blackmorevale.net
New Blackmore Vale, 22 July 2022
47
Politics
Local MPs were quiet on PM’s failures So it’s over. Almost. The man who considered himself an exception to the normal rules of politics and life – well, his political career ends in failure like the rest. Alexander ¬– his real first name – the Great he is not. It’s not a foreign policy failure that did for him, like Eden. Nor an economic failure, like Heath, nor domestic division, as brought down Thatcher. To the contrary, Johnson’s Tories kept him in 10 Downing Street while taxes piled up, the economy flatlined, tenthousands of citizens needlessly died and Britain’s standing in the world diminished. In the end, what did it for Johnson was Johnson just being Johnson – a contemptible, lying charlatan. Fittingly, it was mendacity arising from a sexual assault in the cradle of conservatism, the Carlton Club, which brought him down.
failures and misdemeanours for so long, before joining, as Keir Starmer put it, ‘the sinking ships fleeing the rat.’ My personal favourite was Andrew Murrison’s hasty resignation as trade envoy. Have a look on his twitter – he didn’t even have time to take legible scan of his resignation letter amid the avalanche of newly found consciences, such was his Damascene haste.
Extra pay-out Greg Williams, Amid the tumult that surrounds his demise, of we must on behalf not forget the fact that the Dorset Labour Conservative party knew exactly what he was like – exhibit A – Brexit lies – yet put him up for the position of prime minister and sustained him there for nearly three years. Many people across Dorset and the surrounding shires find it disgraceful that our local MPs, Messrs Hoare, Loder et al stayed silent on Johnson’s
Save some contempt for North Wiltshire’s Michelle Donelan. Despite already attending cabinet as Universities minister, and thereby having had ample opportunity to tell Johnson what she thought of him, she took a promotion to Education Secretary only to quit 36 hours later. She’s eligible for a £16,000 extra pay-out for her troubles. These people who aided and abetted Johnson should be consigned to the backbenches forever,
Frying pans, fires and rules One good thing about Boris Johnson was that he did at least appear to have some inkling about the severity of global warming and climate change. Some say was simply due to his wife’s prompting, who knows. Alarmingly it seems that many of the people now vying to replace him are either climate sceptics or deniers, or simply pretending to be so to secure the backing of a sufficient number of their colleagues. Are we about to leap out of the frying pan and into the fire? A cynic might say Boris was simply a convenient tool, to get the right wing of the Tory party what they wanted. That was a referendum result to leave the EU and to fend off the damaging UKIP challenge that was splitting the Tory vote. Boris has an undoubted ability to say things that are totally untrue but to do it in
Ken Huggins on behalf of the Green Party in North Dorset such an engaging way that some of his listeners will believe him. Especially if he’s saying something they want to hear – like having an ovenready Brexit deal or doing something about solving the environmental crisis. It’s what gets populist leaders elected.
The problem is he turned out to be a loose cannon and his steady stream of humiliating gaffs eventually began to split the Tory party, anyway. Now he’s going, and we see the people who want to replace him, the thought ‘better the devil you know’ springs to mind. Present government plans to address the twin challenges of climate change and environmental destruction are hopelessly inadequate, as reported by the Government’s own Committee on Climate Change.
First-past-the-post
If, like David Cameron with his ‘green crap’ attitude, we now get a new Prime Minister who succeeds in rolling back those inadequate plans, then we are truly destined for disaster on a scale which doesn’t bear thinking about. But think about it we must, because burying our heads in
not enriched. As for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel the Awful, the Tories have decided to keep him in place for another two months while they have an internal, navel gazing, battle royale of a leadership contest. That’s right – they all think he’s too disreputable to be PM, but they’re happy to leave him in place while they fight each other for the spoils of his demise. And then, in an undemocratic coup de grace, the next PM will be chosen by about 150,000 Conservative party members. I don’t think anyone would argue that membership is reflective of British society. Terrible. Just terrible. Enough is enough. It’s not just Johnson who needs to go, but the whole rotten party who put him there and conveniently misplaced their morals, those few they have, for three years. We need a general election, and a change of government.
the sand isn’t going to stop us from getting bitten on the backside. Hard. Boris was fond of claiming he had a 14 million mandate because that was the number of votes the Tories received in the 2019 General Election. His claim conveniently ignores the 19 million people who voted against him and the fact that our first-past-the-post electoral system produces governments which do not represent the views of a majority of the electorate. The Tories like first past the post because it pretty much results in just two main parties being contenders, representing the left and right wings of the political divide. It’s much easier to just have one opponent to deal with. Interestingly, the Tory Party is not going to use first-pastthe-post to select its next leader and Prime Minister. One rule for them and another for the rest of us. Again.
