6 minute read
The Boris Johnson Factor
from Tobacco International - October/November 2019 • Tobacco Products International - Quarter 3, 2019
Paris, France, July 24, 2019: Boris Johnson appears on cover page of the British newspaper The Times.
Photo: hadrian/Bigstock.com
The Boris Johnson Factor
Advertisement
By Bob Crew, London Correspondent
Britain’s new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson—recently voted into power with an overwhelming majority within his political party to lead Britain out of the European Union (EU). He has succeeded Theresa May in the British Conservative Party, has declared that he is against taxes on smoking for health reasons and he reportedly has links to the tobacco industry Britain.
A lobbying firm co-run by the man who headed Johnson’s leadership campaign for the Conservative Party—Mark Fullbrook—has been writing to local councils in Britain allegedly on behalf of a tobacco company there and before the announcement of planned new anti-smoking measures. That company is reportedly Philip Morris in the UK!
Boris Johnson has vowed to get Britain out of the EU in the absence of a decent trade deal by the end of October 2019. At press time, he is refusing to smoke a pipe of peace with the EU on its latest proposals because they are unacceptable to him and the majority of Brexit voters in Britain who have voted to leave the EU.
Prime Minister Johnson is also reportedly doing all he can to prevent taxes on tobacco smoking in the UK, saying that he is not interested in taxing poorer people on one of their relatively few pleasures.
Beer, Brexit and Britain!
But it is not one of his pleasures. Johnson does not smoke, except for the occasional cigar at parties. But he has made it abundantly clear that he is not against tobacco smoking for those who choose to smoke. Currently ahead in the polls with a possible election on the cards to determine the Brexit-EU issue once and for all, Boris Johnson is on a roll, notwithstanding the fact that he is accused of having financial links to the tobacco industry in the UK, which clearly is not much of a problem for British voters.
It is a little-known fact that he has dual US and British nationality, having been born in New York (while his father worked there) and kept his passport while being educated in the UK at swanky Eton College and Cambridge University and then settled in a career and married there. He is a proud redwhite-and-blue Brit and a great fan of the late Winston Churchill about whom he has recently published a book.
Boris Johnson is also accused of having fathered several children with different women out of wedlock, not that he chooses to comment about this! But he has made himself very clear about tobacco smoking, and the chances are that if and/or when he wins the next election, he will have a more lenient policy than before with regard to tobacco and cigarette companies.
A Political Cowboy?
For readers of this magazine, it may help to know the kind of politician it is who shows signs of being a friend of tobacco companies and smokers in the UK, the kind of guy and politics in question here, as he tells the EU to put its proposals in its pipe and smoke it! It helps to know the background and the political climate and mood in the UK at present.
Britain’s right-wing Conservative Party is roughly akin to the US Republican Party (almost but not quite perhaps), whilst its opposition New Labor Party is roughly akin to the US Democratic Party (almost but not quite on account of New Labor being more but not much more left-wing these days than it used to be). Britain’s Lib-Dems are predictably somewhere in between these two not very extreme extremes, that are not very much different from each other anymore!
I reported in an earlier issue of Tobacco International that Britain’s relatively new Brexit Party and its leader Nigel Farage were ahead in the polls. And they were at the time.
But not so now. Boris Johnson has stood up to the EU in no uncertain manner and threatened to show it the door without a deal of any kind. He and his Brexiteers are eminently capable of doing that. A lobbying firm co-run by the man who headed Johnson’s leadership campaign for the Conservative Party—Mark Fullbrook—has been writing to local councils in Britain allegedly on behalf of a tobacco company there and before the announcement of planned new anti-smoking measures.
For these reasons—standing up to the EU and being prepared to walk away without a deal if necessary—Britain’s Conservative Party are no longer dead in the water or overtaken by the Brexit Party as the Conservatives were before Johnson became Prime Minister and put them back on track. backing down (whilst at the same time looking for ways to sugar the pill in this game of political psychology). In short, he is on a roll now that he is ahead in the polls—if he doesn’t beat the EU in this month’s last-ditch negotiations, the signs are that he will go for an election and win it!
They are suddenly in demand again and now so comfortably ahead in the polls that New Labor and the Lib Dems are chickening out of Johnson’s challenge to have an election straight away in order to finally settle the EU issue once and for all in favor of Brexit.
Pipe of Peace
They are hoping that he will still have to smoke a pipe of peace with the EU, do an unconvincing compromise-deal, lose his credibility, and then lose an election to them later on for not delivering. But he is not showing any signs of backing down to the EU magazine.
On the contrary, he is sticking to his guns, and expecting the EU to do the
Too much Boris?
From their perspective, he was not only too inexperienced, dilettante and rich-kid aristo, but to add insult to injury, many did not like his personality either (a bit too posh but also brash, a bit too much of an unpredictable jack in the box not knowing his place, a bit too much of his own man instead of a team player, a bit too much of an ill-considered bungler, in short, a bit too Boris and too much of a one-off, a bit too much of a political cowboy, albeit a swanky one with a posh English accent!).
Should Johnson’s Brexit Britain leave the EU without a deal, it will mean increased prices on cigarettes and booze between these two countries, and you’d think in view of all these frictions and tensions, that Boris might have become a chain smoker by now!
Instead of which, he finds some spare time to work out in the gym (to keep his increasing weight down these days!), to run and jog (for the same purpose), and to do a bit of boxing as well as he attempts to punch his way out of the EU (metaphorically speaking!)
There is no smoke without a fire. Britons will have to decide whether they consider him worthy or not. Current polls suggest that they do, no doubt because most voters regard his alleged sins as nothing more than a smokescreen for keeping them in the EU against their democratic rights!
Place in History
For sure, Johnson will go down in British history as one of the most extraordinary and controversial political figures in modern times, a real character, who enjoys the good life with wine, women and a dance to the music of time. And let’s not forget the occasional cigar!
It’s all happening for him and his Brexit government in the UK, so watch this space for further reports on the outcome of all this.
Quotes: Pure Boris
For sure, Johnson will go down in British history as one of the most extraordinary and controversial political figures in modern times, a real character, who enjoys the good life with wine, women and a dance to the music of time. And let’s not forget the occasional cigar! Herein are a few notable quotes from Chairman Boris.
On The EU: Johnson argued that the past 2,000 years had seen failed attempts to recreate the ‘golden age’ of the Roman Empire:
On Eurosceptics:
On Barack Obama: Commenting on a report that a bust of Winston Churchill had been removed from the White House, Johnson hypothesized that Obama had a bias against strong white leaders.
LONDON, UK - Apr 19, 2017: Boris Johnson during a working meeting in London with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
Photo: palinchak/Bigstock.com
