Regular readers might be surprised to hear this Scotsman expressing genuine relief the Tories held their vote of confidence in Honest Boris a couple of weeks ago and he survived. The survival was by his short and curlies only, a negligible margin that would have caused any but the most shameless leader to resign. Luckily Johnson is The Most Shameless.
Even for a Club of The Regicidal like the Conservative Party his result was awful, but think how much worse it could have been. If the few honourable but impetuous Conservatives had a little tactical patience at the start of the month they might have waited until their party had crashed and burned in yesterday’s two by-elections. There’s a good chance Honest Boris would be out on his ear in Tequila-time.
But – I hear you say – don’t you want this loathsome selfish bloated incompetent to be taken out, flailed, and hung from a lamppost? Naturally. Doesn’t everyone with sense? But the important thing is the country. To fix that we need rid of this government, who were a car crash to begin with and have gone steadily downhill ever since. That is more likely when the Conservatives are swimming with Anchor Johnson around their neck.
The problem is this won’t last forever. Under current Conservative party rules they can’t boot him for another year. But they can change the rules, and a year is still before the next general election. The worst possible case is Johnson plus lackeys get chucked in time to make the Tories seem refreshed and rejuvenated for the 2024/5 election. It might be nice to go into the next election with the current administration careering toward disaster, but the thought of three more Johnson years doesn’t help me sleep at night. Maybe somewhere in the middle? Honest Boris in office long enough to leave his lingering stain on the Conservative brand, then booted after a scandal and one of his incompetent lackeys takes over?
Now there’s a challenge: who would do the least harm, but be too pathetic and invisible for anyone to notice the change?
Answers on a postcard please.
[05/07/2022]
I’ve been corrected in this argument by a very experienced Labour figure. Yes, he said, there is a case for leaving Johnson to corrupt the Conservative brand. But he’s corrupting the UK political system too much every day. “It is necessary to get rid of him as soon as possible.”