This century’s preferred background for Tory PMs’ resignation speeches

 

 

So he resigned yesterday. The PM, Boris Johnson, that is. I’m sure you’ve watched his ‘leave’ speech yesterday, either live or later. No surprise then that this is the top news – for the record, go to the usual place (link). No surprise either that the Westminster MSM are now indulging in their favourite game of peacocking in print, providing us with such gripping stuff as how it all unfolded ‘inside No 10’. More on that below. The bright spot in this landscape of Johnsonalia was the headline in ‘Metro’: “Leave means Leave, Boris”, picked up as banner by The Mirror. 

Also for the record, Al Beeb has an article on ‘what the world thinks’ about BJ’s resignation (link).You don’t need to read this concoction,  I mention it for two reasons only, one being the BBC’s astonishing interpretation of ‘The World’ which apparently consists of ‘Europe’, a.k.a. Brussels, the USA, South Africa and Asia as in Singapore. The other point is that these short pieces aren’t reports but opinion pieces from the three female and one male ‘authors’. None of them have quoted even one newspaper from their region – not one. Their ‘reports’ are simply personal comments or opinion piece if one wants to be generous. 

Since the PM gave the Nation his resignation speech at 1pm yesterday, the worlds MSM had time enough to report and indeed comment. That the BBC’s ‘reporters’ seem to’ve been unable to quote one single paper from their ‘region of interest‘ is a big fail but par for the BBC course. Interestingly, RT, that well-known Russian propaganda outlet, was able to report from Washington, writing:

“The White House on Thursday issued a statement about the importance of the US-UK alliance in supporting Ukraine, in response to news from London that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had resigned as leader of the Conservative party and would vacate 10 Downing Street once his replacement was named. President Joe Biden did not even mention Johnson by name.” (link)

Ouch. Meanwhile, our esteemed Westminster journaille is fixated on ‘what really went on’, with The Times making full use of their ‘senior sources’ for as long as these survive. Once BJ and CJ have gone those sources will inevitably dry up. Their headline shows already what we are supposed to think:

“In the end Johnson realised there was no way out. It was an onslaught – After one of the strangest and most turbulent 48 hours in British politics, the prime minister rose early: his mind was made up” (link, paywalled)

Surely, we now must all have a heart for the poor, beleaguered PM who worked so hard on Wednesday:

“The prime minister finally became reconciled to his fate at 10.30pm on Wednesday. He and his team had spent several hours in front of the whiteboard attempting to find ministers to join the cabinet. None were willing. Frazzled after a day marked by a cabinet revolt, record numbers of resignations and hours speaking in parliament, Johnson called it a night and went to bed. “None of us could think straight any more,” one of those in the room said.” (link, paywalled)

Good grief – ‘frazzled’ and going to bed at 10.30pm? I shudder to think how he’d have coped had there been a real, persistent ‘crisis’ such as a war. I shudder even more when I see that his advisers ‘couldn’t think straight anymore’ after only this one day. Had they run out of drinks, for this ‘working party’? Well, that’s what happens when ‘advisers’ aren’t chosen for competence but for being ‘friends of …’. Here’s another illuminating quote:

“By that stage only two of Johnson’s closest allies — Guto Harri, the prime minister’s director of communications, and David Canzini, his senior adviser — were said to be urging him to stay on. Almost everyone else was telling him that it was time to go. “In the end he realised there was no way out,” an ally said. “The onslaught was just too great. It was just too brutal.”  (link, paywalled)

In effect, those advisers were ‘good weather’ advisers, perhaps with one eye on their personal fiefdom which would go once the PM went. Obviously they can’t have had any idea that most Tory MPs had enough and were now out to save their own skins. For others, e.g. certain Ministers like Wallace and Truss, this was the opportunity to seize the Party leadership for themselves – something they’ve been working for for some time now. Saying that it was ‘brutal’ is meant to make us weep with and for BJ. It is the beginning of the BJ Legend who was brutally slaughtered by his own Party members. 

This is the beginning of the sanctification of BJ who ‘gave us Brexit’, omitting all the scandals of the PM’s own making. Richard Littlejohn in the DM is already in full flow. The headline says it all – I didn’t even read this article when I saw it: “Gulliver has fallen… Boris Johnson has been downed by a devil’s bargain between a pro-EU Blob and Lilliputian nobodies” (link) – I was feeling sick. Meanwhile, Peter Hitchens is looking beyond the PM’s resignation, giving a properly scary warning:

“The Blairites, who are now quietly stealing back on to the stage, long to complete the revolution they began in 1997. And if they get power again, there will only be Left-wing governments in this country, for decades to come — perhaps for ever.” (link)

I’ve mentioned already that TBlair is poised to make Starmer and his bench of non-entities electable. However, even Mr Hitchens seems to regard us peasants out in the sticks beyond the M25 as nought but lemmings, happy to follow ‘a leader’, thus falling for the siren songs of a revived Blairite Labour Party. 

I don’t discount the power of the media – ordinary and social. I find it interesting though that suddenly inflation, energy shortfalls and general green crappery, all caused by BJ’s policies, have vanished, are of no account. Labour’s stance on these issues, exacerbated by their decades of support for illegal immigration, is even worse.

It remains to be seen if the ‘fall of BoJo’ can be sold to us plebs as ‘evil Remainers are going to take Brexit back’, with added ‘buyer’s remorse’ of not having supported yon greased albino piglet to the death. It remains to be seen if the ‘non-boomer generations’ who have also voted for the current government, will be herded into ‘give Labour a chance’ when reality bites.

Since most people are now fixated on their summer holidays, I doubt that they, especially the 18 to 40 age groups, will do anything which goes beyond what their social media accounts say. Meanwhile, let’s prepare for more discontent and perhaps for a ‘war cabinet’ when Mr Wallace, the top favourite of the Tory party members, gets into No 10. 

I wish the times were a bit less ‘interesting’ …



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