July 8th, 2022 / Leave Feedback / nezuppal
“Pincher by name, pincher by nature”. He knew. Illegal parties at Downing Street. He knew. Wasting hundreds of millions on his friends COVID projects. He knew. And then he lied to parliament about it. All of it. Lying to Parliament used to be a crime; if you were caught lying to Parliament you would be asked to instantly resign as an investigation is conducted. We are now way beyond those days of honour and respect for both houses. Those days are a mere spec of dust in the distance.
I don’t want to write too much about Boris because it will get tiresome and I suspect over the next few days/weeks it will be all that is reported. Let’s just quickly start with a basic fact – Boris Johnson has not resigned. As I mentioned in a previous article, written only a few days ago, Boris has been one step ahead his entire career. And what worries me, is that he’s playing his old tricks again.
Let’s be clear, Boris Johnson is not an idiot. There are many terms you could use to describe him, but he is not an idiot. Politically, I would consider him one of the most savvy British politicians we’ve had in a long time. Many could replace “savvy” with “evil” or “self-serving” and they would not be wrong. Nevertheless, after the initial resignations of his own Chancellor and Health Minister, hoping that this would be the worst of it, he cowered for 36 hours in Downing Steet. But then the floodgates opened. By the time he announced his intention to resign, 57 ministers had already ‘found their morals’ and had handed in their resignations. The number continues to increase. As he exited Downing Street (NOT for the last time) he stood on those famous steps and, throughout his speech, you could hear the echoing boos from the crowds at the gates to Downing Street.
Boris studied PPE at Oxford and whilst he may portray himself as a bumbling moron, he is not. He knows how to play the game, which is how he’s reached where he is and lasted so long.
However, I have always said that Tories only care about winning and low taxes. The last two by-elections, in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton were taken from the Tories by Labour and The Liberal Democrats respectively. The Tories lost. Boris cost them two seats. It is no coincidence that these resignations are coming in now. None of these Ministers cared about the parties, drugs, alcohol, lying to Parliament – but if you can’t keep them in power and lower their taxes, they will “find their morals”, they will “stab you in tha back” and they will eat you alive.
Add to this the massive rises in inflation and taxation (a situation which they normally blame on the Labour Party, but how can you blame a party that hasn’t been in power for 12 years?) and one can start to understand how much trouble Boris is in. No Chancellor.
The papers reported on him resigning. He hasn’t resigned. He says he intends to. But as he does this, he is filling up his cabinet with a who’s-who of idiots, incompetents and morons. Even Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed Chancellor just a few days ago, has resigned already. No doubt this is most likely because of the shady-ness surrounding his appointment. Along with the fact that being Chancellor of this country, as we dive head first into a recession, is possibly the least desirable post for any Tory politician right now.
He has not resigned and has stated many times that he does not want to be a one-term Prime Minister; sadly, for him he will be remembered as the one-term, 1-star Prime Minister. The sacking of Michael Gove was the final nail in their bizarre saga, as Gove is now homeless and could have perhaps been one of the few people Boris could have kept during this crisis to blame later. What is he thinking?
Boris has filled all these positions, whilst sacking Michael Gove for what seem to be almost entirely personal reasons, so that he can quickly call a General Election. The Tories would likely lose a general election and then he could walk off into the sunset, which he will, saying that it was not him – it was the Party. Even in his resignation speech he managed to blame everyone but himself. During Prime Ministers’ Questions, Starmer absolutely hammered home every point he needed to. To which, Boris would reply “vaccines” or something – not a great argument when you’ve just had your Health Secretary resign Boris.
As Boris has, somehow, survived a vote of no confidence and another one cannot be called for at least a year his enemies are scrambling to find someway of getting him out immediately. He refuses to do so and likely plans to call another election.
However, he seems to have forgotten several things. Firstly, calling a snap election would mean dissolving Parliament. This would involve repealing the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of 2011 (Cameron and The Conservatives policy). But, rather more importantly, the Prime Minister always has to request the Queen’s permission to dissolve Parliament and allow for a new election. I have written about the alternative forms of governance which have been tried in the past.
The Queen has always said “yes”, as she does an amazing job of remaining politically neutral. But with this much anger in the country, so many resignations, there is a possibility (however slim it may be) that she could ask Boris to resign rather than accept his request to dissolve Parliament. Unlikely, I know, but we are in unprecedented times. However, this comes with it’s own risks. Yes, it may be perfectly acceptable in these circumstances; but we soon enter a system whereby the Monarch can call/refuse elections … is that a democracy/monarchy hybrid. Or just a monarchy?
