The political struggle between the Conservative and Labour parties in Britain has intensified following the early general elections on July 4, 2024, particularly as internal and external policy challenges grow. Rory Stewart’s book Politics on the Edge, released late last year, sheds light on the current British challenges, making it a crucial read.
The book offers a critical view of British politics, which, according to Stewart, has reached the edge. Drawing from his personal and political experiences in public service, Stewart critiques the British democratic system, noting the growing partisan divisions and its disconnection from reality. He argues that the country’s foreign policy is also in disarray.
Stewart’s insights are informed by his extensive experience and popularity among young Britons. Alongside Alastair Campbell, he co-hosts the country’s most popular podcast, The Rest Is Politics. Stewart has held several government positions, including Minister of State for International Development, Prisons, Africa, and Environment, and Chair of the Parliamentary Defense Committee. He also ran for Conservative Party leadership against Boris Johnson in 2019. Earlier in his career, he briefly served in the British military before becoming a diplomat in Indonesia, the Balkans, and Iraq. Additionally, he founded and ran a charity in Afghanistan.
Academically, Stewart became a professor of Human Rights at Harvard University and has authored three other books: The Places in Between, Occupational Hazards, and The Marches.
Between Iraq and Afghanistan:
In the book, Stewart recounts his political journey starting from his time as a former Scottish infantry officer tasked with cleaning up the chaos left by the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. He served as an acting governor of an Iraqi province after the war and eventually concluded that the official narrative of the invasion was fraudulent. Rather than building a democratic nation, the British military was, in his view, creating new enemies due to arrogance and misconduct.
Following his resignation, Stewart worked with NGOs in Afghanistan, where he found that small, well-allocated donations could yield tangible results. He established a health clinic that treated around 27,000 patients annually. However, his successes did little to impress the US and UK governments, which were determined to turn Afghanistan into a modern liberal democracy. They poured massive funding and military resources into destroying the Taliban, but ultimately, the mission ended with what Stewart calls the “humiliating” US withdrawal in 2021, when the Taliban regained control.
Parliament Under Scrutiny:
Stewart later transitioned to another phase of his career when he ran for the British Parliament. In 2009, fifty MPs resigned after The Telegraph revealed details about their questionable expense claims. Despite having no strong party loyalty—Stewart was born in Hong Kong to a World War II soldier and had familial ties to Scottish aristocracy—he felt more aligned with the Conservatives, who upheld tradition. Still, he identified as a centrist and a supporter of a united Britain.
In 2009, he ran for Parliament, driven by a passion for public service, and was elected in a rural constituency when the Conservatives were in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. He later served as a junior minister under former Prime Minister David Cameron. In his book, Stewart paints a bleak picture of life in Westminster, describing MPs as uninterested in politics and obsessed with scandals. He found the parliamentary environment filled with incompetence, suspicion, envy, resentment, and schadenfreude.
Stewart critiques Cameron in several parts of the book, including his alleged support for diversity while surrounding himself with a narrow group of Eton alumni. He was also disappointed with Cameron’s superficial cabinet discussions and lack of strategy regarding Afghanistan or awareness of rising populism in Britain.
Stewart argued that British Parliament had undergone a “shocking decline” and could only be reformed through transparency. He skillfully portrayed political figures such as Liz Truss, David Cameron, David Gauke, and Boris Johnson. He described Truss as valuing “exaggerated simplicity” over “critical thinking” and “power and manipulation” over “truth and reason.” He praised David Gauke, his boss at the Ministry of Justice, as a moderate and honest individual.
The British Brexit:
Stewart expressed his opposition to Brexit and participated in the Remain campaign during the EU referendum, but he respected the final decision. After Cameron’s resignation following the Brexit vote, then-Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Stewart as Minister of State for International Development, then Africa, and later Prisons.
Though Stewart supported May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement, hardline Brexit supporters plotted her downfall. Stewart saw politics as a “revenge profession” and, after May’s resignation, ran for the party leadership. However, he refused to serve under Boris Johnson, whom he felt lacked “seriousness and moral principles.”
Stewart described the British party system as irreparably fractured due to deep divisions. He questioned whether it could be fixed by uniting political allegiances. He also acknowledged that British democracy had become dysfunctional, with politicians more focused on gaining or retaining power, often sacrificing everything to win elections.
“Imagined Power”:
Stewart continued to expose the fragility of British politics. While running for Conservative Party leadership, he sat in a televised debate with five other contenders, all vying to showcase Britain’s strength. “We are responsible for the fifth-largest economy in the world, for a population larger than the Roman Empire at its peak…,” they boasted.
But Stewart described this power as “imagined.” “Britain grows only half of the food it consumes, produces less than half of the energy it uses… we are in debt and borrowing more.” He warned that “a single mistake could collapse our currency, wipe out government bond markets, ignite inflation, and push much of our country to the brink of bankruptcy almost overnight.”
As for his view of the British governments in which he served, Stewart emphasized that the first duty of any government is to provide effective management, but this had not been the case. Ministers were frequently moved between departments and weren’t given enough time to gain a deep understanding of their roles.
He highlighted his experience as Minister of Prisons, making it his mission to visit every prison in the country. He found many small, easily achievable reforms, but like in Afghanistan, small successes failed to make major headlines. Instead, ambitious politicians focused on building more prisons and longer sentences, ignoring overcrowded cells and crumbling infrastructure.
Stewart also criticized Boris Johnson’s choice to appoint him to work on Africa during his tenure as Foreign Secretary, despite Stewart’s extensive experience in Asia and the Middle East. He explained the challenges he faced and how he overcame them.
Just Slogans:
Stewart portrayed the British system as highly selfish. Large numbers of senior civil servants were cut as an easy way to reduce public spending. During Tony Blair’s tenure, they were replaced with cheaper, fresh university graduates armed with postmodern ideas and IT skills. Ministers, facing the public, excessively relied on behavioral algorithms, crafting slogans like “Take Back Control” to maximize public appeal.
According to Stewart, British governments relied on slogans and lies. Johnson wrote in The Telegraph that after Brexit, “free trade and access to the single market will continue.” Gove and Johnson, in an article for The Sun, claimed “taxes will be lower and wages higher”—none of which materialized.
In conclusion, Stewart’s book offers a critical view of British politics, highlighting its weaknesses and flaws. His work sounds the alarm for future British governments, urging them to save what can be saved and enact much-needed change.
Source:
Rory Stewart, Politics On The Edge: A Memoir from Within (London, Jonathan Cape, September 2023).
