The Future for a Global Britain: An Evening with Richard Graham MP

On Thursday of 3rd week in the somewhat hallowed halls of Christ Church, OUCA was delighted to welcome Richard Graham MP to speak. This was an informal affair filled with discussion, drinks in the nearby pub and the occasional joke at the expense of Jeremy Corbyn and the newly christened ‘Rebecca Wrong-Daily’.
Graham centred his hour-long talk on three main questions which he believes will define the decade and was more than open to the occasional interruption from the audience. His first proposition focussed on the place and future for politics in the modern world and endeavoured to define the two models of politics as being either ‘democratic politics’ or ‘authoritarian politics’. He was particularly troubled with the proliferation and success that authoritarian regimes have recently experienced. With his long and distinguished career as a diplomat, he gracefully coloured in the talk with real-life tales of boardrooms and conferences in so-called authoritarian countries where the lack of debate and politics lead to massive efficiencies in infrastructure that were of benefit to their population. This idea was touched upon later in-discussion with members of the audience when it came in examining whether democracy itself has a cost. The notion of whether a democratic process hinders strategic decision making weighed heavily when comparing the lack of public facility development in the UK as compared to China. As a Chair of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Graham is acutely aware of the fragility of democracy and that the case for it is eroding. With this, he made an urgent call to those in attendance to go into politics to shepherd democracy into the new age. Speaking at an OUCA event, I do expect that Mr Graham’s hopes will surely be fulfilled.

Then the elephant in the room showed up and Graham made a quick mention of Brexit. The comparison of the day-to-day parliamentary lunchtime talks and how it has changed with the recent 80 seat majority, and a war or peacetime cabinet was not lost on the audience. With this, he expresses relief that the turmoil is over but with his skills as a diplomat, it is difficult to gauge whether or not Graham thought Brexit was a good idea. A quick Google search informs you that he did campaign and vote for remain, but the lack of a gloomy outlook and his overall hope for the future stands in opposition to those from that camp. He spoke not of the terms of Brexit or any of the dogmatic ideas that may have dominated this talk a few months ago. Instead, Graham focussed on how Britain was going to redefine itself with this newfound freedom and what will be Britain’s role without the EU. He believes that the Prime Minister’s answer to this question, ‘A Global Britain’, is in-fact a slogan in search of a strategy and that there needs to be significant research done in trying to find the best route forward. A focus on developing economies in African, South East Asian and Latin American countries is his preferred way forward. He again makes notes of the inroads China has made into trying to forge relationships with these countries. In this, he finds an opportunity for Britain to be in partnership with the Chinese, or, as he puts it, ‘China is the key to Asia’ as we would be able to offer high quality and bespoke legal and financial services when it comes to their development plans. His awareness of the ongoing need and push for renewable energy is mentioned here, as he highlights the Nuclear energy plant in Hinkley Point, Somerset as a great example of a British-Chinese partnership. A natural suspicion of the Chinese government is also present, and Graham refers to the human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims that have been reported in Xinjiang. The question of whether Britain had any ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ power when it came to bartering with China and similarly fast-growing authoritarian regimes flourished from this discussion. In answering the question, Graham was noticeably confident in the fact that the UK’s ability and world-reputation as a leader in law and finance meant that the British still had important bargaining tools.

These two broad ideas came to a head when a member of the audience questioned whether Dominic Cumming’s idea of the UK as a global education hub would be a way for the UK to promote democracy and free-thought and thus station itself as the intellectual centre of the world. With the UK's historic claims to fostering intellectual pursuits, a rebranding of the UK as a global education hub is not too far off, but Graham was worried whether this would require the UK abandoning its citizens in favour of the higher tuition fee-paying international students. He argued that a free market and capitalist outlook came into direct opposition with the need to promote a better and more skilled UK workforce. However, the idea of whether or not education should be a profit-seeking business was a question that was left up in the air.

As this was a speech given to the Oxford University Conservative Association, it should be of surprise to no-one that the third question focussed on the role of the Conservative Party in dealing with these two issues. Graham was very eager not to proclaim the recent election majority an outright success and cautioned us all not to rest on our laurels. He made particular note of the fact that a traditionally rich and therefore Conservative-friendly seat, Kensington, was won with only 150 votes. His impression of the election was that it was a perfect storm for the Conservatives: with the charisma of Boris, the tepid and ill-fated Labour Brexit policy, and the demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn paving the way for the euphoria-inducing 80 seat majority and Conservative gains in traditionally Labour constituencies in the West Midlands. For Graham, the erosion of personal loyalty for a candidate and the strengthening of party or policy loyalty was one of the main takeaways. He noted that all MPs who had defected from their party had lost their seats in the recent election. Given this renewed focus on sticking to the party line, Graham himself wondered what that line would be.

Throughout his talk, and in the discussion and informal drinks that followed, Mr Graham’s warm and friendly nature was clear. However, like any good and skilled diplomat, he tried to steer clear of giving away too much of his own opinions on his Conservative colleagues. In all of this, it is evident that Graham believes that a robust and critical parliamentary backbench is what will make the Conservative party a success. His confidence in both the newly elected and veteran-MPs to provide this pivotal role was something he chose to finish with. He believes that this decade will be defined by the strength and perseverance of the Conservative party. The Conservative party, in his opinion, will become a guiding light for the preservation and forwarding of democracy, and in this, we should be hopeful.

Aurora Guerrini is a DPhil student reading Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at Worcester College