21 September 2017
Boris Rising
Following what we said last week….
by J.R. Thomas
Last week, in “High Office and How to Hold It” we said that Boris needed things to go his way if he had any chance of achieving the highest political office. One solution is to force events a bit and last Saturday Boris did just that, with a major article in the Telegraph newspaper, calling for toughness in the Brexit negotiations, reiterating Mrs May’s former position, now seemingly abandoned, that “No deal is better than a bad deal”, radiating much optimism about the happy future awaiting a free and independent Britannia, and very clearly nailing his Leave colours to the mainmast (HMS Victory’s at the very least).
As you might expect it was a well written and flamboyant piece and caused much shrieking and outrage on all sides. The first shriek came from Sir David Norgrove, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, who poured great scorn on Boris’s reuse of the figure of £350m a week saving from payments made to the European Union, a surprising and inappropriate public intervention from a civil servant. The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, did the outrage, accusing Boris of back seat driving. Mrs May though has kept low key on the matter; which may suggest to the conspiracy theorists that Mrs M is more of a Leaver than her colleagues seem to think, perhaps welcoming some ballast on the “play it tough” side of the debate prior to her forthcoming major Brexit speech in Florence.
Be that as it may (no pun intended) what is Boris up to? That, with respect to the many distinguished but puzzled commentators in the media, seems very obvious, and a quick browse of Boris’s book on Churchill should clarify things.
We live in a cynical time in politics and opportunism seems all. But to some politicians (quick half bow, Mr Corbyn) there are still things which are matters of principle. To Churchill that was appeasement, a policy which he could in no way countenance. To Boris it is, we suggest, Britain’s exit from the European Union. On this he feels he must stand or fall; one suspects he now cares little as to whether he ever moves to No 10, which frees him to fight the Brexit fight with all the passion he can summon. If that fails, or is compromised, then the cause will have been lost in the most honourable way. If it succeeds he can look at a victory of true historical significance, much of which was due to him. That is a cause worth laying down one’s career for.
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