The US's clear military and economic dominance of the postwar world gave it an obvious claim to seniority; however, there was also a strong strain within English conservatism at the time that saw itself as Greeks in this American empire, in the words of former Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan. In other words, even if the Americans were to be the new Romans, extending their dominion over every corner of the globe, without the intellectual, cultural and political guidance of their wise old mother country they would quickly fall into ruin.
Rightwing populism in particular relies on an ever-expanding list of enemies from urban elites to benefit claimants, immigrants to deep-state bureaucrats, diversity officers to leftwing radicals, net zero zealots to mild liberals yet this list always contains a striking omission.
Occasionally, history generates smooth changes from one era to another. More commonly, such shifts occur only gradually and untidily. And sometimes, as the former Downing Street foreign policy adviser John Bew puts it in the New Statesman, history unfolds in a series of flashes and bangs. In Caracas last weekend, Donald Trump's forces did this in spectacular style. In the process, the US brushed aside more of what remains of the so-called rules-based order with which it tried to shape the west after 1945.
Political orthodoxy tells us that younger voters tend to be more progressive on issues like immigration. But in recent years, Europe has seen anti-migrant parties surge in the polls and gain youth support across the continent. In Norway, for example, survey data shows that 24 percent of young people favour limiting immigration "to a large extent" and 23 percent "to some extent."
Grappling with the loneliness epidemic, the damaging role of social media on face-to-face socialising, and young people's struggles to interact with peers in the post-pandemic era, psychotherapists look for an explanation in the lack of 'community'. Sociologists talk about community as a solution for childcare shortages and the best way to support nuclear families. Anthropologists remind us about the power of collective rituals, and bring up examples of culturally diverse models of communal life.
"If the threats of Donald Trump prove anything, it is that the mantra of shared values with his administration is as much use as a chocolate teapot. Countries across the world are scrambling to adjust. Canada has announced a trade realignment towards China and talk grows of counter-sanctions in Europe. If the UK wants to avoid being caught in the crossfire, there really is only one alternative: to finally take the brakes off rebuilding our common future in Europe.
As such, within minutes of Braverman telling the cheering crowd that she had come home, her former party agreed, with a Tory spokesperson saying it was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect. Reform is now up to eight MPs, four of whom were elected as Conservatives. And crucially, for a party that may create the next government from, in effect, a standing start, three of these have top-level experience:
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