Johnson's voters are giving up on politics. Credit: Getty
The Conservative Party’s heavy by-election defeat in North Shropshire is clearly little short of a political earthquake. Held by Conservatives for nearly two centuries, this pro-Brexit and heavily white British seat switched to the Liberal Democrats on a stunning 34-point swing, the second largest from the Tories to the Lib Dems on record; the seventh largest swing in Britain’s political history. What is less clear is whether it’s the end of the beginning for Boris Johnson, or the beginning of the end?
Governing parties have suffered even heavier defeats and have still gone on to win a majority at the next election (as David Cameron can testify after losing Clacton to the UK Independence Party before going on to win his surprise majority in 2015). But this defeat has already become symbolic of a much deeper crisis engulfing Johnson.
Beyond the leafy lanes of Shropshire, the symptoms of this crisis are not hard to find. Amid chaos in Downing Street and rebellions in parliament, Johnson and his party are now consistently trailing the Labour Party in the polls. Labour has surpassed 40% of the vote, a barrier it has not breached since the start of the year. And the Conservatives have just slumped to 32%, a low they have not encountered since the very depths of the Brexit crisis in October 2019, since before Johnson’s election victory.
Even without the polls, we can all see and sense that Johnson is on the ropes; that what began with the largest majority for any Conservative for more than 30 years now looks bizarrely, perilously fragile. This was further reflected this week when a visibly exhausted Johnson suddenly found himself confronted with one of the most significant parliamentary rebellions in history, when almost 100 of his own MPs revolted against his decision to introduce yet more Covid restrictions.
This revolt was bigger than the one David Cameron faced in 2011, when his MPs rebelled to push a referendum on Britain’s EU membership; it was bigger than the one John Major faced in 1997, when his MPs rebelled over gun control measures in the aftermath of Dunblane. It was almost as big as the rebellion Theresa May faced over Brexit, in 2019, which with the notable exception of Labour’s rebellion over the war in Iraq was the biggest since the revolt over Corn Laws in the 19th century. This, in short, does not bode well.
In just 24 months, Johnson has gone from appearing as the political equivalent of Logan Roy in Succession, fully in command of his Conservative family while surveying the landscape with a clear sense of purpose, to appearing more like Connor Roy, the hapless, politically naïve eldest son who is not entirely sure where he sits within his family or what his purpose is.
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SubscribeI quite agree with the author. I was a first time Conservative voter at the last election for exactly the reasons stated. I’ll go back to the LDs next time because behind all the bluster he’s not delivered on a single issue bar brexit which should have been a given. Instead hes locked me in my home and spouted net zero bull while producing yet more children. Even Corbyns looking better right now.
I think this is the problem with what Dom called “the blob”. I get the feeling that no matter how bombastic or different you are or claim to be, the environment and culture that surrounds you and the civil service as whole leads to acclimation and eventual surrender to the monotonous politics we seem to see whoever is in charge.
I hoped Boris would really take the attack to what I see as the entrenched politics of the Westminster machine – but he has been cowed and has ended up going along with their pet projects (net zero, lockdowns etc).
The problem is I don’t see an alternative inside or outside of the Conservative party – it seems too early for Sunak (although it was interesting to see him abstain from plan b vote) Truss’ popularity with the members isn’t replicated in the wider public and I don’t think Starmer can overcome the fact that a lot of his party clearly hates the country.
So I think we are stuck with the blind hope that Boris comes good for us.
Margaret Thatcher successfully challenged the prevailing culture but it was not easy. It required hard work and determination. She was also fortunate in having highly talented advisors and ministers many of whom had had successful careers before entering politics.
That is not a question of fortune. That is the ability to select, keep, and control talented advisors.
Absolutely , but as the lady said “every prime minister needs a willie”. Looks like BJ has one but it’s the wrong sort. Someone needs to tell him to dump the extream woke green tosh, get a grip on the rubber boat situation and at least pretend he is both soscially and ecomonicaly conservative like the people who voted him in.
That’s the key. He has surrounded himself with the second rate. Losing Cummings was probably the beginning of the end.
But Cummings, in spite of his generous interpretation of restrictions for himself, was a lockdown fanatic.
As I see it Boris surrendered his responsibilities to his Wife who is not a Conservative. She is clearly controlling his hormones. Remember it was not that long ago he called Green issues… rot.
Hard work not a Johnson strong point.
Yeah. I don’t think boris is up for hard work.
Cummings did an interesting interview on Andrew Sullivan’s podcast. Said that after the election boris thought it was time to have fun. Not time to actually get to work. Boris wants the parties, the adulation, the place in history. Does he actually want to achieve anything?
Yeah he wants to defeat climate change and we are beginning to pay heavily for that. I don’t believe in it personally although I am anti pollution which everyone one is if they understand it.
I think that Boris believes thinks combatting climate change is easy; one simply passes a law that by such and such a date, such and such will be mandatory, giving one immediate credit with everyone who holds the microphones without actually doing anything now.
I suspect that her grasp of detail helped her to recognise when she was mislead, and able to argue against bad advice. Chemistry may have been better training than classics.
Your assessment isn’t wrong in itself, but Johnson is a lifelong political animal. He knew what the Westminster machine was like and if he were a serious politician he would have formulated a plan to deal with it before entering office. Of course, he’s NOT a serious politician. He’s a self-serving chancer whose lifetime ambition WAS achieved when he entered Number 10. Beyond that, he didn’t — and doesn’t — care.
BJ may not have had a plan to reform the Blob, but Cummings did and was working on it. But if any man in late middle age with a new young wife has to choose between her and his closest adviser, well …
Boris wanted Cummings around to ensure his first election went well after Cumming’s Vote Leave tactics proved so spectacularly successful.
It was fairly obvious someone like Boris wasn’t going to let someone like Cummings steal the limelight for too long.
The issue was that Cummings had a well thought through view on reform; it suited Boris until he realised that Cummings’ philosophy was anti the libertarian please all agenda Boris has. Cummings actually knew how to get things done (Brexit being a prime example), Boris leans towards being liked more than driving an agenda through.
Cummings is strange. Economically I’d actually say he inclines more Thatcherite, not doctrinairely – he sees the need for certain investments in the public sphere in science research and infrastructure – but generally recognises the superiority of the market to solve the kind of problems he thought Britain needed to tackle post-Brexit like EU and military competition with China.
Boris seemed to grasp onto the whole state investment and spending shtick because it was popular with Red Wall voters, I think Cummings wanted to use the rhetoric of increased investment while actually using it as a cover for what he thought were the real policies needed. Boris on the otherhand kind of wasn’t bright enough to see that needs to be done to improve the country needs some level of political massaging and strategy and instead just went in with giving everyone the goodies he thinks will make him popular.
It wan’t Boris but his wife who pulled the plug.
I don’t know why everyone thinks Cummings deserves the credit for Brexit. Many voters and many advocates will have made their choice long ago.
