I read an article by Tom McTague in The AtlanticThe Atlantic yesterday. The subject was Boris Johnson. The title was ‘Minister for Chaos' and the argument was that Johnson knows exactly what he is doing.
It a thesis that I can accept. I do not think Johnson is anything like as chaotic as he wishes to appear. I am also quite sure that he does think he is trying to impose radical changes on the UK. The question is what is the change that he is trying to impose?
It is English. And it is intensely nationalistic. It is by corollary intensely anti-Scottish, Welsh and Irish. It is not just indifferent to the interests of those nations and people: it seeks to suppress them as the last colonies of England.
It is racist. The anti-woke messages may be wrapped in the claim that taking the knee is pro-Marxist and anti-police, but no one believes that. Anti-wokeness simply represents a demand that people have the right to be racist, because that is what the Tories want to be. It's deep in their DNA, after all.
It's sexist. Johnson's own indifference to the women he uses sets the tone for that. And the Party gleefully follows.
It's corrupt. Not only is there indifference to the law, as evidenced by everything from a stated willingness to break it internationally, but there is also a willingness to simply ignore it when it comes to using public funds to advance the private interests of friends of the government. The logic is clear: the reason to be in power is to use the machinery of state for private gain.
It is indifferent to people. The excess Covid deaths and the continual refusal to heed evidence on Covid - permissible maybe in a Twitter trill, but utterly irresponsible in a government minister when done time after time - is the clearest evidence of that. Grenfell and so much else just adds to the evidence.
It has no interest in equality. The plans to cut universal credit, whilst remaining indifferent to taxing the gains arising from quantitative easing on the select, largely Tory, parts of society that have benefitted from them is evidence of that.
It hates the state and what it does. There would not be the chaos in the justice system, education, health care, social care, local government and elsewhere if that was not the case. This is death by a thousand deliberate cuts.
It is antidemocratic. Its aggression towards The Good Law Project is evidence of that.
It loathes the rest of the world. What evidence is required after Brexit and aid cuts?
It is indifferent to climate change. The evidence is that we are hosting COP 26 and have no significant climate change programmes in place. The government is in denial.
It simply seeks power. The channelling of money to Tory seats - and the blatant promotion of the idea that if you want to get ahead you have to vote Tory is the clearest evidence of that.
This,nthen, is a machine to perpetuate the power and gains of a few at cost to everyone else. And Johnson's ability to appear chaotic and disorganised whilst ruthlessly pursuing this agenda of social indifference and destruction was a gift to all who wanted to share the spoils from the havoc that he is creating.
But there is nothing about chance in this. It is all very deliberate, from the racism onwards. It is designed to cause hurt. It is designed to divide. It is intended to cause offence. And it does because some are callous. Some think they gain. Some are delighted that their base instincts may be expressed. And those some will seek to perpetuate this, which a divided opposition lets them do.
I do wonder how long it will be before the left see that there is a bigger narrative of opposition to create here. Until it does Johnson gets his way, imposing hurt on so many in a fashion almost unknown for so long in British politics, but still by deeply callous design nonetheless.
One day this nightmare will end. I have no idea when that day will be.
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Well said.
I used to think Johnson and his cronies were just misguided and incompetent; but the last year’s record makes me think that they are actually really nasty evil individuals and that is quite horrifying.
That is what they are
Dull
Deeply anti-intellectual
Not very clever
And nastily evil
It’s not a good combination
Have you met an old Etonian Male? That describes most I’ve met. I don’t know what goes on at that school but I’ve met so many Johnson’s that graduate there.
After the mess at the Suez the modern Tory party vowed never to have an Etonian in charge again, and so it was till Cameron. And here we are 10 years later. Though May is no Etonian she had a cabinet full of them.
Remember the first thing they introduced was Austerity – a 1930s Etonian policy. Well if you enact 1930s policies expect 1930s levels of poverty and all the discord and unrest that goes with it.
Etonians we’re best left fiddling stocks and shares in the city and kept out of public life, but they broke back in and here we are.
