Heroes: The Sun King 

 

‘Robbin’ people with a six-gun 

I fought the law and the law won’ 

 
The king is dead! No more will we have to suffer the bullshit line, ‘that’s just Boris’. 

Like him, it’s a knackered old line that no one believes. In turn, he believed only in himself and his divine right to be PM, just like a latter day Louis XIV. Who else would cite his father in his leaving office honour list.  

Yesterdays appearance before the Privilege Committee was, hopefully, the final leg of a 10-month investigation, which has seen Johnson bill the taxpayer for >£220,000  on his legal defence, in the knowledge that a guilty verdict from the committee and a suspension from parliament could effectively end his political career. 

If that is to be his final farewell, he will remembered as the PM who’s lies and contempt blew an 80 seat majority, which would likely have guaranteed 3-terms in office. He will inhabit the after-dinner circuit as another washed-up populist, who had 15-minutes of fame on the back of the GFC and austerity. His legacy will be a hard-Brexit that has doomed the country to years in the slow lane. 
 

‘His legacy will be a hard-Brexit that has doomed the country to years in the slow lane’

 
His appearance before the committee was him at his worst; angry, fidgety, arrogant. His contempt for the committee evident in almost every sentence. However, after the opening remarks when he had a script to speak from, things went downhill fast as he was forced to think and speak on his feet. 

Prior to Covid people accepted the ‘it’s just Boris’ line, but during the pandemic he crossed a line. While the rest of us obeyed the rules and guidelines, Johnson felt free to interpret them more loosely. And then lie about it. The lies were one thing, but the hypocrisy was the final straw. Whilst people died alone while he and the rest of Number 10 partied. 

He and his cronies dismissed the Sue Gray report as biased. When the committee chair pointed out that they wouldn’t be relying on that Johnson looked unconvinced, and started slagging off the committee for being a kangaroo court. His diminishing group of supporters such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Michael Fabricant and Scott Benton, refer to the investigation as a ‘stitch-up’ and an ‘organised lynching’. 

Their judgement must be seriously flawed, Johnson has, at best, a passing acquaintance with the truth. It brings to mind the comment: ‘How did I know he was lying? I saw his lips move’. 

They like many other Conservatives, and right-wing journalists, had hoped that this would be the day when Johnson launched his bid to recapture the party from Rishi Sunak. Others were equally fearful this might happen, if, for no other reason, than the disruption it might cause Sunak. As it turned out yesterday looks to have been the final nail in Johnson’s coffin. 
 

‘yesterday looks to have been the final nail in Johnson’s coffin’

 
Firstly, the committee calmly and devastatingly sliced and diced Johnson and the evidence about Downing Street Covid gatherings he has given this week, in print and now in person. Sir Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative MP whose Brexit credentials are unchallengeable, quietly carved Johnson’s evidence into pieces, leaving him spluttering and humiliated. 

Secondly, he fell afoul of his narcissism via his politically self-destructive decision to vote against the government’s Windsor framework NI proposal.  

Prior to the vote Johnson said: ‘The proposed arrangements would mean either that Northern Ireland remained captured by the EU legal order – and was increasingly divergent from the rest of the UK – or they would mean that the whole of the UK was unable properly to diverge and take advantage of Brexit. 

‘That is not acceptable. I will be voting against the proposed arrangements today. Instead, the best course of action is to proceed with the Northern Ireland protocol bill, and make sure that we take back control.’ 

This had raised initial speculation that Sunak would face the humiliation of a large Tory revolt that would require him to rely on Labour votes. But Johnson had misread the room. In the end, only 22 Tory backbenchers voted against the government. A potential humiliation for Sunak was transformed into something of a triumph. 

It also left Johnson stranded alongside ageing doctrinaire fanatics such as Bill Cash, Chris Chope, John Redwood, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Mark Francois, and isolated from the Tory mainstream. For more pragmatic Tory MP’s the message is clear, Johnson no longer offers them an electoral escape route. The magic has gone. 
 

‘Johnson no longer offers them an electoral escape route’

 
The passing of the bill comes as a bitter blow to the DUP, who’s leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, had said he would engage with the Government for ‘clarification, reworking and change’. 

He continued saying, ‘Consequently there is not a sustainable basis at this stage to enable us to restore Stormont.’ 