Maybe. But someone had to engage them to vote, which is more important sometimes than existing held views.
The way to “reform” the Blob, IMO, is not to. Let me explain. Remember the Yes, Prime Minister Episode when Hacker wanted to reform the civil service? Sir Humphry argued that it would require an immense expansion of the civil service to be able to undertake the reform in addition to its day-to-day onerous tasks. Attempts to reform the civil service will be choked by administrative inertia.
Look at the vaccine task force. Kate Bingham set up a tight-knit, highly competent small team of experts focused entirely on the task at hand, with a clear mandate and abundant resources to get the job done. It was a results focused task force.
I would identify priority policy and replicate this task force structure. I would build multi disciplinary teams of very bright, go-getting civil servants and outsiders with the requisite knowledge. I would carve these policy areas out of the rest of the civil service. I would completely marginalise the First Division Association, the senior civil servants’ trade union, so to speak. In essence this would be tantamount to recreating a civil service from scratch along completely new lines. The routine lower level administrative functions could be streamlined at a later date Otherwise, I would let the bloated civil service wither on the vine.
I agree. Cummings had the same view.
Totally agree with using private sector experts but it would still have to get approval from his chief advisor Carrie.
That’s a bit below the belt!
Sadly true though (I do not speak from personal experience).
I’m sure you don’t, T.
That’s it in a nutshell!
I think he beats Corbyn, May and Cameron hands down though. They were liabilities.
And you honestly think Johnson isn’t?! On what possible basis beyond the last election campaign?
It is no use attributing blame to the Civil Service, or at least only a little goes their way. Margaret Thatcher was able to achieve enormous structural change, and even Blair appointed like minded people everywhere. It just sounds like a bit of a pathetic whinge, as if prime ministers, who are amongst the most powerful leaders in the democratic world, have little agency of their own.
The unfortunate reality is that Boris has never been who you’d hoped he might be. He used Brexit, having shown little interest in the issue his only (part-) achievement to further his political ambitions. Apart from that he is swayed this way and that, trying to be all things to all, and getting caught up in fashionable issues such as Net Zero.
I was always a sceptic, since it seemed that his rise was largely on the basis that people thought he was a good laugh (!). We had the record of his time as London Mayor, where he squandered masses of public money on his absurd pet projects.
I’d hoped Boris despite that might be able to rise to become a good, if not great, prime minister. But he is not even bad, as is becoming increasingly evident to friend and foe alike, but venal, lazy and utterly incompetent to boot.
Cummings is a vengeful and embittered man, but his accusations ring all too true.
Lockdown is Boris’s project. He was elected to close the border and end freedom of movement, and that is exactly what he has done. If his voters don’t like that, then so be it.
So true
Why does it have to be Lab or Con? We have parties called UKIP and Reform now.
What the British call The Blob is called the Deep State in the U.S. It is the administrative state, a power unto itself that is servant to the permanent political class that leans left. It is composed of the military-industrial-media-academic complex. The oddly-named mainstream press is deeply mistrusted, Hollywood makes movies for the the industry and doesn’t care if they flop with the public, the professional caste dislikes ordinary people because they are different and have unfashionable opinions that are scorned on both coasts, Big Tech is beyond control, Wall Street as always doesn’t care about anything but money, every institution is in the process of being subverted by the Chinese, including sports. .
Sane here. BUT I would never vote for the LibDems again after their disgraceful illiberal undemocrat behaviour over Brexit. I just joined the SDP instead.
I too am attracted by the SDP. And Reform, although i think Reform’s Policy thinking requires a good deal extra work. I could quite happily live with an SDP government.
What’s the difference?
So by supporting the mushy brained bleeding heart Lib Dems you want to re – join the EU and welcome unresticted immigration that would follow. I have been around for a long time and I seen this sort of article regularly in the past. It started with the Orpington by election 1962 with all the hype that the Liberals were on course to become a majority party.. How many MPs do they have in 2021 -13. The country is still waiting with bated breath
Totally agree the LibDems are opportunistic, all things to all people politicians who are talented at picking on hot button local issues, but with no coherent national narrative. They are a party that is less than the sum of its parts.
Indeed. A vote for lib dem is but a protest vote against the Tories. Next general election we might see a new version of Cameron / Clegg.
“Net Zero bull”? Well, yes, but Ed Davey led the Dept, of Energy and Climate Change for the Coalition 2010-15. Vote for them and you will get Climate Change writ large!
I understand your frustration, but it is still the case that if the Tories don’t win in 2024, Brexit will be reversed.
Not if a Reform/UKIP coalition manage it.
Certainly without the Supreme Snake Oil salesman, Farage, UKIP couldn’t organise a PUIAB and I suspect Reform is of a similar ilk. Even under Farage, both were never more than a single issue movement with no credible policy packages.
If my conversations with people who are NOT suburban, lower middle class, commuter, office worker, professional, or desk based, i. e. the silent majority, are reflective of what government policies could bring a vast voting majority, here they are:
• The end of pandering to an obsession with racism.
• The return of free speech and freedom of expression.
• Abolition of the seditious ‘ hate crime’ laws.
• Dismantling of an intrusive ‘ nanny state’, and ever growing army of officials abusing power.
• And end to bias in favour of, and fear of upsetting Muslim and other racial minorities.
• Stopping of stuffing global warming down our throats.
• Ditto coronaphobia, and electric vehicles.
• Freedom of debate on alternatives to electric vehicles.
• A low tax Switzerland financial model.
• Major assault on NHS, MoD and other government procurement waste, as opposed to spend.
• Stopping of draconian parking and speeding fines being used as revenue sources.
Will you be standing then? I would vote for you.
I cannot understand why North Shropshire want to back a Woke party worse than the Tories.
Regarding your last point, it is worse than that here in Oxford. You are now physically stopped from driving down certain roads by LTN barriers enforced by Cameras. As of February ’22 many roads in the City Centre will be off limit to most traffic with a few exceptions with the implementation of Zero Emission Zones and ANPR cameras. Strange that a City that hates cars but has a Car manufacturer there employing 5000 people.
Your analysis seems spot on, Matthew. Boris seemed someone who could relate to people other than his own congenital tribe but needed organised people around him who could focus on detail. It looks like he has engaged all the wrong people. For a start I wonder if he would have been different were he still with Marina. I can’t imagine a political spouse is at all helpful. Also is Gove an asset or was he correct in his 2016 assessment that Boris was unsuited to PM?
In terms of opposition, I’m sure that Leavers are not suddenly enamoured with the party of B*ll*cks for Brexit and hyper identity politics. The Civil Service seems to heel-drag on Brexit opportunities. And the majority MSM is set against him; it’s the power of drip-drip negativity which concerns me. Trump spent 4 years of energy resisting deliberate plots to smear. Biden is getting a free pass on things which would have constituted days of headlines for his predecessor. Is it the case here that any Government not of the Left will have to weather the same continuous attack? There seems more loyalty to political ideologies than to the democratic decisions of the country.
