Amid the slew of announcements of newly installed prime minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet appointments, another member of Parliament grabbed public attention. Jacob Rees-Mogg issued his staff a style guide and list of banned words that was promptly leaked. The words “equal,” “yourself,” and “unacceptable” were banned. Periods were to have double spaces afterward, Oxford commas were banned, and people without nobility titles were to be called “esquire.” The level of attention the missive drew is indicative of a sickness in British politics: an obsession with civility as the bedrock of politics. For many in the media and senior positions in British institutions, politeness and civility remain the sole substance of politics. Politics becomes a game, with unspoken rules, that is merely about shifting power and entertaining, rather than the means of improving our collective life.

On the day Boris Johnson became prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted a number of comments and announcements. One was criticized by Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian: a tweet about the closure of a Glasgow train yard and the loss of jobs that entailed. For Rusbridger, such a comment was ephemeral and pointless: the situation was outside of Westminster’s ambit and therefore not worthy of attention.

The Johnson administration is unlike any political cabinet that has come before. Like Johnson himself, it thrives on artifice and shock value, and leans to the far right. Labour’s response could be to react to each spectacle, each deliberate and farcical attempt to grab the headlines. Or it could choose to respond differently, with a greater political maturity.