Boris is not coming back. Boris has backed out of the leadership race as his former backers backed away and his current backers had no backing themselves.
In a small way, I’m sad about the news. As it’s all happening around Halloween, I was going to give my blog a horror movie theme. A Cabal of Tory Elites in cowled robes standing around a pentagram, sacrificing a Back Bencher to the Ghost of Maggie Thatcher in an attempt to resurrect BoJo’s political career from whatever Circle of Hell it landed in. Boris returning to suck the blood out of the British Economy. Old Tories shuffling around like Zombies, their brains already eaten.
Boris had no chance of uniting Parliamentary party, let alone the Membership, so pulling out of Leadership contention was the right thing to do. I don’t for a minute think that “It was the right thing to do” is the reason he pulled out, nor was it an awareness of his own political limitations. 3 months is not long enough for him to grow that level of self awareness. I expect that when his arrival in Britain was not greeted with a ticker tape parade, when he was not hailed as a returning hero, when he realised he would likely lose the contest, he decided the least embarrassing path was to take his balls and go home.
One less arrogant asshole to worry about.
So it’s Rishi Sunak; Britain’s first Asian, first Hindu and first Person of Colour as PM. Fine. I am not Unhappy with that result. He certainly understands Finance, he’s made enough money to prove that. He understands how the economy, how society, how basic maths work, which cannot be said for his two predecessors. I HOPE he will put the needs of the country above right wing ideology. I HOPE he understands that we all doo better when we ALL do better, high and low. I Hope he will see us all through the crisis. At least I have hope, which is more than I had a month ago.
We still need a general election; the Tories have simply been in power too long. They will be defeated, but with Sunak in charge, they may continue to exist as a parliamentary party. Under Boris or Truss they would have faced LibDem levels of annihilation. But we need to get these people out sooner rather than later.
We still have to deal with Therese “If Nurses don’t like it they can leave, but they won’t get a pay rise” Coffey. For a person who looks to be one cigar away from needed major medical care, she has a real hatred for the health service. Liz Truss is still an MP. She still draws a government wage. And even though she was PM for the shortest term in British History; even though in those 44 days crashed the British economy and devalued the Pound; Even though she was a failure by every reasonable metric, SHE IS STILL ENTITLED TO £115,000 PER YEAR AS A FORMER PM. With the number of people facing a Heat or Eat dilemma this winter, that money could go to much more deserving people. People who didn’t crash the economy or devalue the pound.
We need to get rid of the Tories and we need to do it soon, because a Bill getting it’s second reading this week. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill would, if passed, allow MP’s to do away with 2400 laws with little scrutiny or oversight. These laws cover a large number of hard won rights and protections. Workers rights, environmental protections, pension rights for same sex couples, food safety standards, animal testing; it’s all up for grabs. These are laws that protect the powerless and affect every aspect of life. Legal experts worry it could return us to Dickensian times.
Unsurprisingly, Jacob Rees Mogg is behind it.
And now that the government has failed in one of it’s stated goals, to give all the money to the rich people, they are turning to their other longstanding aim, to crush the working classes, the powerless, or anyone who might be labelled ‘Other’ under their elegantly shod heels.
“When a regime has been in power too long, when it has fatally exhausted the patience of the people, and when oblivion finally beckons – I am afraid that across the world you can rely on the leaders of that regime to act solely in the interests of self-preservation, and not in the interests of the electorate.”
Boris Johnson wrote that in 2011.
Even a Broken Clock is right twice a day.
So That Happened 