Someone who was not shambolic, continuously U-turning, self-indulgent and congenitally dishonest would present less of an attack surface. As well as getting more done to start with.
That would go for Trump too, except maybe for the U-turns. Someone who is barefaced lying even about silly things like the turn-out at his inauguration, who is dominated by the need to protect his fragile ego, and who openly invites the KGB to deliver the dirt on his opponents, well you can smear him simply by quoting his own words and drawing the obvious conclusion. Reagan, Thatcher and even Nixon were highly effective – and right-wing – leaders, even if the left-wing establishment hated them. All of them were capable, self-controlled, knew what they wanted to do, and knew how to choose and keep good underlings
Rasmus, I was thinking more of the Russiagate stuff and double impeachment – complete diversions. Biden has his personal foolishnesses too. The MSM now involves social media too compared to last century. Remember how it wouldn’t allow debate about Hunter Biden or discussion of the Wuhan virus enhancement work. Public minds saturated with negative stories.
I think you’re right about effective right wing leaders being able to better control the vipers of the media, but that doesn’t absolve them.
He did get Brexit done (whatever your views on that, the endless “will we won’t we” was massively damaging.)
We did lead the world in the vaccine solution and bar Sweden we’ve imposed fewer draconian infringements on liberty than most of Europe.
Against this, relentlessly, day after day, we have a year old Xmas party and some wallpaper.
Actually we had for a very long period some of the MOST draconian restrictions in Europe, many of which were incoherent and made little sense. (The one big exception which I think we can truly thank the government was that, unlike in many countries, outside exercise was always recognised as important and of vanishingly low risk). But politically you can kind of absolve Boris on the grounds that these restrictions were at least popular.
The Xmas parties were of course leaked by his enemies, but the hypocrisy really does anger ordinary people, that is not a bubble story.
Forget principles, Brexit, the culture wars, Boris is even proving himself to be a rubbish politician!
You really have no clue, do you? Everyone – even the appalling media and the tech giants who control information – knew “Russian Collusion” was conjured up by the poisonous Clinton machine. Didn’t matter; they owned the “narrative” and counted on the likes of you to spew it while they giggled behind their masks. As for protecting a fragile ego: Trump is, despite being very, very rich, a New York construction guy, not some Etonian posh boy playing at government. He kicked over the rotted log of Washington politics, saw the crawling desiccated corruption, and attempted to fumigate. That’s why we now have a walking corpse in The Oval and the Chinese are taking over the world.
Trump is the pampered heir to a New York construction guy. How much time has he spent on building sites, compared to reality TV studios? For the rest, what is most worth making impeachment trials and great scandals over:
At the very least you would have to admit that the Democrats are not the only people with ‘poisonous machines’.
As for the Chinese, you saw how effectively Trump managed to stop Putin and Kim Young’un in their tracks 😉 Surely he would have done no better with Xi.
He did read the political climate well. However, as a role model he severely lacks the values we would want our children to grown up with. You may dislike the institution, however Trump is not a good answer.
Politics has moved on somewhat in this era of social media and a disgraceful, sensationalist mainstream press. The politicians that do well read this better than others, sadly.
I suspect things might be different if he was still with Marina. I get the impression she was a stabilising force. I suspect the elevation of Carrie to official girlfriend and wife wasn’t in Boris’s plans. His problem was the affair was found out and Marina threw him out. He’s not, I think, the sort of man to be without a woman so was somewhat forced by circumstances to marry his mistress. Carrie, of course, has her own ideas and maybe (we can’t really know) is a destructive force for BJ’s premiership. A man in late middle age with a new wife young enough to be his daughter is probably going to take her opinions very seriously!
His life was pretty chaotic even with his ex-wife given during that time he had several reported affairs, including one that led to a recently admitted child and one to an abortion (and Michael Howard’s censure).
Indeed, but he was never required to marry the current mistress. When Marina had enough and divorced him, he was in the position of either living alone or moving in with Carrie. As he was in the middle of the Tory leadership race at the time, showing a new serious, established relationship was probably the best option. This sounds very cynical but I also believe on a personal level Boris isn’t cut out for life without a woman by his side.
Edit: By ‘stabilising’ I didn’t mean that marriage to Marina prevented other relationships. By many accounts she was an important strategic/political influence. I often wonder what might have been if it was Marina – a successful lawyer – at No. 10.
Ah I see, in that case yes. By all accounts she helped him ease into the Telegraph after Andrew Neil sacked him at The Spectator.
I suspect she was also primarily responsible for getting him out the hole he found himself in after the scandal he had as a shadow minister in Howard’s cabinet and into the position where he was selected as Shadow Higher Education secretary by Cameron which really re-energised his career and propelled him from more than yet another novelty Tory bankbencher – of which they have been plenty in the 20th century allowed no where near the cabinet table.
Probably much better I would think.
That is pretty disgusting and must mark him whatever his natural gifting.
Maybe with 2 kids and the dog she’ll have enough to occupy her .
Otherwise he could think of England and give her a third little distraction
Things mainly move slowly in politics. If one gets distracted from one’s ideals and aims and listens to the lullaby all is lost. Margaret was an example of someone keeping the vision through thick and thin.
Absolutely spot on from Matt.
I was shocked by the opposition to brexit after the people had voted for it. The scales fell from my eyes and I realised the metropolitan, university educated elite – of which I surely am a part – have come to dominate our politics, institutions and lives far too much.
Boris and brexit seemed important correctives to that. I voted in 2019 enthusiastically for the conservatives for the first time in my life. I even joined the party.
Now, it’s clear to me Boris is so desperate to be liked by the London, guardian, academic elite he will throw the working class under the bus time and time again. The lockdowns were illiberal and dictatorial. The climate stuff is a rich housewives hobby. He wanted to have china build our 5g network.
Ironically, he’s become exactly the prime minister the lefty elite would want. Not that they will ever, ever recognise that.
Illiberal and dictatorial. That’s the definition of Conservative.
It certainly applies to my MP although I am sure they are not all like that.
“I realised the metropolitan, university educated elite – of which I surely am a part – have come to dominate our politics, institutions and lives far too much.”
You sound surprised, and that this is a new thing?
Guess I’m just a little slow on the uptake!
There are lots of pensioners in North Shropshire and they’re scared. They are right to be. With the suspension of the triple lock, they are to receive an increase in April of a mere 3.1% whilst inflation in likely to be running at double that by the time they get it. Energy costs are increasing dramatically and are hardly likely to abate whilst the insane demonisation of fossil fuels continues. They are coming for your gas boilers, your wood-burning stoves, your coal fires. Where are pensioners and others on low incomes going to get perhaps tens of thousands of pounds for a new boiler and associated property upgrades? And they are coming for your cars, with the future ban on ICE vehicles sure to have a catastrophic impact on rural communities. On top of this we have the parlous state of the public finances and vastly reduced access to GP surgeries, both of which concern older voters more than younger ones. I’m not saying that the “sleaze” factor hasn’t had an impact, but the other factors I have mentioned are more structural and much more difficult for the Tories to manoeuvre past.
