Who in Britain Could Wear the Garb of Benjamin Disraeli?

Dizzy, where are you? Your party needs you, and no less bereft of your leadership skills, the country needs you, too. And to readers of the Sun, your Brexit Diarist marks Benjamin Disraeli’s birth in 1804 by considering three pressing issues for British Tories.First, whither contemporary Conservatives? Disraeli was a constant opponent of what he called “cosmopolitanism.” Yet such deracinated conservatism has, to all intents and purposes, overtaken his party. For Disraeli, change was an inevitable fact of life. The question was, “whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, the customs, the laws, and the traditions of a people” — the course of true conservatism — “or whether it should be carried out in deference to abstract principles, and arbitrary and general doctrines.”Much of what Disraeli stood in defense — the ancient traditions of England, her customs and institutions — now stand accused by the mob of racism and “white privilege.”No stranger to the prejudices of his day, Disraeli knew that the British state at its best was a bulwark of the rule of law and freedom. “Our Empire is an Empire of liberty, of truth, and of justice,” he proudly declared at the conclusion of the Treaty of Berlin.Disraeli would have excoriated any who sought to destroy the heritage of two millenia. “Commonwealth and Liberty,” he would now proclaim. That Conservatives themselves are willing accomplices in this barbarism, by commission or omission, would have stiffen his sinews, summoned up his blood, and disguised his “fair nature with hard-favored rage.”Second, Disraeli was a staunch monarchist. The Crown embodied the best of the British people. It linked all the classes together in a shared national enterprise, none less so than hard-working ordinary citizens. Yet it seems that the Crown has deserted its best friends and, in turn, faces an existential crisis.King Charles and the Prince of Wales, for instance, bang on about the evils and impending doom of anthropogenic climate change — a hypothesis that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, is all but assured of scientific certainty.No matter. Britain has put itself at the mercy of unreliable renewable “sustainable” energy resources that leave the nation on the brink of blackouts in the dead of a cold winter. Those on the very cusp of economic survival will pay for the environmentalists’ luxury of virtue signaling.Even on the question of Britain’s storied past, where the support of the monarchy should be assured, the Royal Family has been shamelessly silent. British institutions are maligned, statues to her heroes are toppled, and from Buckingham Palace, “no comment.”All in aid of currying favor with “the great and the good.” The slightest digression from accepted opinion, such as rising opprobrium against Elizabeth II’s cherished Commonwealth, and “The Firm” bears the brunt of its misapplied public relations. “Megxit” gives ample evidence that transatlantic elites care little for monarchy, and would abolish it in a heartbeat. Harry and Meghan have used their Netflix series against the Royal Family, secure in the knowledge that a credulous American audience will sympathize. Witness a recent New York Times guest editorial, that argues the British monarchy “needs to be dismantled.”Where are King Charles and Prince William’s new-found friends now, Disraeli would taunt. He would not stand idly by and allow the monarchy to undermine its current interests while jeopardizing its future well-being. “Crown and People,” he would exclaim, fully aware that cosying up to cosmopolitan “false friends” was a fatal mistake. Faith in Britain’s citizenry was Disraeli’s third message to the Conservative Party. When others quailed before his enfranchisement measures, he was secure in the belief that, their rights protected, none were more conservative than the people themselves.Were any proof required of common loyalty and decency, Disraeli would contrast Meghan’s “mock bow” to Elizabeth, demonstrated in her Netflix vanity show, with the vast number of Britons’ outpouring of sincere grief at Queen Elizabeth’s passing. Sadly, were Disraeli to survey the scene of contemporary British conservatism, he would stand in stunned amazement. To borrow an Australian term, he would lament the “white anting” — termites, that is — that has hollowed out his cherished Toryism.Such is the sorry state of Britain’s Conservative Party. Fortunately, principled conservatives are themselves alive and well, searching for a leader worthy of support. Already, eyes are turned toward the hero of Brexit, Nigel Farage, to lead a nascent revitalized movement.Disraeli himself was no stranger to party upheaval, having rebelled against Sir Robert Peel’s perceived desertion of principle. “I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad,” he proclaimed as a young candidate for political office.“I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few,” Disraeli declared. “I alike detest the despotism of an oligarchy and the pre-eminence of a mob,” he said, and “I shall ever seek to confer the greatest happiness upon the greatest numbers.”Weighty words for a Tory leader, then and now. Only one question remains, in these days of unrest in Britain: Who is worthy to wear the mantle of Disraelian Conservatism?BrexitDiarist@gmail.com

Who in Britain Could Wear the Garb of Benjamin Disraeli?

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