Europe has grown accustomed to looking upon the internal affairs of its neighbour across the Channel as a soap opera whose writers have lost the plot. The last few years have provided no end of drama as increasingly eccentric characters ignite UK politics, burn spectacularly, and are succeeded by a personality even more unlikely than the last.
Today's shock news that former Prime Minister David Cameron has suddenly returned from the hinterland to take up one of the highest jobs in government – Foreign Secretary – might almost be read as just another episode in the giddy game of musical chairs. But from the relative calm of Belgium, where the time to appoint a head of state might see three come and go in Britain, we are allowed a step back to see things a bit more clearly.
Cameron has been labelled a "safe bet" by commentators who argue that the present PM Rishi Sunak needs less incendiary colleagues to steady the political balance in the UK. But the fact that Cameron seems a welcome return to government speaks volumes of how turbulent things have become.
Until now, Cameron's legacy has been the UK's shambolic exit from the EU, the calamity he neglected to prevent and will forever be his defining failure, notwithstanding this latest redemption campaign. In the seven years since leaving office, he has been largely absent from the public eye – save for the Greensill scandal, in which the ex-PM lobbied for the favourable treatment of a company he held shares in.
But though the 2016 Brexit referendum at the time seemed the peak of British populism, in hindsight it was just opening the door to an era of undisguised disdain for the principles that the UK had mythologised as national character. Under Boris Johnson, all sense of integrity was thrown to the wind as attempts to dominate and divert public discourse became more performative and overtly odious.
Most willing to push the limits of acceptability was the outgoing Home Secretary Suella Braverman, whose virulently anti-migrant rhetoric has been taken as a rallying cry for far-right agitation. This tendency to stoke division was again on display when she labelled participants of a pro-Palestine demonstration "hate marchers" and publically berated the police for not banning the event.
Whilst the overwhelming majority of the 300,000 taking part in the march did so peacefully, extreme right-wing counter-protestors (many voicing loud support for Braverman) clashed with police on the fringes. No longer able to ignore the danger of having such a provocateur in his entourage, Sunak fired Braverman on Monday.
It's difficult to imagine such a state of affairs here in Belgium and the two countries are hardly comparable. For one, the language divide provides a barrier to the polemic politics promulgated by media in Britain. Then again, the populism that today grips the UK seemed implausible until it suddenly bit with the Brexit referendum. Belgium is not immune to such calls to the extreme.
If the UK is the political melodrama unfolding on Europe's sidelines, there's plenty of reason to stay tuned. Besides the entertainment, there is much to learn.
Whatever next? Let @Orlando_tbt know.
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