Absolutely agree with your analysis. If my energy bills were to double I would be in panic mode. And that’s not even thinking about my car dying and having to get a completely impractical EV (new, because 2nd hand they are worthless, due to cost of battery replacement). And anyone renting out property, even in a small way, needs to be terrified at the prospect of upgrading insulation and replacing boiler and heating system to conform to Net Zero etc etc. And we know our pensions, both state and private, are being eaten alive.
Not only your pensions but the nation is getting eaten alive. The rich elite won’t worry though. They will be happy that we don’t own anything and have told us we will be happy even so.
Pensioners have done pretty well off the teat of public money the last few years, we are going to end up at a point where we spend half our GDP on them which is not really sustainable economically.
That may be true but if the cost of living is going to rocket because of Zero carbon they will need it and so will the trees.
There are lots of young people in North Shropshire too and they are scared. They have been locked up throughout much of the past 2 years. Their education has been trashed. All they have to look forward to are minimum wage jobs at Amazon, McDonalds or whatever. On that they can never afford to rent a single room let alone have homes of their own. They have lost the choice to move and seek their fortune overseas. And they see a government elected by and for older voters.
Well with 9.5 M abortions since the 67 Act it is inevitable. That is 1 out of 4 young people who could have been here are not.
I totally agree. Millions are going to be in fuel poverty. Inflation will hit those on the lowest incomes hardest and first. This could me a poll tax on steroids.
Why Steroids?
I agree. One will not even to be able to economise by collecting wood to burn which has happened for centuries. They are silly to think they are saving the world. Who do they think they are?
The biggest wood burning “stove” in North Yorkshire DRAX is the largest polluter of CO2 in the UK. We pay it £Billions in subsidies to ship wood pellets from Louisiana forests in the US. When people complain about this Oxymoron the reply is “well it produces 12% of our Energy requirements”. Of course those subsidies are coming out of your Energy bills You really get to see how Climate Change is a money making racket for a few paid for by the many.
Johnson is clearly the worst PM this country has ever had.
i didn’t think so when I voted for him in the last election, but there is now so much evidence it is hard to muster even the weakest of defences. The man is a lying, cheating, blustering baffoon, who lacks courage to do what is right, and is more concerned with being popular in the short term than doing what is right, in the long term.
He also seems incapable of building a dynamic, high quality team around himself that oozes honest and integrity. Instead he seems to attract a bunch of wannabes who will succumb to his every whim if it gives them their 15 minutes of fame and/or whatever else it is that they desire. And that includes s team of crooked advisors who clearly have their snout in the trough.
Unfortunately, we have no Ron DeSantis waiting in the wings and no Dr Joseph Ladapo to provide the nation with an honest and intelligent health strategy, devoid of fear-porn, hyperbolism, and big pharma pandering.
Luckily for Johnson he has one thing very much in his favour … Keir Starmer.
I could see that before the last election. How did you manage to miss it?
I agree Rasmus. Not one of my better judgements. I hold my hands up as this mess is partly my fault.
Well done for voting leave though.
I could too … then I looked at the alternative and there was simply no option.
Fair enough. I despise Corbyn, and I am on the conservative side anyway, but I would still have preferred him to Boris. But, yes, it was a hard call.
You cannot be serious. Corbyn?
A Tory remainer said this. “We have had Labour governments before. They do damage, then they lose and the next government fixes the damage. The damage from Brexit will be permanent.” I see Corbyn the same way. He would have been a terrible prime minister with a majority (much less so if he had to depend on the Lib Dems), but then Labour would lose, and the next government would bring us back to somewhere sensible. Of course, as a remainer I would have preferred Corbyn’s Brexit policy (whatever it is – he naver said, it is bound to be better than Robert Frost). But even on a pure personality comparison, knowingly electing a bumbling clown who promised you could have your cake and eat it sets a horrible precedent that we may never be free from. Once the eelctorate gives up on the idea that a prime minister has to be able to, you know, govern, there is no limit to the kind of idiot we might be getting.
I mean, I saw this back in 2004-5, while everyone was chortling at his HIGNFY appearances it was fairly obvious he was completely useless as an MP. To wit: rarely turning up for votes, saying he was against socially liberal reforms of the period and then voting socially liberal policies when it came down to it, speaking against the Iraq War then voting for it, backing Kenneth Clarke against IDS then doing a volte-face and claiming he was really a Howard type conservative all along and betraying Howard’s trust in him as vice-chairman of the Conservative party.
Very good points and well remembered. Unfortunately he has a cheeky charm that sucked a lot of us in. Those who were more discerning recognised this cheeky charm as blatent manipulation and cold, calculated manipulation of a ituation for his own benefit.
It was worth it for Brexit. I don’t know about now.
Short memory or over emotional. Edward Heath, Jim Callaghan, Gordon Brown, Theresa May. Potentially Corbyn, Milliband, Clegg, Tim Farron, Swinson. A combination of Covid and Carrie has blinded him to his Emperor’s new clothes sycophants.
In what world were any of those ‘potential’ PMs?
“Johnson is clearly the worst PM this country has ever had.” Oh come on! have you forgotton the Maybot, Gordon McBruin, Tony B’liar, Ted Heath ……. All of these were at least as bad if not worse.
No.
I used to think that, but most of these were just not very good. The only one that comes close is Blair, who was not only a terrible PM for the country, but is a horrible human being to boot.
However, Johnson gets my final vote as he has not only ruined our country (something TB excelled at), but he has damaged our democracy and it will be almost impossible to regain the freedoms we once took for granted.
I saw what he did to Uxbridge – some construction, more offices, but the city center became full of weird people from foreign places skulking around – no one went out at night and the shops wanted to be all shut and gone by dark.
Unlike you, many of us knew what we were voting for. The issue is Boris would be a decent PM in good times, in times of crisis and daily issues, he is not the right leader.
I wouldn’t put him as the worst. There are many more contenders for that. Think May and Cameron for instance. Also Blair and what he has become since with his one world musings.
I quote from the above:
“By failing to make the most out of Brexit, by failing to robustly defend British history and heritage, by failing to get his arms around illegal migration, by failing to take on the radical progressive Left, by failing to define and deliver a serious strategy for levelling-up, by transforming the Conservatives from an aspirational party of low-tax to a government that is introducing the highest tax burden since the Fifties and by putting the state on steroids, he has given the new Conservative voters more than a few good reasons to walk.”
In a nutshell, as they say. I would only add that it gives all Conservative “good reasons to walk”, not just first time voters.
The next question is, why? Why has Johnson proved such a spineless shower? Covid, his supporters cry. Rubbish – his response to the pandemic – heavy handed, state led, restrictive – is just another instance of his capitulation. The Spectator offers two much better explanations. The leading article suggests that our flabby PM relies on ready made, left wing solutions because he is too lazy to do anything else; and Petronella Wyatt implies that it is down to his latest spouse.