Whatever his thoughts, the DUP are now marginalised; the Tories have deserted them, and they are a minority in NI. ‘No’ and ‘Never’ might be the extent of their vocabulary, it might also be their obituary.    

Whilst Sunak might have seen off a right-wing rebellion over NI, it still holds considerable sway over the parliamentary party, especially when it comes to immigration.  

When you consider the evidence, Britain has a history of racism. Perhaps this is born out of empire, or on our belief of a natural superiority it is not something to be proud of. 

Perhaps that’s why people were so squeamish when  Gary Lineker tweeted that the government’s ‘stop the boats‘ policy deploys ‘language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.’ 

Unfortunately, history is on his side. 
 

‘many Jewish refugees were described as ‘paupers‘, who would be ‘taking the bread out of English mouths”

 
In the early 1900’s many Jews were fleeing from pogroms in eastern Europe. This led directly to our first immigration law, the Aliens Act 1905 . Much of the debate is familiar, many Jewish refugees were described as ‘paupers‘, who would be ‘taking the bread out of English mouths‘. 

Even the TUC joined in saying that Britain had become ‘the refuge of all the rubbish of the central countries of Europe‘.  Joseph Banister in his antisemitic tract ‘England Under the Jews’, said that Jews were ‘the most lecherous breed in existence‘, and would run the sex trade. 

William Evans-Gordon, MP for Stepney, and author of ‘The Alien Immigrant’, told parliament that the ‘alien invasion‘ lay at the root of Britain’s housing problem because ‘Not a day passes but English families are ruthlessly turned out to make room for foreign invaders‘. 

In the 30s when many German Jews were trying to flee from Nazi persecution, whilst there was sympathy from the British government, there was no insistence that their plight should become our problem. As a result few found sanctuary in the UK. The only real exception was the Kindertransport under which, during 1938 and 1939, about 10,000 children were brought to safety in Britain.  

German Jews, according to the Holocaust historian Steve Paulsson, were ‘treated as ‘bogus asylum seekers’ (because their lives were not yet in immediate danger) and as ‘economic migrants’ (because, having lost their means of livelihood, they would benefit economically by coming to Britain). They were viewed as immigrants who were trying to jump the queue, rather than as people in need. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 
 

‘They were viewed as immigrants who were trying to jump the queue, rather than as people in need’

 
Then, as now, the need to preserve ‘British sovereignty’ was the policy. Letting in more Jews, officials claimed, would undermine sovereign control over who should be granted entry. Then, as now, the policy was not allowing refugees to enter the country before deciding their fate. 

The other issued that Linekergate highlights, is the right’s antipathy and aggression to anyone who disagrees with them. 

In their view, if you deviate from right-wing lines on race and immigration you are unpatriotic, out of touch, and an elitist working against the interest of the British people.  

The right to disagree and speak out is severely curtailed. The ‘activist lawyers’, the ‘do gooder’ refugee charities, the ‘campaigning’ black journalists are all slated for daring to question the government’s version of Britain’s racial Garden of Eden. 

The Home Office is equally complicit in this, driven by its obsession with not appearing a ‘soft touch’ to immigrants. 

The murder of Jo Cox also supports Lineker’s comparison with 1930’s Germany. Her killer hoarded Nazi memorabilia, and in court gave his name as ‘Death to traitors, freedom for Britain‘.  Her murder came only days after she penned an article championing the good that immigration does for the country and asking voters not to ‘fall for the spin‘ of Brexiters. 

We continue with the theme of the ‘Sun King’. The original, Louis XIV, lived in imperial splendour while the majority of his subjects endured poverty, not unlike the UK today under the Tory’s. 

A recent report by Resolution Foundation, found that workers in the UK are £11,000 worse off a year after 15 years of ‘almost completely unprecedented‘ wage stagnation. 
 

‘workers in the UK are £11,000 worse off a year after 15 years of ‘almost completely unprecedented‘ wage stagnation’

 
Labour were in power during the GFC and the immediate recovery efforts, but much of the wage stagnation the report refers to came under the Conservative-led governments post -2010 general election. 

Their analysis shows the UK lagging behind comparable economies, such as Germany. In 2008, the gap was more than £500 a year, now it is C.£4,000. 

‘Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this. This is definitely not what normal looks like. This is what failure looks like,’ Torsten Bell, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, told the BBC. 