Yes, I saw that article and thanks for the summary. I’ve known for some time that the public persona Johnson displays is playing to his cult, the clownish bufoon, tousled hair, meandering speech. They just love it! There is also the delight in winding up anyone outside the ‘tent’. All those shots with blatant clues such as the camping trip with obviously staged camp fire, the grown up baby, people who don’t cast shadows etc. I would even put that ‘wedding’ in the same category, it is just a huge laugh at the expense of the dim witted.
He is basically evil for sure and follows the Telegraph opinion pages to decide policy. All these daft policies have been aired in the comments pages for sure – I used to read that on-line before it went behind a paywall and it had a different editor. Each policy is aimed solely at their support base and to hell with what anyone else thinks. Just so there ois a 40% support the other 60% don’t matter in our – broken FPTP – system.
Heaven only knows quite how we get out of this but I still say the media (and I include the servile BBC in this) is the key, without that support more people would wake up to the reality.
When our electoral systems have been taken over and manipulated by a few, why should we accept their government? I have been conditioned to do so but when I reflect on the level of abuse of our trust, our systems and that my MP feels she no longer needs to answer to me, I start to understand that we need to wrench the reigns of power from their hands.
“Anti-wokeness simply represents a demand that people have the right to be racist”
Too facile and too sweeping a generalisation.
You can be sceptical of so-called ‘wokeness’ and still be against racism and discrimination.
Would someone such as Joanna Cherry fall foul of your categorisation?
No, she would not
The last thing she can be described as is pro-racist
And I know to what you are referring: don;t make up false accusations as a result
I posted this on FB with the comment: “Deeply felt, detailed (and justified) criticism of the Johnson project, showing it up as an English version of Trumpism. Where is the Joe Biden or Clem Attlee figure to present a coherent, caring, more egalitarian alternative???. PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE IF YOU AGREE.THIS NEEDS TO BE HEARD.” Let us shout it from the housetops. We are in danger of becoming a virtual right wing dictatorship if we can’t mount some effective peaceful opposition.
Thank you
Great post.
The problem I feel on the Left (and I hear it all the time) is that they have convinced themselves that the British people are instinctively/naturally Thatcherite. All they can do is vie with the Tories for same shrinking voting pool.
The problem is though that Neo-liberalism works only when you can join in. Increasingly over the years what has been happening is that – sure – some people are doing really well (who work perhaps in the enabling industries for wealth) but many more are not. Those that don’t do well are then hoovered up by agnotological practitioners hoping to give them a false narrative for their lives (immigration, the EU, anti-woke etc.) anything in fact to throw them off the scent of where the real problems lie (neo-liberalism).
Well people are naturally not Thatcherite in my view. It’s the failure of the Left to update and modernise. That is the problem. The Left has been blindsided and in doing so allows the electorate to be blind sided too.
The only way the Left can throw off the neo-lib chains is to go back to Attlee and lead voters into expecting and asking for more.
Really well put
I like it…..
You’re welcome.
Brilliant and original comment, PSR.
(I leave it to your judgement professor if you want to publish any of my long post, I always think it’s going to be a para)
Glad to see people are catching up. Though I fear insufficiently.
I keep repeating that where we are in terms of political representation is not an accident. It has been very long planned and has involved the capture and complicity of the ‘Opposition’ by the same Powers – we live in a Fascist coup state. A sophisticated propaganda and PR manipulated peoples; through the MSM and Social Media and even many new Alt-media platforms. This includes everything from ‘News’ to ‘Entertainment’ to ‘Documentary’ to cinema and pop music.
The controlled opposition has been restored having briefly escaped its masters.
It needed a posse and mob hysteria and election fraud thrown to wrangle it back to control. The Great Knight Hope – was always just a sop. As is the current Queen of Scots.
We DON’T live in a democracy – we never have here or in America.
We never will without PR as at least there is in Germany – which has kept the fuckers at bay at least there and has defended the EU from internal self destruction by agents of Empire.
Merkel’s retirement scares me the most.
All of the identity politics and post-post-modern invention is clever and sophisticated – it replaces the old opiums of the masses with newer designer drugs that achieve the same mind control. As once the equally invented economic theorists did.