Finally, what next – or rather who next? If we want to avoid Starmer we must be rid of Johnson – pronto. And his replacement must be someone who will: make the most out of Brext; get a grip on illegal migration; take on the radical left; level up by cutting tax and shrink the state – ie, a right winger. And not before time.
As far as I can tell only Priti fits the bill
To that list one should add – abolish the BBC, Supreme Court, Electoral Commission, House of Lords.
The leader must also be willing to do to the Europhiles what Starmer has done to the Corbynites, target and expell them, starting with people like Julian Smith.
This isn’t some insignificant intraparty squabble, it’s a fight for the soul of this country and it needs energetic warriors who recognise the enemy and how to deal with it in a way that guarantees permanent and profound cultural change.
Do you really want a Labour government able to take and spend illegal donations without oversight, break the law without legal remedy, or pass any law it wants without House of Lords scrutiny? Or do you expect that your changes can turn Britain into a one-party state, so the problem will never arise?
How would any of this follow from Mr McDowell’s prescriptions? Abolition of the Lords does not necessarily mean that it won’t be replaced, nor does getting rid of the unnecessary and alien “Supreme Court” mean the absence of law. We survived for centuries without it and did rather well – better than now, in fact. As for the BBC, it is merely a cheerleader for an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian cultural left. It’s complete erasure is the precondition of restored freedom of speech. If there is any danger of a one party state in Britain today – and it is acute – it arises from the left’s infiltration and dominance of the institutions; the proliferation of those institutions – think of the quangos – and the raft of coercive laws bearing down on dissent.
Come On!
The entire list of abolitions (except for the BBC, which *I* did not comment on) is about removing anything that could prevent the government from doing whatever it damn well pleases. Don’t talk about ‘replacing’ those institutions – it is obvious that whatever replacement comes up will be completely subservient to the prime minister of the day. That is the whole point. And that is what the next Labour government will inherit too.
No, you come on. The house of Lords today is an exact counterpart to the house of 1910, except that where it once frustrated Liberal or radical measures it now obstructs conservative ones. That is because, like so much in today’s Britain, it is a house of cronies – appointed apparatchiks of the Blairite state. The same goes for much in the modern administrative machine which has excessive discretionary power, excessive regulatory duty and excessive reach into the lives and opinions of British subjects. So I do talk of replacing such institutions with smaller, more restricted, more particular bodies, which enjoy clearly demarcated roles. As for the Lords itself, it should clearly be replaced with an elected body – on the same basis as the commons. Indeed, one could easily slash both houses to three hundred representatives each with a member of the lower and the upper house both standing for one super-constituency. Elected at the same time, they would enjoy equal legitimacy but it would be made plain that the lower house had more power. As for government doing what it pleases, the argument is one of degree – unless it has some constraints the danger is elective dictatorship; but under present conditions, the reality is a putrid, complacent, unresponsive, openly elitist well of corruption.
Britain has had long history of problems in terms centralisation of power to London and the effects of that socially and economically. I’m not sure diluting the local tie between MP and constituents in ‘superconstituencies’ is a good idea, it would be yet another anti-localist reform for non-Celtic England that would destroy the fabric of local parties and politics.
The Supreme Court’s functions used be exercised by the House of Lords, or rather specifically the law lords within a committee of the House of Lords that acted as the highest court of appeal. This was from 1876 – life peers were created around this time to facilitate senior barristers’ positions as Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. Although even before that the appellate role of the House of Lords was largely exercised by a grouping of judges there, it was a formalisation of custom and a professionalisation, requiring Law Lords to have been barristers for 15 years.
If the Supreme Court and House of Lords is abolished there will be no highest court of appeal, so something would have to be created in its place, the whole principal of judicial precedence – which is a critical part of common law requires a highest court of appeal. Even in the early years of the court system chancery (what later became equity) courts had predominance over common law courts as a matter of balance and there was always the predominance of higher courts over Magistrates’ Courts. This is why the supreme court was created in the US, as a way of seperating the highest court of appeal from the legislature due to the popularity of Montesquieu’s conception of the separation of powers. The reality is the judicial functions have been for at least 300 years in the UK been de facto separated from the legislature, although there was judicial representation in the legislature. Historically the US courts have had greater judicial review powers because the scope of judicial review has long been a bone of contention in common law history – I would recommend reading of Sir Edward Coke’s interpretations of the common law and the infamous Dr. Bonham’s Case and the backlash to that
The US Supreme Court’s judicial review powers come not directly from the constitution but from Marbury v. Madison (1803) which was a specifical judicial precedent formed in that country quite distinct from the Blackstonian direction of English law in the 18th century, which in part aligned with the Coke’s understanding of common law. This is unsurprising as Coke’s interpretation of common law was one of the animating factors of the American revolution, and the revolutionaries professed desire to reinstate English rights as they felt that common law had precedent over parliamentary sovereignty, especially in matters of taxation. Indeed that way of interpeting the common law is why no US legislature could so easily impose such draconian anti-Covid regulations as the UK parliament can do on a drop of a hat. Thus I would be careful to assume the US system is really quite as alien as you might imagine. In some ways, just as with the divergence of our languages, it contains many fossiled elements that have long since been abandoned in the UK (such as the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours).
Truthfully I don’t think it actually will make much real difference in legal terms because the decisions made the in Brexit judgement around prorogation were not a consequence of the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction (which as I said before was effectively the same as the old law lords) but rather the interpretation of judicial review that was a result of the people who had been appointed to said body and interpreted said precedents. The likelihood is the same people would have been appointed to the law lords who would have made a similar decision based on similar interpetations. The fact is that the whole reason the royal prerogative was held out to be subject to judicial review was actually because it was the old law lords that stated that royal prerogatives were judicible under Council of Civil Service Unions Others v Minister for the Civil Service in 1984. It was from that – and the common law principle of stare decisis – that what happened was even possible. It was at that point that judicial review went beyond the Blackstonian position that only cases of ultra vires was justiciable – whether the body in question had the right to use such powers based on traditional royal prerogatives or statutory instruments – to become something more all-consuming it is now.
Thanks.
The idea that any of those institutions would prevent that is absurd. Your position is just a false equivalence to scare Tories out of radical reform.
Priti? One word from the right, dinghies. From the left, Israel.
She is proving to be a bit of a chocolate firegaurd at the Home Office, almost as hopeless as May was.
May introduced 3 Acts of Parliament, 56 Statutory Instruments and 4000 individual rule changes, all of which made life tougher for immigrants. Including legal ones.
Were an election held tomorrow, Labour would emerge as the largest party…Starmer would be PM. Rachel Reeves would be in charge of the economy. David Lammy, Angela Rayner and perhaps Nicola Sturgeon would be sitting alongside them around the Cabinet table.
….and that’s why Labour will not win the next election whenever it is held.