On a slightly different note, yesterday Rafael Nadal withdrew from the Wimbledon Semi-Finals because he felt that he was not prepared enough to win two more matches. As a huge fan of tennis this was a great disappointment to me. But what was interesting was that he resigned because he felt that “he was not fit for the role and did not want to make a mockery of Wimbledon” – if he cannot perform to his best then he will not play. This was from a tennis player talking about a Tennis match. And yet he seemed to have more integrity, empathy and respect for this country than our Prime Minister.
To summarise, Boris Johnson has not resigned. He intends to resign. The Queen could prevent this by preventing him from calling another election. So as, over the past few months, we have smirked at the USA and Russia for their terrible leadership and their failed democratic systems. Well, now we have a criminal Prime Minister who is refusing to leave his post and we are not relying on the Queen, or members of his own Party, to get rid of him.
And NOWWWW – I have updated this post because things appear to be moving at the speed of light! We have Rishi Sunak placing a bid for Prime Minister, with the UK’s fiscal policy advisor backing him to win. For me, this would be a disaster. Rishi is a criminal, as much as Boris. Rishi is a liar, as much as Boris. Rishi is a tax-dodger, as much as Boris. Yes, having a British Prime Minister of Indian-descent would be extraordinary. But not him. Not Priti Patel. Not him.
Other runners include Penny Morduant, Trade Minister, who has been quoted as saying that, “politics needs to be more about the ship, less about the leader” hardly the inspiring words enshrined in Churchill’s “We shall fight them on the beaches” but okay.
Liz Truss is also another possibility, she seems to have been waiting in the wings silently and this could certainly be her opportunity. However, she was integral to Boris’ Party, supporting him throughout. She has done the usual Tory trend of promising lower taxes and to reform government spending. (Read above, all Tories care about is lower taxes).
Sajid Javid also has placed his bid, promising to make further reforms to tax by cutting National Insurance and Corporation Tax. Same old. Same old. Grant Shapps also promised to focus on the cost-of-living crisis, something I suspect he’s seen Labour address and the Tories ignore, and said he would like to cut personal taxes for the “most vulnerable”. Your party raised them! Taxes, taxes, taxes.
Suella Braverman is perhaps the most interesting for me. She was the first to throw her hat into the ring upon Boris’ “Resignation”. You would expect this kind of condfidence to be accompanied with a plan. However, her application was met with laughter as, when quested by the Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry, on how she plans to cut the record-breaking backlogs in the CPS. Her response was to cut taxes and see through Brexit. Taxes.
Tom Tugendhat, never heard the name? Neither. He seems like a potential outside candidate who is not covered in Boris’ sleaze. But he voted against Brexit. That will work strongly against him. Jeremy Hunt, my god, yes the man is still going. Having served, and left, as Health Secretary and as chair of the Health and Social Care Act. His latest blunder was to run against Mr Johnson in 2019 when he lost, receiving just 1/3 of the vote.
Nadhim Zahawi, Vaccines Secretary who was in charge of seeing the roll-out of the COVID vaccine in 2021 has also thrown his hat into the ring. Having previously served as Education Minister, before being promoted to Chancellor and then quickly resigning to announce his intention to stand for the Premiership. The least trustworthy of the least trustworthy.
On a rather interesting and obvious side-note the Durham Police, who were looking into Kier Starmer over breaking the rules have found that there was “no case to answer.” In a Press Conference he stated, “It shouldn’t be controversial to say that those who make the law cannot break the law.” That’s the state we are in now. The Daily Mail, however, reports that “Gloating” Kier Starmer demands another election as the Labour leader taunts “Bring it on”. Not sure who reads The Daily Mail. But guess what? We all want another election to get this corrupt, sleazy, evil, incompetent government to disappear. We are begging, not taunting. We are stating facts, not gloating.
These are your candidates so far, I’m sure there are more to come. I don’t know from where. If we begin relying on the Queen to prevent tyrants like Boris staying in power – are we living in a democracy? Really?
This is a Prime Minister who was elected in a free and fair general election. If you don’t think this is a sign that democracy has failed – then you are wrong.
Ignorantly Ignorant 