Brittannia Unchained – Unhinged as I pun it- is just the tip of the iceberg of a very long term project. It’s sociopaths were chosen as very young players and have been groomed to their elevation into the levers of power. Into all the pillars of state , media and entertainment. These young psychos are all in their senior positions now, do I need to list them?
If anyone believes there is any chance that the our Coup State and its controlled media will allow any freedom that would upset their long term global plans, then I am sorry to say that fake impression is also part of the sophisticated brain washing and button pushing that we are subject to. Any of the tenured presstitutes who, one may think, is speaking ‘truth to power’ is playing the ‘limited hangout’ card. Any who really does, gets ostracised and frogmarched out of the building instantly- which chills the rest of the minions from ever contemplating such a honest action.
It is a very dark place they are leading us to with their Russophobia and increasing Sinophobia – having already gaslighted us into a decades long destruction in the Middle East and North Africa and utter nasty violence against any peoples and states that resist – from sanctions to proxy terrorists to the most advanced military weapons deployed for thousands of miles away, when they can’t get our kids to put boots on the grounds to die and kill civilians who resist – by calling them ‘heroes’
They have been fighting undeclared multiple wars of aggression with ‘our’ forces secretly and through any number of Private Military Companies (the U.K. has the most registered) which are revolving doors between the two.
Any attempts to bring their activities to public light – impossible enough as it is to cut through the curtains of brain washing – is met with increasing ferocity using all the pillars of State and all the hidden and new forces. With imprisonments of whistleblowers and journalists and pretty soon – scientists and educators…
‘Hope’ is not our saviour it was long ago turned by them into a weapon against the masses. Neither is ‘Truth’; ‘Facts’; ‘Narrative’ etc
Which are only defined by themselves. No others need apply.
You may believe me or not – Bozo’s elevation and ‘celebrity personality’ and elevation didn’t just happen with the BBC’s Kuennsbergs soft focussed hard sell at the last election – it goes back a lot further. With HIGNFY being one of the earliest platforms. The fake resistance aimed more at building his public persona so that we wouldn’t be too surprised and even think we had actually wanted him. The shock jocks and incessant talk radio shows and the ‘liberal media’ all playing their part.
Where we are being led to by our Masters and their Wizards and Thugs of State, is not Peace and Security as a collective human race on a fragile planet – as they attempt to resist their Imperial decline and are happy to let the skies fall rather then admit that the World turns.
Our only real hope lies beyond our shores and controlled sensibilities that the Enemies we are gaslighted to perceive and cry wolf about to daily will this century, not fail to resist and finally prevail and bring down the curtains on our ‘owners’.
The City is threatened – hence BrexShit.
The Dollar and their whole control of the international banking system is threatened- hence the shenanigans of the G7.
Etc
It matters not – as the majority of the worlds population and landmass they live on and resources they own – come together in self defence and security to raise themselves from centuries of imposed poverty and exploitation.
Keep Groanin….
New Labour were the unwitting handmaidens of the Neo-liberal Tories.
Neo-liberalism is an extremist position – this is what a lot of people don’t get because most extremist attitudes see things in black and white.
Neo-liberalism however is peppered with grey and cunning subterfuge. It’s aim is to subvert by obtaining key positions in Government and civil society. They’re very clever. They peddle intellectual Trojan horses all of the time.
As Mirowski observes, their answer to everything is more markets.
They are driven and supported by those who – even though they have already have everything – always want more. Extremists themselves – many of whom already have too much money.
Whilst I agree with almost all you say, I differ when it comes to PR and Germany, people really do believe that Germany is the same place as it was 30 years ago, but is today out of place, it is precisely the same Neo-Liberal state as Britain and along with the rest of Europe instituted Europe as a corporate state.
Just because Boris Johnson has lied and cooked up a propaganda metaphor for signing away any sensible agreement we could have had with Europe; doesn’t mean that Europe itself would play ball with a less disagreeable individual as Johnson.