If you rely on everyone else being bad, then you are no better. It’s the last refuge of the useless.
That’s unfortunately where we are. The electorate choose the least bad alternative.
That’s about how it is at the moment. The least bad is the only choice. How Britain has fallen.
Sounds like a nightmare. Sturgeon doesn’t even want to be part of the UK and could do a deal to make it happen.
As we approach the year of our Lord 2022, we cast our minds back to that cataclysmic election of 2019. Boris Johnson, exposed by our brave journalists as a shambolic liar, has lead the Conservative party to an historic defeat. In this hour of peril we must be grateful that Comrade Jeremy was enabled by the British people to guide us through the dreadful turbulence of the worst pandemic the world has ever seen.
Think, comrades, what could have happened if Boris had won. We would not have rejoined the EU and would not have been able to vaccinate 35% of our population through the EUs vaccination program. Of course, if Johnson hadn’t misled huge swathes of the population in incorrect thought, we would never have upset our partners anyway and might not have been at the back of the queue.
Comrade Chancellor McDonalds £10tr cash disbursement programme is reinvigorating our Nation. Since the renationalisation of the railways, airlines and utilities, the introduction of UBI and the increase in income support to £50k pa has seen Britain flourishing like never before. If it hadn’t been for Johnson’s lies, the EU would of course, have supported this carefully thought through monetary expansion. Their caution is understandable but our new ties with our comrades in the CCP demonstrate our commitment to a world wide comity.
We can only thank him for the tax regime which has rid the nation of the parasite class. To the reactionary entrepreneurs, those feeders on the efforts of the noble proletariat, we say good riddance.
Comrade Home Secretary Abbott’s immigrant resettlement programme has been an unmitigated success. Can you image what might have happened to these poor souls if we hadn’t introduced the free Eurostar ticket programme. The UK is now held as a beacon of light to all right thinking people since we welcomed our millionth new citizen.
The introduction of compulsory kneeling in school assemblies, the necessary curbs on the abominable lies of the right wing press, and the introduction of critical race theory and critical queer theory into primary schools, will all ensure a nation free from prejudice. We believe Comrade Abbott should be commended for the Corbyn star, if only for abolishing the racist system of Empire medals.
Release approved: S.Milne Minister of Truth.
Whatever his manifest failings, Boris was the least worse option by a country mile.
True. But the gilt has come off the gingerbread now and he would not serve the same turn in any subsequent election. Worse, in government he has proved an unlovely blend of Hacker and Walpole – a cowardly windbag with a sideline in bending the rules. As this is not the eighteenth century the chances of his surviving in office like his Georgian predecessor are remote. He must step down or be shown the door for the good of the country, the economy and his party.
I suppose it should be noted, given the Walpole reference that a new Elon Musk flavoured South Sea Bubble is entirely possible.
Matt Goodwin provides some great analysis yet again. I’ve never voted tory and can’t imagine myself doing so any time soon but neither can I imagine bring myself to vote for Labour ( or green or LIb Dem ) this side of 2030 if ever. The only party that seems to align with where I stand politically is the SDP – left on economics but right on culture – but that would just be a wasted vote under FPTP. It’s just all so depressing.
For me, the questioning began when he ignored the illegal BLM marches and the toppling of statues. This spoke to me of Carrie’s influence, it didn’t seem like Boris. She inveigled him, no doubt – the pre marital pregnancy was no accident. Since then he has continued straying down the green and woke road – maybe looking to the next generational voters. Maybe seduced by WEF. Maybe not deciding which route will make him more popular. Whichever, he is not being true to himself and that is why he is flailing. When his engine is firing he is a force : Brexit, the vaccination roll-out, now the booster roll-out. He loves a challenge and loves to win. She has flooded the motor. Maybe now with two sprogs she will take a back seat, maybe the Shropshire loss will turbo charge him. I don’t think he handled the pandemic any worse than other leaders.
Funny – to me it seems *exactly* like the man who was fired for lying twice and who drafted editorials both for and against Brexit before deciding which one would be best for his career. Why would you think he is ‘a force’ who loves a challenge and has a self to be true to, so you have to blame the current mess on Carrie? Do you find him attractive, by any chance?
I remember this same enthusiasm and then disillusionment with Blair and Cameron too, wilfully ignoring the contradictioms in their policies.
A certain P.T. Barnum quote comes to mind.
I misread ‘force’ as ‘farce’, but the latter seems more appropriate. Johnson has always been true to himself as a self-interested serial liar, full of bombastic promises that he never keeps. He lurches from one scheme to the next, no matter how impractical, like impossible bridges or even perhaps net zero. At the last election, we just hoped that he’d be better, because there was no practical alternative.
As for Carrie, nobody knows how much Johnson is influenced by his wife, but if I were her, I’d be wondering how long it would be before he traded me in for another model, given his past history.
The simplest way for Johnson to reconnect with his core voters would be to:
If Johnson had the courage to articulate the above unequivocally I’ll wager he’d end up with a larger majority than he started with.
Provided he could convince people he had no responsibility for the resulting death toll.
Ah yes. I forgot. Mea culpa. Millions will die; millions were going to die within just the first year (or perhaps even the first 6 months); more millions were to succumb this past year; and a year ago we were informed that anyone who did not get unvaccinated ASAP would be dead by now (more millions). And those morons/conspiracy theorists/far-right extremists who remain unvaccinated right now will all be dead in 9 months time (yet more millions); same applies to those who refuse the booster to get protection for the horrific Omnicron (many more millions). Don’t do it Boris! Your career’s wrecked anyway.
He has no responsibility for any deaths! If anyone of free disposition catches Covid now it is through their own actions.We all know the risks
Absolutely but has he the guts left to do so?Methinks not
Agree with most of that although I think if the light of a general election shone on the lib dems it would not be a pretty sight. Also the new tories aren’t going back to Labour no matter how many flags Kier Starmer has.
The problem is twofold for me – in the first place Johnson has not stuck to his core messages that won him the election (in his defence he has had other things going on).
In the second place, its just a question of competence. I always believed that Boris was a clever bloke masquerading as a bumbling clown. It appears he actually was a bumbling clown.
What really concerns me is that if Boris does get defenestrated, whoever takes over will almost certainly be an old school 2010 austerity monster and we will be back to square one.
I for one am increasingly attracted to the SDP who are saying everything the tories should be saying.
He is a manipulative, charismatic+ and selfish man masquerading as a bumbling clown who wants stupid people to think he is funny and smart people to think it is a front for a clever man.
It took longer than I expected (almost 20 years) for the majority to realise this but as they say, the truth will out.
+ I knew a staunch Labour support, hard old left type who worked with him in City Hall as some kind of functionary who was completely enamoured by him despite holding completely different political views. He was just bowled over by his charm, humour and confidence (traits Eton grants its boys in spades) to overlook all that. I suppose it explains his successes with women also.
