Why I'm agnostic about Boris Johnson leaving.
He obviously deserved to go and I have multiple disagreements with his politics but whatever replaces him is going to be at least as bad for the British people.
The British people have realised that Johnson is corrupt, dishonest and self-centred. No shit. This was all public knowledge long before he became prime minister. It seems really weird to me that only now these character traits are something that rule him out of government. It's his lies about Christmas parties (breaking his own lockdown rules) and the lie about knowing a minister was accused of sexual assault that cost him. But why get angry about this? Why feel betrayed? I would be personally shocked if he didn't lie about these things. Of course, he thinks that the rules don't apply to him, he's Boris Johnson.
Much more consequential for the lives and livelihoods of British people are the lies about Covid and Brexit. Our government handled the pandemic much worse than most, only to be bailed out when a British company discovered the first good vaccine. There is not a single economist who denies that Brexit has not contributed massively to the cost of living crisis but plenty of politicians do, Johnson chief amongst them. Also factor in other borderline bullshit about 'levelling-up' and supporting the NHS etc. Any one of these things should be a bigger scandal than partygate.
The likelihood is, however, that whoever comes next will be worse (at least in some ways). Rishi Sunak is a fiscal austerian and deficit hawk. In plain English: This means that he will cut benefits and services, whilst keeping taxes high on ordinary people. Johnson - I guess to his credit - disagreed with Sunak over this. Almost all the other candidates are likewise to the right of Johnson on economic policy and will have economic recovery plans that place the burden on the poor and away from their affluent home-owner voting base as much as they possibly can.
This is the Conservative Party. Its the political vessel for the British establishment and it always will be. It's still the party that Thatcher made in her own image and their leading figures care much more about Ayn Rand than the working class red-wall voters who wanted to get Brexit done. The rich will be protected and the most unequal of Europe's major nations will become even more so.
The British people have realised that Johnson is corrupt, dishonest and self-centred. No shit. This was all public knowledge long before he became prime minister. It seems really weird to me that only now these character traits are something that rule him out of government. It's his lies about Christmas parties (breaking his own lockdown rules) and the lie about knowing a minister was accused of sexual assault that cost him. But why get angry about this? Why feel betrayed? I would be personally shocked if he didn't lie about these things. Of course, he thinks that the rules don't apply to him, he's Boris Johnson.
Much more consequential for the lives and livelihoods of British people are the lies about Covid and Brexit. Our government handled the pandemic much worse than most, only to be bailed out when a British company discovered the first good vaccine. There is not a single economist who denies that Brexit has not contributed massively to the cost of living crisis but plenty of politicians do, Johnson chief amongst them. Also factor in other borderline bullshit about 'levelling-up' and supporting the NHS etc. Any one of these things should be a bigger scandal than partygate.
The likelihood is, however, that whoever comes next will be worse (at least in some ways). Rishi Sunak is a fiscal austerian and deficit hawk. In plain English: This means that he will cut benefits and services, whilst keeping taxes high on ordinary people. Johnson - I guess to his credit - disagreed with Sunak over this. Almost all the other candidates are likewise to the right of Johnson on economic policy and will have economic recovery plans that place the burden on the poor and away from their affluent home-owner voting base as much as they possibly can.
This is the Conservative Party. Its the political vessel for the British establishment and it always will be. It's still the party that Thatcher made in her own image and their leading figures care much more about Ayn Rand than the working class red-wall voters who wanted to get Brexit done. The rich will be protected and the most unequal of Europe's major nations will become even more so.
41-45, M