It always seems to get lost in the debate about Germany’s economic success – is that Thatcher deliberately destroyed our manufacturing base so making Britain dependent on its service and financial industries to earn a living, unlike Germany that has so far maintained theirs – giving them an unparalleled economic advantage over the rest of Europe. On the surface Germany looks strong and stable, but in reality has maintained its economy at the expense of exposing its population to ten years of austerity to be competitive. It has also been the forerunner of our Universal credit, in creating the Hartz reforms in 2001 culminating in Hartz IV, which some Germans recognise as we do as a means to rob the needy of support they previously had.
Most Germans have seen their living standards reduced whilst the mega rich have bathed in obscene levels of wealth, just like here in Britain. The reason they appear to have survived the crisis better than the rest of Europe is their relative economic advantages – not counting the German Bank debts bailed out by the ECB. The reality though is that the disenchantment felt by people has been expressed in support for the far right party in Germany Afd, _the Alternative For Germany). Germany has of course been here once before, and if the EU had all the promise that supporters of it presumed, then this should now be unthinkable; but not when you put into context the elements that constitute the EU as it is today, and the real impact it has on peoples living standards.
PR: When we look at PR, once again people look for what on the surface appears to be an ideal and simple solution to peoples complex attitudes based on their personal motives for voting the way they do.
Having agreed that most everything else you said was in my opinion correct, then it should be clear that we have to change people’s mindset rather the voting system – whether through PR or FPTP changes nothing as it’s what people think that matters.
This Link shows how the right in Germany has maintained power, even though they operate a form of PR. What you also see is the far right taking votes from the left and right.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestagswahl#/media/Datei:German_parliamentary_elections_diagram_de.svg
I agree with you about Germany – there’s a slower Thatcherite decline there which you can see the real effects of in the former East Germany and even Berlin. I’ve also picked up this Thatcherism/neo-liberalism in places like Norway where I’ve been told by Norwegians themselves that certain principles have been eroded over time.
The slow death of the Left in Europe is mostly to blame – they’ve ran out of ideas and neo-lib agnotology rules.
As for PR, I take your point but even though PR can legitimise political forces we may not like, at least (1) it keeps them where we can see them and (2) it makes them work with others – just like it makes progressive work with others too. It’s ostensibly a very sensible, grown up approach to politics. Mind you – I’ll say that with the caveat that there are so many very incapable people masquerading as politicians these days that – yes – they can still make a mess of PR too!
Thanks for your considered reply. Sorry but I disagree.
1. You ignore the enormous upheaval in reintegration of East Germany.
2. As you do the best response to Covid which not only see’s them having less than half of our bodies piled high dead.
3. And their financial support for their citizens through these times.
4. AfD is jus UKIP for Germany – funded and run by the same foreign billionaires and hedge funds along with the DS that is aimed at destroying the ever closer Union – which is central to a real new legally enforceable Rules based international order – without exception.
5. PR means every vote counts and results in representation which then allows a majority coalition to be formed with compromises yet delivering a greater plurality in daily governance – it took Mutti 3 months to form her last government having survived the political assaattempts of the AfD and their foreign Masters.
It only hates those parts of the state which do good. It uses the state ruthlessly to Putinise all sources of independent information or influence – from the BBC, to the English Cricket Board.
Matthew Dancona on radio this morning suggested that this week’s bizarre intervention into English Cricket more or less confirmed your view that this is all far more deliberate than the ‘chaos’ idea would suggest. All deliberate strategy by Downing street policy people.
The Opposition doenst seem to appreciate the enormity of whats happening – echo’s of the 1930’S?
Re the last, yes
My two Hungarian friends kept telling me that Victor Orban couldn’t keep getting away with it. He has. The Boundary Commission today is set to further entrench English domination of the UK.
Are there enough people out there who care for other people? I am sorry to say that I do not believe it.
I tell you Alan those people ARE out there. They are in your community.
It’s just that they are crowded out by ‘murketing’ – bullshit and other issues they are encouraged to look at instead that take up their time that encourage us to fall out with each other instead.
No one is taking the lead on what could be done or what the alternatives are and that failure is a political one. There is unmet need in this country for better politics but also politics grounded in reality – MMT and stuff like that – because current politics is inculcated with mythology about money, power and capacity.