The flaw in the argument lies with Johnson’s inability to deliver anything. He’s all wind and bluster and he’s been caught out.
What to do? Gove and Sunak are fake Brexiteers and a fake unionists. The others are incredibly lightweight. There is no successor.
Nadhim Zahawi is my standout option with Penny Mordaunt running the Home Office – a Home Office separated from Border Control. Heaven knows who to trust at the Treasury without them gong native just like the past half-dozen incumbents.
Comments pages clearly do not reflect public opinion. The public are slow to anger and more likely to become resigned with the status quo than despondent enough to elect Starmer. The BBC, flagship of the Guardianistas, and Momentum, who would have Corbyn back in a flash; all have crowed over the Xmas parties, Peppa Pig, and blown them out of proportion. The real objections are wonder at Raab over Afghanistan, Eustice over less boots on the ground, Priti Patel and the dinghies, Lord Frost and N.Ireland, St Greta non science and Sunak’s tax and triple lock betrayal. Only the naïve see a LibDem future so I see N.Shropshire an angry shout at a government and leader who are not listening. Also a shout to Starmer to keep out of the way and a reminder to 3.6% ReformUK that they have no personality. Boris is in detention; buck up or be expelled.
As I see it most of the problem is we have no senior statesmen, of any political hue. There is no army of stalwarts giving guidance or sensible advice anymore.
Because anyone with any degree of competence tends to avoid the public sector like the plague.
This quote from the article:
is the key, I suspect. Arguably Brexit, Boris, the slow motion collapse of the Labour Party, the last hurrah of the Lib Dems in North Shropshire are only details of how this profound disillusionment continues to unfold.
You could also make the case that the much discussed ‘populism’ in the rest of the world (particularly the USA) stems from the same disillusionment.
The “political concensus” is the problem, time and time again when the elites and parties have a political consensus it’s plain wrong. 1970’s Ted Heath and Wilson price controls and acquiescence to union power, the consensus over EU membership and now the green suicide pact. When all the parties agree where is the democracy ?
“By failing to get his arms around illegal migration, by failing to take on the radical progressive Left, by failing to define and deliver a serious strategy for levelling-up, by transforming the Conservatives from an aspirational party of low-tax to a government that is introducing the highest tax burden since the Fifties and by putting the state on steroids, he has given the new Conservative voters more than a few good reasons to walk.”
That is one heck of a “to do” list. I don’t think his heart is in it. Worse, I don’t think he believes in it. He’s in thrall to his wife and her coterie.
Boris has totally lost his way, and yet the solution is clear and you’ve identified it for him:
Make the most out of Brexit, robustly defend British history and heritage, deal effectively with illegal immigration, take on the radical progressive Left, deliver a serious strategy for levelling-up, and make the Conservative Party synonymous with low-tax government.
The problem is the kind of levelling-up low-tax government involves is the kind of levelling-up that people in Red Wall areas have been whinging about since the 80s.
Reconnect? Now that millions understand Boris is all in with not just this absurd Covid-excused abridgement of the most basic freedoms, moving us from a rights based society to a permission based one, he is also ok with the suicidal NetZero thing, an objective requiring massive state control over the economy and people’s lives. So, any small-c ‘conservative’ voting for this clown & his party is part of the problem.
While I completely agree with the analysis I feel that the neoliberal consensus is so embedded in the institutions, the elite middle class and the political class in general , apart from an few honourable exceptions, that I cannot see how the alternative agenda as proposed can possibly gain traction. I fear that brexit was a one off. The SDP policy is really good but I don’t see how it could be put into practice What hope have we got ?
Now I am a populist and a Conservative, I have read Mathew’s book and applaud it. But the problems are hard and populists tend to peddle simple solutions that don’t work (because the elites won’t play?).
Boris should certainly stick it to the Supreme Court, tell the SNP to get stuffed, attack universities that allow Cancel Culture, and go hell for leather for nuclear power made by Rolls Royce while sneering at windmills (made by Siemens).
He won’t because he is an empty barrel, an fool stranded on a zip wire waving a little flag.
Even if he did a massive energy crisis is brewing, no-one knows how to stop the channel migrants, housing is already unaffordable, and there could well be serious inflation coming.
He’ll be gone by next autumn.
I think the solution for the Conservatives is far simpler. They need to ditch Boris for somebody else ASAP. Boris was the right man at the right time to get Brexit done, something that May with all her dithering and caution failed to do. But like so many other world leaders, Boris was not the right person to lead the UK through the COVID pandemic. He lost his cool and fell entirely into the clutches of medical/scientific experts (who turned out to be anything but), and what’s worse fell for Ferguson’s modeling nonsense (despite Ferguson’s 100% failed record on everything he’d ever modeled), and has appeared to do so yet again with plan B. Only one solution: BJ has to go and be replaced by a cooler head.
And BJ wasn’t the only one. The same thing basically happened to Trump in the US. Trump realized that he’d made a mistake going along with the phony “experts”, despite his gut instincts, but was powerless to fire them all. and like BJ, Trump was “trumped” by all his bluster so he appeared to be an unserious person, even though his policies and general instincts were spot on.
None of the above, really – except that last two paras. The voters of North Shropshire are far cannier than the Professor of Politics allows. Many may have originally loaned Johnson their vote – what was the alternative? It is a perfectly rational – and safe – option to temporarily withdraw that vote in what is effecively just a ‘mid term’. He still has some time to recover theirs and our trust. The bigger question is he capable of doing so.
Thank you for the nice overview of Boris today. For similar reasons, more and more I am beginning think that Trump can get re-elected for precisely what the Biden Administration has done or not done – open borders, a disasterous pullout from Afghanistan, pushing the lunacy of the Far Left’s Progressivism (cancel culture, spend-spend-spend). Only a year into Biden’s reign and many are screaming, “Enough already!”.
Bought by Gates and Schwab, dominated by his wife, ruled by his d**k. A sad empty vessel of corruption and graft.
The difficulty with this argument is while the two sides of the Tories’ 2019 electoral coalition may have aligned views/interest on nationalist and cultural matters, they are opposed when it comes to economics.
However you cut it, the Red Wall’s support for levelling up needs more tax and spend in the regions.
But wander over to the Telegraph and the traditional core Tory non-metropolitan middle class vote in the suburbs and shires, especially the pensionariat in those areas, and that’s the last thing they want.
What they want is endless grey welfare for middle class pensioners and planning controls and subsidies for house price inflation to keep them in the style they think they deserve – and spending cuts for everyone else.
And unfortunately for the Tories with the interest rate and property cycle turning economics is set to come more, not less, to the fore.
Which is I think is the real point about Brexit becoming less of a live issue is a problem for the Tories. It was a unifying issue between Red Wall areas and the suburb/shires. With that gone they lose one leg of their coalition.
Maybe but more tax does not equate to higher tax rates.More tax comes from a vibrant economy which red wall voters want too
Boris Johnson will be gone within the year. Once a Prime Minister loses his credibility there is no getting it back. It is a slippery slope all the way to oblivion.