Several major factors, and the Tories’ response to them, have dented the UK’s economic performance, including Brexit, Covid, and the Ukraine war. 

Recently, the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, acknowledged Brexit had delivered a blow to investment decisions in the UK. He told the BBC: ‘I think if you have a situation where you create frictions between yourself and your major trading partners, I think you have to accept that that will have an impact.’ He also admitted that economic opportunities provided by leaving the EU were insubstantial. 

In addition, according to the trade union Unite, while the average worker’s real-terms earnings have been hit, corporate profit margins have increased since the pandemic. A subject covered in a previous article ‘Inequality is Rife’. 

Johnson, the Sun King, is now history, his legacy is tainted. He is a failed populist, who’s lasting legacy, a hard-Brexit, will haunt this isle for years to come. 
 

‘What else should I be? 

All apologies’ 

 
Whilst we await the Privileges Committee to hand down a judgement, Philip leaves us in no doubt as to how he thinks things went; I suppose it doesn’t really matter, because Boris has created an alternative reality in which he is convinced of his own rectitude.

Certainly his reading of the room re the Windsor Framework vote seems a little squiffy, and with Sunak ‘getting Brexit done’, for better or worse, Boris appears to have nowhere to go; however, those shooting, beady eyes, the clenched fists, and the thinly veiled contempt for the process suggests that we haven’t yet seen the end of the Blond Bombsite.

You never know, if one of Philip’s more terrifying scenarios should pan out, and Suella Bravermann gets the keys to No10’s executive lavs, we might all be begging him to come back. 

So, what was he thinking?:

Yesterday may well be the day that Britain awoke and discarded its fascination with fascism populism. I say “may” because the underlying symptoms that brought it to the fore haven’t gone away. The wealth gap, income inequality, gets wider with every passing day. As I quoted last week, Britain is a poor country with some very rich people. We can add to that, and a government that panders to them.

As an example, today it was revealed that Chris O’Shea, the boss of Centrica, British Gas’s parent company, has accepted a £4.5m pay packet, including bonus pay-outs totalling £3.7m, despite an investigation into the treatment of vulnerable customers.

Whilst Centrica made record profits it was due only to the rise in energy prices caused by war in Ukraine. His only contribution was chasing those that couldn’t pay through the courts. Putin has done more to increase profits than O’Shea.

I would like to think that under Labour things will be different, but somehow I doubt it. That’s assuming they can generate the 12% swing required to win a majority, especially with Hunt/Sunak squirreling away tax proceeds to fund tax cutting bribes we can ill afford, in order to buy the election.

Looking to the future, should Sunak be defeated it is possible that Suella Braverman, a full-blown fascist could become party leader.

Today, Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, criticised her actions and comments, saying; “Unfortunately, we have seen ourselves and our community being singled out in this country for purposes of politics. It has been a very, very disgraceful moment for British politics.”

Edi, we have so many disgraceful moments, it’s hard to keep track of them all!

And, speaking of disgrace, there is the Met police, who have become such an ongoing disgrace, that it’s hard to remember when they weren’t one.

Louise Casey, in her review of the Met’s culture and standards described it as a rotten boys’ club, with institutional homophobia, misogyny and racism at its very core.

The latest head of the Met, Sir Mark Rowley, said he feels “embarrassed” and fully accepts Lady Casey’s findings, however refuses to say the force is “institutionally racist”, which, in itself, exposes the scale of the challenge ahead. Instead of displaying humility and understanding, the Met is returning to old patterns of insularity and defensiveness, the very culture highlighted by Casey that needs rooting out. Rowley’s inconsistency should raise serious question marks over his willingness or ability to clean up the force. After all, how can you change a culture that you refuse to see?

The police are often described as a “thin blue line” that prevents society from collapsing into violent anarchy, yet only a tiny proportion of crime is actually solved by police officers. In 2021, 19 out of every 20 burglaries and violent offences went unsolved in England and Wales, as were  98.7% of rapes. In four out of 10 cases closed, a suspect hadn’t even been identified. In the vast majority of cases, crime is simply not something dealt with by the police.

Still we did win the war!

Lyrically, we start with “I Fought The Law”, originally written by Sonny Curtis but, perhaps the best known version is by the Clash. We finish with Nirvana and “All Apologies”, except that with Johnson there won’t be any. All he will offer up is another stab-in-the-back theory. Enjoy!

 
@coldwarsteve
 

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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