their patriotism? And as if things couldn’t get any worse, Amber Rudd’s speech sounded remarkably like section two of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

The path towards nationalism is a dark and regressive force, reaching its most dangerous at the point at which it refuses to acknowledges it is nationalism at all. The same path threatens our current leadership in the world of science. We have already seen Nobel Prize Winner Sir Fraser Stoddart launch a bitter attack on the current state of affairs in the UK during his acceptance speech.

And then Tony Blair, as if compelled by a newfound sense of morality, stated there may be a future role for him in politics. It must be very dark days indeed for one of the UK’s most hated politicians to contend making a comeback. Abhorred by the political centre vacuum? Yes. The sort of politician the country needs as a reactionary force? He most definitely is not. A man who has been labelled the “world’s worst terrorist”, having gone hand in hand with Bush to kickstart the era of ethics-led aggression that’s come to shape warfare in the year’s since the Iraq invasion. Such was the epitome of the chasm between the values of the political elite, and what the people expect and want.

Immigration is consistently blamed for putting a strain on public services, as pointed out by Boris during the Brexit campaign: “We get uncontrolled immigration, which puts unsustainable pressure on our vital public services”. EU “health tourists” do cost the NHS £340m a year according to Department of Health figures, which sounds like a big amount. However, it only actually accounts for 0.3% of NHS total annual expenditure; when we’re willing to shell out £27 billion on Trident it seems apparent that maybe immigrants aren’t causing the waiting lists or preventing people from seeing their GPs, perhaps it’s down to questionable spending priorities from the Tories. Junior doctors have criticised the government for not giving enough funding to the NHS, and with the amount of rigorous training that goes into being a doctor, they probably know more than Jeremy Hunt on what they need, let alone deserve better wages.

But its not just Trident where the government is wasting their money, we waste £3 billion a year on the “war on drugs”. As Home Secretary, May allegedly tampered with a Whitehall drug report in 2014 that found no link between tough laws and illegal drug use. Both scientific and economic rationale continues to demand a more enlightened UK drugs policy. In her outright refusal to entertain the legalisation of drugs, May is hampering with the potential research into medicinal drugs and continues to waste millions locking up non-violent drug offenders. But drug reform isn’t an electable policy platform, of course.

The marginal result of the EU referendum has been interpreted as a demand from the British public for a divisive right-wing society in which foreign skills and talent are unwelcome. The 48% or 16.1 million people who voted remain, have become the 1%, or the “metropolitan elite” May spoke of in her speech (with such contempt). May’s bogus calls for “tax justice”, her anti-elite rhetoric and her Christian views cannot eclipse her innate political nastiness. After all, this is the woman who not only banned Tyler, the Creator, from the UK, but who is also responsible for the wrongful deportation of nearly 50,000 international students. And this is the woman who refuses to provide a “running commentary” when she shortly will start implementing her economy-destroying hard Brexit vision…a vision which will make the poorest in our country a lot poorer.

22,000 children continue to die each day from poverty, the city of Aleppo has been virtually destroyed, there’s been a 5.8 million increase in refugees worldwide since 2015, and the disastrous effects of global warming are increasingly being seen. Against this reality it’s hard to stomach the importance of patriotism, but still May attacked “left wing, activist, human rights lawyers” and gave climate change one perfunctory mention in her speech . Despite the global refugee crisis we face, less than 5% of those who come to our country are refugees. The dire situation at Calais is a moral stain on the French and British government; the politics of immigration must no longer overshadow the UK’s duty to care for common humanity.

Is it not then unsurprising that the genuine, kind politics that Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders preach are resonating with the masses. Theresa May referred to the young in her speech as the “struggling generation”, as opposed to her own “prosperous older generation.” We’re struggling because your generation tripled tuition fees. We’re struggling because you intend to enact a hard Brexit despite the fact it was overwhelmingly opposed by the generation who have to live with the consequences. Because you’re leaving our generation with the mess of climate change.

Let us not give in to the right-winged and racist views being sold as British values by May and Rudd. With a hard Brexit likely, the UK’s future is bleak. But hopefully a time will come when the tides of populism are in favour of morality.

Welcome to Trump’s ideal Britain.