“A burly man of 53, Lord Gort was no strategist, and was happy to follow the French lead on such matters”—The Miracle of Dunkirk

The calendar is full of anniversaries. Only a few days on from the historic trouncing meted out to the two long-established parties that have dominated British politics for a century, the week of May 10^th marks the 85^th anniversary of another historic and pivotal rout of seemingly unassailable forces of the establishment

Far from benefitting from any typical mid-term swing that might be expected from voter disillusionment with the government, the Conservatives seem like Britain’s wartime ally, France. In May 1940, France boasted the largest army in the world, with a colonial empire to rival Britain’s and modern fortifications all along their border with Germany (the Maginot Line), built to avoid repletion of the trench warfare bloodbath of WW1.

The modern equivalent is Tory reliance on politically entrenched boardrooms, billionaire donors and shire golf clubs. Unfortunately, like the French in WW2, Tory glories lie in the past; two centuries ago, Napoleon conquered Europe, whereas just four decades ago, Thatcherism conquered Westminster.

By 1940, Britain had upgraded their mass, horse-drawn WW1 army to send Lord Gort’s 10-division British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to support the French. This had no cavalry, and moved artillery and heavy equipment by truck.  This parallels the Labour party, modernised under Blair, embracing soft left-of-centre policies and political marketing. To mollify traditional “Old Labour”, this has more recently been modified into a “Labour Values”. Mantra.

When the Germans suddenly ended the Phoney War on May 10^th, the BEF was lured into a trap in Belgium. Ignoring the Maginot Line, they plunged through the “impassable” Ardennes. Rommel’s 7^th Panzer bounced Corap’s 9^th French Army at Dinant, while Guderian’s XIX Panzerkorps overwhelmed Huntzinger’s 2^ndFrench Army at Sedan and, unimpeded, swept to the Channel coast to cut off the entire BEF, forcing them to retreat to Dunkirk, and evacuation by the Royal Navy. Both allies were outmanoeuvered in a blitzkrieg for which neither were prepared.

The May 7^th2026 election evokes parallels with this. Just as the Allies thought they had prepared for war, so British establishment parties campaigned as they had always done. However, Reform was as unconventional as the Germans had been, following Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook)’slogan: “move fast and break things”.

Reform used blatantly populist policies, much as Farage had done leading UKIP. Anti-immigration appeals to xenophobia; lowering taxes by greater efficiencies; a “Little Englander variant on Trump’s MAGA credo. Against the social conscience of Labour Values, their hard right stance swept the North, especially in former Brexit-voting areas, as decisive as the Allied collapse on the Meuse in 1940. As the Germans struck the discredited appeaser of Hitler at Munich, Chamberlain was being replaced by the more effective and popular Churchill,

History tells us 368,491 troops rescued reached Britain from Dunkirk out of the 394,000 men of the BEF, having lost 66,426 (16.81%, plus all their equipment); the French casualty rate was relatively lower.

On May 7^th Labour lost 1,452 councillors from 2,566 seats defended. representing a disastrous 56.59% casualty rate. The Tories also put up a poor show, losing 874 out of the 5,034 seats they were defending–a less disastrous casualty rate of 17.36%. This is scant consolation for Badenoch in the face of a rampant Reform.

Just as Lord Gort marched his BEF into a trap in Belgium, so Starmer marched his MPs back into now vulnerable “Red Wall” seats all across the North with his 2024 landslide.

Starmer has taken “full responsibility for this calamitous defeat, but has stood firm, to “get on with the job”, claiming any change of leader would “cause chaos”. Such resolve may be his incarnation of Dunkirk Spirit. But Sir Keir “fight-them-on-the-beaches” Starmer is in the water floundering, and the sharks are circling.

“Wars are not won by evacuations”—Winston Churchill, House of Commons, June 4^th 1940

#1015—656 words