When will enough be enough?
Are you a Labour Leaver ‘wanting to get Brexit done’. Or a ‘politically homeless’ Remainer in a Labour-Tory marginal? Do you like most of the Labour policies but just cannot vote for them over Corbyn or Brexit? I am wondering: just what new outrage from Johnson and the Tories would it take for you to say that enough is enough and vote to get them out?
I assume you have already heard about austerity, cuts to the public services, food banks, DWP assessments, homelessness and suchlike. So I will not bore you with that — although some examples do stick hard in memory. As do working-class people who voted Tory only to be thoroughly screwed by them. I am more interested in recent developments, in what transpired over the last few months. They show the Tories failing on their own terms, on the very issues that they claim to be their strengths.
Would it be the lack of a clear detailed plan on Brexit? In the very first week of campaigning, Johnson was caught trying to explain the proposed arrangement for Northern Ireland and showed that not only did he not understand it but was also prepared to make some surprising promises to the Northern Irish. Later, leaked documents were found by Labour confirming the same — a customs border in the Irish sea. (The DUP are certainly very clear what this means — wouldn’t it be ironic if it were the Tories and not John McDonnell who were the midwives of a united Ireland?) Johnson’s promise of ‘getting Brexit done' (‘Brexit’ in his understanding really means ‘the withdrawal agreement’) by the 31st of January relies on kicking into the long grass a number of difficult problems he does not know how to resolve. But they have to be resolved before any final deal, meaning this final deal will certainly not be in place by the end of 2020 — raising the spectre of no deal once again.
Would it be bottling the interview with Andrew Neil? Throughout, Johnson has relied on extremely sympathetic media coverage and has given plenty of interviews in which few hard questions were asked and when they were he was not pressed repeatedly for an answer. This allowed him free airtime to make people feel good about himself. Neil is the one interviewer who would ask problematic questions, would press for an answer and would not allow the interviewee to keep going off at tangents and Boris blatantly bottled it. If he cannot face a tough interviewer, how will he face Putin or Kim Jong-Un?
Would it be the Tory cuts to the justice system? The serial rapist Joseph McCann was released early due to an error: he went on a string of sex attacks. No doubt, this was an omission of some overworked officer in the cash-strapped probation service. In any case, more than 93,000 criminals and sex offenders were released early without restriction since 2017 and England and Wales, shredding the Tory reputation for law and order. A few days before McCann was sentenced, Usman Khan stabbed two people to death in a conference on London Bridge. He had also been released early, despite posing a serious risk, from a sentence in 2012 for plotting an act of terror. The Coalition government not only left him eligible for halfway release but then cut the budget for rehabilitation as part of its prison service cuts. Johnson was warned about the risks of releasing terrorists having not de-radicalised them and responded that ‘there is no money’. Whilst on licence, Khan was allowed to live near his co-conspirators and then travel to a conference in London Bridge. All these are not isolated incidents — the criminal justice system has been systematically dismantled in the last 9 years. Instead of funding the justice system properly, the Tories opted for pointless gimmicks.
Would it be the ignoring of the wishes of the parents of terror victims? Johnson was asked to not politicise the London Bridge tragedy: this was ignored as he rushed to blame Labour. He not only hogged the limelight but accused Labour of supporting early release. At the same time, he couldn’t even bring himself to offer condolences.
Would it be the treatment by Dominic Raab of the parents of Harry Dunne — following on the heels of Johnson’s equally disastrous intervention over the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe? Harry was killed after being knocked off his bike by an American diplomat, Anne Saccoolas, who promptly absconded back home. Raab, the foreign secretary, clearly showed his unwillingness to stand up to the US, repeatedly being evasive to the point Harry’s parents travelled to his local hustings to confront him. When Harry’s parents sought a judicial review, Raab threatened to pursue them for the government’s costs. Not a single government minister called for Saccoolas to return and face justice.
Would it be the various brazen lies and fake statistics? Time and time again a claim by the Tories was fact checked and found totally wrong--not just an exaggeration but an outright lie. For instance, the claim to hire 50000 nurses and the claim to build 40 hospitals were repeatedly shown to be lies and yet formed a part of a targeted ads campaign on Facebook weeks later. In total, 88% of their facebook ads were misleading. They constantly misrepresented the Labour manifesto — and these lies were then repeated by Tory canvassers on the doorstep. A full list of Johnson’s lies can be found here — but every single leading Tory lied to one extent or another. The BBC acted dishonestly also, deliberately doctoring video clips for news bulletins to edit out Johnson holding the wreath upside down and, on a different occasion, an audience laughing at the Prime minister. People who do not watch political programs but watch BBC news constantly see a very sanitised version of Johnson.
Would it be the Russia report? There was a time when any association with Moscow would have been the end of a Conservative politician’s career. Yet, Johnson was able to brazenly refuse to release a report on Russian interference against the advice of the intelligence agencies. The media entirely failed to keep the subject in the headlines.
Would it be Johnson’s history of past comments? We already knew about ‘picanninnies with watermelon smiles’, ‘letterboxes’ and ‘bumboys’. But recently, an article of Johnson’s attacking the working class has surfaced. Working class men, said the self-styled champion of the people, are “likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless”. Working women were the target also — their children, apparently, ‘more likely to mug you on a street corner’.
Would it be the repeated Trump-style attacks on our democratic institutions? The Tory manifesto contains a sinister paragraph promising to look at ‘the relationship between the government, parliament and the courts’. It is clear — considering what went on in the summer — what that means: the executive will be guarded against effective scrutiny by MPs and judges.
Moreover, just like in the US, there have been attacks on the media. The few media outlets challenging the Tories have received threats: Daily Mirror was banned from the Tory battle bus whilst Channel 4 was threatened with having their public broadcasting licence reviewed. Had this happened in another country, we would be talking about the onset of dictatorship there.
Would it be the indecision over the effect of tax rises? At one point, Johnson promised to raise money for the NHS by raising corporation tax. An interesting statement given that Andrea Leadsom promised to increase the tax take by… cutting corporation tax.
Would it be taking our children’s DNA at birth, without consent? This was innocently announced by Matt Hancock — at the same time as foreign companies are eyeing the rich data troves of the NHS. It is not hard to put two and two together and realise that our children’s DNA records might be on the market. It must be purely coincidental that Amazon has been handed access to NHS data. Must be.
Would it be the state of the NHS? Forget the comments, videos and past policy that amply offer clear evidence that more and more privatisation is on the menu. Listen to the reaction of the NHS staff on one of Johnson’s staged visits. Is this really a prime minister able to connect with the people, able to speak to those who think differently? Or is he a stage-managed puppet whose image is carefully maintained in easy interviews whose aim is to convince people he is their best mate?
Finally… would it be the sheer look on Johnson’s face when he is no longer Prime Minister? Picture this — the ultimate fall that follows pride. He would go down into history as worst, least successful Tory prime minister of them all. Forever a national joke, a national object of derision. And not just national — the whole world finds him ridiculous and ample schadenfreude would be felt everywhere.