Boris is the leader Britain deserves
It will take a clown to deliver Brexit.
By ROSA PRINCE 6/20/19, 7:18 PM CET Updated 6/21/19, 5:55
AM CET
Boris Johnson is a huge favorite to become the new Tory
leader — and the prime minister of Britain | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
LONDON — Call it karma. Call it kismet. It is all but
inevitable that within a matter of weeks Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson
will become prime minister of the United Kingdom.
It won’t be the result of a military coup or some other
democratic lapse, either. Actual adults, members of both parliament and the
Conservative Party, many of them largely sober, will put an X in the box beside
Johnson’s name.
In doing so, they will be giving Brexit Britain the prime
minister it deserves — a clown.
The U.K. in 2019 is a strange, angry place:
anti-establishment, anti-politics, anti-everything.
This didn’t start with the 2016 vote to leave the European
Union. You can trace the roots of Britain's nihilism back to the 2010 expenses
scandal, or even further, to the Tony Blair government’s decision to ignore
public wishes and go to war in Iraq. They were further aggravated by the
austerity agenda and the accompanying stagnation of wages, the overpriced
housing market and the decline in manufacturing and industry.
The 160,000 Tory members who will choose the next prime
minister want to elect someone who makes them feel good about themselves.
Then, of course, came Brexit. The vote and everything that
followed have exacerbated Britain’s teenage tantrum.
When the U.K. was (most recently) granted a delay to Brexit,
European Council President Donald Tusk warned that the ensuing six months
should be used “wisely.” The U.K. responded by dumping its prime minister, a
rational pragmatist.
For all her many flaws, Theresa May was attempting to impose
logic on an irrational situation in which all sides are unprepared to
compromise. It’s no wonder she failed.
In many ways, she was doomed from the start. Elected as an
antidote to David Cameron, whose fecklessness in holding the EU referendum in
the first place led to a national cry for a politician of substance, May was
faced with an impossible task.
Labour members elected Jeremy Corbyn — another figure with a
cult-like following — to the leadership of their party | Isabel Infantes/AFP
via Getty Images
In seeking to be the “serious prime minister,” she failed to
appreciate that Britain is no longer a serious place; it is a land driven by
emotion and fads, where trending on social media is a substitute for
achievement.
This is the nation that thought it amusing to opt for “Boaty
McBoatface” when invited to vote for the name of a new Royal Navy vessel.
It is the place where hundreds of thousands of people joined
a political party to get Jeremy Corbyn, a Marxist with questionable views on
anti-Semitism, elected leader of the opposition — not because they believe in
his policies, or in him, but because it was a laugh and their friends were all
doing it.
Later they chanted his name along to that catchy riff from
the White Stripes, and voted for him at a general election. Again, not because
they thought he would make the best prime minister, or even a half-decent prime
minister, but as a two-fingers to the establishment and to sensible politics.
Now it is the Conservatives’ turn to show their mastery of
rude gestures. The 160,000 Tory members who will choose the next prime minister
want to elect someone who makes them feel good about themselves, who tells them
it’s all right to vote with their guts rather than their heads, who assures
them the warnings from experts of the dire consequences of their prejudices are
just fake news.
And who can blame them? Rational politics left the building
a long time ago.
Enter BoJo. Perhaps more than any politician alive, Johnson
understands the power of personality. It was etched into every line of the
somewhat dashed-off biography he wrote of Winston Churchill: Forget facts,
strategy, planning. The personal is political, and personality is all.
To be fair to the electorate, Johnson has not presented his
most jester-esque aspects during this truncated leadership contest. Thanks to
his team’s astute adoption of a “submarine strategy,” his profile has been so
low as to be subterranean.
At his leadership launch, he deftly sidestepped questions
about his history of scandals, allowing no follow-ups and so avoiding the intensive
scrutiny his past warrants.
But then, the normal rules don't apply to Boris.