An astonishing puff piece for Johnson, worthy of the Daily Express. No mention of his increasingly obvious character defects which make him unfit for the office he holds, especially his increasingly shameless serial lying and rule-breaking, never mind the sleaze and corruption that the Tories are mired in. That’s what caused the rage that triggered the North Shropshire defeat where a Remainer standing for a Remainer party was preferred to the Tories in a seat that voted 60% for Brexit. Get over it guys.
There is no need to refer to something that was blindingly obvious to the voters who still saw him as better than the alternative. They know what he is like. The issue is that he has not delivered his promises to curb migration and teach the cosmopolitan classes they must respect the views of socially conservative, economically interventionist ordinary voters. Goodwin nails that. Boris can philander, party and lie as much as he likes of he lives up to his promise to represent the majority of voters…
“Brexit may be fading into the distance but there are many other issues that could just as powerfully unite the new Conservative electorate particularly ahead of a general election at which a Labour-SNP coalition is a serious prospect. Immigration is one. Crime is another. Defining and delivering a serious levelling-up strategy is another. And so too is robustly defending British identity, history and culture from an increasingly radical progressive left (just ask Republicans in Virgina).”
You forgot to mention Net Zero. Johnson cannot afford to keep pushing this nonsense. Nobody will vote for a party that promises to send them a bill for ten thousand quid and make them throw away their gas boiler for a heat pump that won’t actually pump much heat. In Sunderland, in January? I know London-centric metrollectuals think everyone else is stupid, but that’s just yet another thing they’re wrong about.
“This core vote strategy would not be popular in SW1 but it is now the only thing that will keep him, the Conservative Party and those Red Wall MPs in power.”
The worrying thing here is that we are actually asking Johnson to do something that nobody since Margaret Thatcher had to do, and even she couldn’t manage it in the end: run a government against the grain defined by the political Establishment. Boris likes to be liked, too, a severe flaw in any PM, but an impossible one in a PM trying to implement a radical agenda against the Establishment’s plans. So while Boris has his flaws, we need to accept that we are also asking him to do the impossible.
What is genuinely worrying of course is that what Boris is about to find impossible is the basic project of running the country according to a settled consensus amongst voters about how it should be run. The media likes to give the impression that a huge number of things are controversial when they are in fact not: borders, crime, energy, transport, sovereignty etc. While there are lots of loud voices that proclaim about open borders, high immigration, tolerating crime, decarbonising the economy, getting rid of cars and letting the EU control the UK’s courts and trade etc, on the ground across the nation almost nobody agrees with any of this rubbish.
It might be more useful to see Boris Johnson as a victim of the culture war here. Not to engender sympathy for him necessarily (although looking at him lately the strain is showing and I can’t help but feel for the poor man), but to understand that when we 2019 Johnson voters let fly with our frustrations, we may very well be helping the enemies of the values we thought we were supporting when we voted for the Tory Party two years ago.
Matthew, when you say that Boris needs to double down on where he began, do you mean that he needs some catchy four-word slogans, in place of the old two and three word ones? I’m really not sure he could remember those, unless maybe they were in Latin.
Anyway, my question really is that, apart from the slogans, do you honestly think that “..where he began..” ever had any carefully thought through plans and strategies? No, I thought not.
When you look back at the 2019 general election it really was the perfect storm for the opposition parties. An unelectable leader of the Labour Party coupled with a clear desire to get brexit done (as the slogan said). Add to that a likeable showman leading the Tories. If it hadn’t been for UKIP, the Tory majority would have topped a hundred easily. The next election will be a much more prosaic affair. Voters will look at the government’s record of non-delivery, Boris’s obvious lack of qualities as PM, the impending disaster of net zero and Starmer’s stolid, Mr Reliable, persona. Add to that possible competition from Reform UK (if it ever gets its act together) and the Tories will be lucky to get a working majority. You read it here first.
Spot on. I agree with every word and thought. Someone type this up (double spaced, no more than three paras per page) and send to Captain Chaos, 10 Downing Street… with some pies
I left the tories years ago when I inherited a pro LGBT and mass abortionist MP. I did vote Tory and Boris to get out of Europe though. At the moment it is either UKIP or Reform for me. I don’t like Boris shaming us by flying LGBT flags on British Embassies all over the world. I know that is just me but there you go.
Spot on
I’ve been astonished that someone I thought to be intelligent has adopted policies disliked by his supporters while pursuing the approval of Guardian readers and BBC journalists. He therefore loses the support of the former, while the latter’s dislike for him remains unabated.
Britain needs a new Right political party… and were Tory MPs to have the guts and backbone of Zemmour, and move to the Reform party, they would achieve that… and take the Tory and many former Labour voters to Government…
Spot on as usual. We shall see what BJ does next, he could take this advice and replace half his cabinet and ditch the green stuff – but I don’t think he has the heart or inclination. He wants to be liked too much by the metropilitan class, which is a shame, because they will hate him however much money he throws at windmills. No pressure then, but over the next few weeks he can decide whether to keep the Tories in office for the rest of the decade, or blow the party apart and allow a progressive alliance to run what’s left of the country for the rest of the century.
Boris is a figurehead against the paucity of Westminster solidarity. Both big parties are full of silent inactive MPs. Not enough willing to change their front benches. Many were not keen on Corbyn, now not keen on Starmer, not enough strong Tories, to dust down Boris, to wind up his key and point him in the right direction. The quiet ones who maybe follow their constituents, who indeed want restrictions and lockdowns, on the right, or population control, on the left. I know people completely in favour of Austria, who think the unvaxxed are the enemy.
If you think ‘what is he up against?’ The BBC, to whom some still watch and listen. The marched through institutions, like the universities and Police. The Civil Service, in full Sir Humphrey and a vapid, vacuous MSM.
If he is as bad as his detractors say why has he not thrown his hands in the air and resigned? More money and a quieter life lies in that direction. The knives are out, from insubsantial wraiths wanting to pull him, Tolkienesque, into their own ineffectual twilight gloom.
Boris is a figurehead against the paucity of Westminster solidarity. Both big parties are full of silent inactive MPs. Not enough willing to change their front benches. Many were not keen on Corbyn, now not keen on Starmer, not enough strong Tories, to dust down Boris, to wind up his key and point him in the right direction. The quiet ones who maybe follow their constituents, who indeed want restrictions and lockdowns, on the right, or population control, on the left. I know people completely in favour of Austria, who think the unvaxxed are the enemy.
If you think ‘what is he up against?’ The BBC, to whom some still watch and listen. The marched through institutions, like the universities and Police. The Civil Service, in full Sir Humphrey and a vapid, vacuous MSM.
If he is as bad as his detractors say why has he not thrown his hands in the air and resigned? More money and a quieter life lies in that direction. The knives are out, from insubsantial wraiths wanting to pull him, Tolkienesque, into their own ineffectual twilight gloom.