I like murketing
Perhaps the most revealing observation in McTague’s article is Johnson’s protest that he does not run a Government of “autarkic economic nationalists”. Johnson therefore must understand the depth of the British ideological commitment to ‘free trade’; but it follows from this that he must wish solely to detach the ideological narrative of free trade from the real consequences for Britain of Brexit in the level of international trade to be achieved: but as becomes clear from observation of Johnson, his key operating technique as recorded by McTague is that “the point of politics–and life–is not to squabble over facts; it’s to offer people a story they can believe in”. The facts, the reality, the outcomes do not matter; what matters for Johnson’s Britain is providing the public with a believable story. “People live by narrative,” Johnson told McTague. We may in passing muse that Johnson, throughout his toe-curling, excruciating career has not often been especially believable.
The toe-curling, excruciating, unbelievable nature of Johnson and his works cited above may not appear plausible to some of his apologists, but perhaps the perplexed are not themselves sufficently familiar with Scotland. The Johnson thesis depends on Britain being “united”; especially in believing in Johnson’s unifying ‘British’ narrative. Allow me to make this as clear as possible, in the simplest conceivable terms: Johnson’s goods are unsaleable in Scotland; not even special offers, ‘2-for-1’, or even a ‘car boot’ sale could move them. Boris Johnson is simply not believable in Scotland, not now, not ever. He cannot unite “Britain”; but he can destroy it: indeed he has done a comprehensive and thorough job of demolishing the ‘British narrative’ in Scotland; not least by revealing how shallow and empty it is and has been, and that his whole ethos promises it will continue to be.
John, your second paragraph is an admirable summation of the deep dislike and distrust which the majority of Scots hold for Johnson, his Government and their clear policy of stripping Scotland and Wales of their devolved political powers, as well as subsuming their cultures and very identities into a bland and meaningless “Britishness” (I’m omitting N Ireland here as it is clearly affected by unique circumstances and is arguably less indispensable to the Tories).
Increasingly, when I’m watching BBC and ITV’s flagship “national” news, I get the distinct feeling that I’m looking at foreign news, much of which is irrelevant to residents of Scotland and, I suspect, Wales. It’s not that I’m not interested in foreign, or indeed, English news, but the presentation generally makes little or no attempt to indicate different conditions, legislation etc which apply outside of England (e.g. the UK Gov seeking to make English patients’ health data available to commercial interests on an assumed “opt in” basis).
One issue which is receiving wide coverage in Scotland, but I suspect not elsewhere in the UK, is the active role of the Royal Family in seeking to prevent Scotland’s secession from the UK. In a parliamentary democracy, why is it thought that unelected, hereditary royalty has a right to interfere in politics? Quite clearly Scottish Independence would involve the dissolution of the Act of Union, 1707, but not the 1603 Union of the Crowns unless and until Scotland’s people vote to become a republic. This interference is yet another obstacle put in the path of a clear movement of public opinion towards independence and is causing significant anger here, so it’s also not a very shrewd move by the Royals longer term.
The Royals are on very dangerous grunge here…..and will pay a heavy price for interfering
If anyone still believes there is breathing room for any political party other than the Conservatives in British politics, it would be wise to reflect on the redrawing of electoral boundaries that has just taken place. Wales alone has lost 8 seats (-20% on 2019 – Wales is slowly being nullified as a political presence). In broad terms the “North of England” has lost 14 seats, and the South and East (excluding London) has gained 14 seats; a net switch from North to South of 28 seats. The Conservatives currently have a majority of 80 seats, and FPTP (a system that not only over-represents the winning party but is intrinsically heavily biased to serve ‘Party’ over ‘voter’ interests). You do the maths.
Is Boris Johnson an evil genius? I am not so sure. But the chaos very much is affected. https://reaction.life/jeremy-vine-my-boris-story/
As Eddie Mair said in 2013, Boris Johnson is a nasty piece of work. Fortunately, he is supremely lazy and finds it difficult to make decisions. Unfortunately, he has the knack of making people laugh or make excuses – oh, that’s just Boris – and has been getting away with it for most of his life.