Any one of his misdemeanors — his lack of personal and
financial probity, his racist and homophobic language, his casual lying on
matters big and small to his family, employers and the public — would have
doomed another politician’s aspirations.
Britain wants Boris — it deserves him. Exiting the EU is a
fool’s errand; it will take a clown to deliver it.
But like Donald Trump, who once claimed he could “stand in
the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” it
seems Johnson’s supporters can forgive any misbehavior as “Boris being Boris.”
That is why, if Johnson does become prime minister next
month — and there is every reason to believe he will — it will prove an
entirely fitting appointment. Britain is deeply frustrated with itself and its
place in the world in the 21st century. This identity crisis sees its clearest
expression in the country’s decision to exit the most successful trading bloc
in modern history.
Now Britain is about to entrust Johnson with the task of
delivering the impossible: a Brexit its supporters can believe in. And who
knows, following the “Only Nixon could go to China” formula, which suggests
that only an extremist can deliver the unpalatable, maybe he will even make a
roaring success of it.
Britain wants Boris — it deserves him. Exiting the EU is a
fool’s errand; it will take a clown to deliver it.
Rosa Prince is the author of “Theresa May, the Enigmatic
Prime Minister” (Biteback Publishing, 2017) and “Comrade Corbyn” (Biteback
Publishing, 2016).
Mark Carney dismisses Boris Johnson's no-deal Brexit trade
claim
Bank of England governor says UK would be hit automatically
by tariffs on exports to EU
Jasper Jolly
Fri 21 Jun 2019 09.09 BST Last modified on Fri 21 Jun 2019
09.43 BST
Mark Carney (left) has been an outspoken critic of leaving
the EU without a deal, while Boris Johnson has repeatedly said the UK must
leave on 31 October, whether a deal is agreed or not. Composite: Rex/ Getty
The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, has said that the
UK would be hit automatically by tariffs on exports to the EU in a no-deal Brexit,
rejecting a claim made by Boris Johnson that this could be avoided.
Tory leadership candidate Johnson said this week that
tariffs would not necessarily have to be paid if the UK left the EU without a
deal because the UK could rely on article 24 of the general agreement on
tariffs and trade (Gatt).
Some Brexit supporters have claimed that the Gatt, a treaty
under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO), would allow a
“standstill” in which tariffs are avoided, even in the absence of any agreement
on trade.
Many trade experts say this is not the case without
agreement from both sides. Carney cited the head of the WTO and Liam Fox, the
minister for international trade who backed the Vote Leave campaign in 2016, to
contradict Johnson.
Talking to the BBC, Carney said: “Gatt 24 applies if you
have an agreement, not if you’ve decided not to have an agreement or have been
unable to come to an agreement.
“Not having an agreement with the EU means that there are
tariffs automatically because the Europeans have to apply the same rules to us
as they apply to everyone else. If they were to decide not to put in place
tariffs they also have to lower their tariffs with the United States, with the
rest of the world. And the same would hold for us.”
The Bank’s governor has been an outspoken critic of Britain
leaving the EU without a deal. However, Johnson has repeatedly said the UK must
leave on 31 October, whether a deal is agreed or not.
Carney said on Friday that as many as 150,000 British
businesses did not have the paperwork in place to export to the EU in the event
of a no-deal Brexit. Around 40% of 250,000 exporters were prepared, he said.
For businesses importing to the UK, Carney said that there
was only a “very short-term level of preparation” in the form of stockpiles of
goods and materials. These would only last “weeks”, Carney said, highlighting
sectors such as the automotive manufacturing sector.
He said: “No deal means no deal. It means there is a
substantial change in the trading relationship with the European Union.”
Carney is set to serve as governor until 31 January 2020,
meaning he will serve under the incoming prime minister. Johnson won every
round of voting among Conservative MPs as they chose the final two candidates
to be the party leader.
Conservative party members will choose between Johnson and
Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, in a vote next month.
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