Boris doesn’t need to ditch his social liberalism to learn a few lessons from poland | thearticle

Many people in this country are today celebrating a landslide victory for the centre-Right, with 44 per cent of the vote and a large majority in Parliament. The winning formula is a

combination of social conservatism, especially family values; tough policies on law and order, including immigration; and big increases in public spending. No, this is not Britain we are

talking about, but Poland. Hundreds of thousands of Poles living and working here voted on Sunday at polling stations set up in cities all over the UK. Many of them may have preferred the

liberal opposition alliance, the Civic Platform, but the expatriate vote will still have played its part in the historic victory of the ruling Law and Justice party, which won by 17

percentage points, the largest margin since the end of Communism exactly 30 years ago. What, if any, are the lessons for the British Conservatives, who have not won elections with big

majorities since the days of Margaret Thatcher? The Iron Lady remains a heroine in Poland, where she visited the shipyards in Gdańsk to show her support for Solidarity, the workers’ movement

that brought down Communism. She too championed “Victorian values”, but in this respect Boris Johnson is at the other end of the spectrum, as a social liberal who pushed David Cameron into

enacting same-sex marriage, despite fierce resistance from many Tory members. Most young Conservatives are with Boris on this. Today’s Conservative Party today is therefore unlikely to

emulate much of the social conservatism that gave Law and Justice their landslide — let alone the rhetoric in which some of the latter’s leadering figures indulge. Its co-founder and chief

ideologist, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, sees the LGBT movement as alien to Poland. He is also behind efforts to curtail the judiciary and the press that have been criticised by Lech Walesa, the hero

of Solidarity in the 1980s, as putting Poland on the path to “authoritarian dictatorship”. Such prophecies have hitherto proved to be exaggerated and Kaczynski greeted his party’s victory

with a note of caution: “We must reflect on…what caused some parts of society to decide not to support us.” Poland remains Europe’s most Catholic country, but attempts to impose clericalism

on society at the expense of liberty would ultimately backfire. Where Boris Johnson does have something in common with Law and Justice, however, is his bid to win over the working class.

Here increases in public spending, provided they are carefully targeted and not excessive, will be essential. For example, Law and Justice has already increased the Polish minimum wage from

€379 to €520 a month, and has promised to nearly double it to €930 by 2024. Such rises put Johnson’s modest increase in the (non-compulsory) British living wage into perspective. Another

hugely popular Law and Justice policy has been the generous programme of child benefits for families, which receive a monthly payment of €115 a month per child. For poorer families, this is

a real incentive to have children — important in a country that has had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe and many of whose young people have migrated elsewhere in the EU, notably to

the UK. These are the hard-working but neglected families that have just given Law and Justice its victory. In the Queen’s Speech the Conservatives are expected to promise to spend £13.5

billion more on public services, the largest increase since the last Labour government. Think tanks such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Taxpayers’ Alliance have criticised this

rise, warning that it is irresponsible and will reduce the scope for tax cuts. However, Boris Johnson and his Chancellor, Sajid Javid, have sound political reasons to boost spending on

health, police, education and social care. The Tories are losing many of their metropolitan middle-class voters, most of whom voted Remain in 2016. They need to woo those who voted Leave,

who are predominantly poorer, less urban and more dependent on public services. One group who have been badly served by successive governments are young parents, who struggle to afford

childcare and mortgages. Britain compares poorly to other EU countries on child benefits, while house prices and rents here are relatively high. At the same time, the Tories will try to hang

onto their more affluent, often older supporters. Though they are unlikely to emulate Law and Justice in lowering the retirement age from 67 to 60, they could find ways to make life easier

for those who feel compelled to go on working indefinitely. They should also do something the growing number of people over 60 who are still caring for parents in extreme old age. One reason

why the Conservatives are ahead of Labour in the polls is that they are consciously trying to make their appeal more classless. Our Old Etonian and Oxford classicist Prime Minister is

surprisingly popular among Brexit-voting workers, but even Boris might benefit from taking Polish lessons. He doesn’t need to compromise his principles in order to adapt the Law and Justice

formula to fit his own, very personal, political romanticism.