It is nothing new. As the school letter from 1982 has it, he has a “disgracefully cavalier attitude … seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility … [and] honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else”. https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/letter-to-boris-johnsons-dad-from-eton-college-resurfaces-online-and-it-explains-a-lot-126486/
He is a vacuum of integrity. He just lies without compunction, and everyone knows he lies. As Hannah Arendt explained, one of the markers of fascism is contempt for truth: that somehow there is no difference between truth and lies, and no one cares.
Thanks
Perhaps one should ask if the nightmare is to end, how will it end and how probable that is?
Here are a few thoughts:
1. Tory voters fall seriously out of love with the party they support – For this to happen we’d have to be looking at some pretty serious economic turmoil. Mass unemployment, food shortages, no petrol at the pumps, another wave of Covid? Sounds like we’d be swapping one nightmare for another. The double whammy of COVID And Brexit don’t seem to have dented Johnson’s appeal too much yet. If anything the opposite appears to be true.
2. A new generation of younger more radical voters coming through, replacing older more traditionally conservative voters. At the moment, it seems like the opposite effect is taking place. With younger voters migrating to the towns and cities,(where the jobs are) and the older more likely to voter conservative voters remaining in the shires. Coupled with the latest round of voter suppression techniques, this could take some time.
3. Johnson goes/Is removed by the Tories. I would suggest this is probably, the more likely scenario. e.g Johnson gets bored feels he’s not earning enough and steps down/or perhaps elements of the Conservative party move to replace what they see as something of a loose cannon with a more ‘statesmanlike’ PM. Not sure if this is ending a nightmare or just dialling it down for a bit.
4. An Alliance of the so called progressive parties with one standing down for another then bringing in PR. It would of course help if the majority of the PLP were indeed progressive and interested in winning elections rather than punching leftwards. They will need to replace the current leader with one who has vision and policies. There is a very tiny glimmer of hope here, I’ve a feeling the Benighted QC will be put out to pasture sooner than Johnson. Batley and Spen anyone?
i think you have nailed it Richard , great post.
I thought McTague’s article was dreadful. It was a fawning, puff piece that recycled well-known stories in a pretence of journalism. Johnson must have been delighted. McTague unwittingly (or perhaps knowingly) fell for whatever garbage Johnson spun him. It did prove the point though. Johnson is a skilled manipulator. The laughable attempt to explain Johnson’s psychology was always doomed to fail. There’s nothing much in there anyway. McTague negligently added to the myth. Johnson is a fraud with a limited bag of tricks. He’s not so difficult to understand. Nor is his surface level appeal. It’s all a performance he knows what he’s doing. A better journalist would have skewered him. But then a better journalist would never have been given such access.
Totally agree, more like an article you would expect from one of Johnson’s PR gurus! McTague has previous for this, I recollect an article he wrote last year regarding Brexit where he completely sidestepped journalistic responsibility by omitting any balanced commentary on the views that had been expressed by the Scottish voters. The sad thing is that these type of articles are presented to a readership outside of the UK who are then left with a skewed view of the reality we are living!!
Personally, I’d put McTague into the same category as Andrew Neil…ie not anywhere near as clever as they think they are…… but unfortunately (and no doubt deliberately) given prominent platforms.
This is an important article, because the failure to understand the profoundly IDEOLOGICAL character of present day Toryism has been the primary cause of the ineffectual opposition (not Opposition, because Starmer simply has no problem with government policy, other than peripheral nitpicking). The British (Anglo Saxons) have always been weak on ideology, as witness the trivialisation of Nazism as the product of a madman, whereas Hitler and the Nazi Party were expressly and very precisely ideological in both formulating policy and justifying it. Populism is not a global phenomenon by accident, but the culmination of several decades of well funded campaigning via a multitude of so called international think tanks and, above all, by the neo liberal takeover of economics education throughout the world, resulting in several generations of economists who are often genuinely ignorant of the alternatives . Economics is like the weather. We can only accept Nature and ride the blows! We are not discussing bad people or policy errors. We are discussing right wing ideologues with a clear anti democratic, anti libertarian agenda and the ruthlessness required to ignore the disastrous human consequences.