Few on the left really doubted the fact that a Johnson government would be bad. I hoped, and still think, that on some big issues (Brexit and Scotland) Johnson will surprise (delivering a softish Brexit and independence) because both, pragmatically, will assist his grip on power, which is what always matters most to any Tory prime minister. But there are signs it will be grim along the way.
Electoral reform is going to happen. Photo ID will be demanded. Many do not have it. The Labour vote is likely to be hit hardest, although I can also see this being a problem amongst the aged, and I suspect some easy registration option for those on pensions to be provided to prevent the Tory base collapsing in that part of society, which is vital to them.
Boundary reform will happen.
The Supreme Court will no longer be supreme: we will have government without accountability.
Arbitrary powers for ministers in the EU Withdrawal Act will become the new standard mechanism of government without parliamentary approval as a result.
Workers rights have departed that Bill.
The promise of an increase in the minimum wage, made until
December 12 has disappeared, in effect.
Brexit is going to happen. And risk of it being hard has increased, albeit I still don't think it likely.
To add to the risk of that, Trump effectively guaranteed the reflective demise of WTO trade rules.
We know Whitehall departments are under threat: chaos and centralised control is the planned order of the day.
There is no prospect right now of a real Green New Deal.
And Labour is worrying about a new leader with few of those on offer having the apparent qualities required for the job. Effective opposition is some way off, I fear.
That was the week before Christmas. And for a good many fear pervaded, for very good reason.
This has the prospect of being as ugly as I thought.
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Buy me a coffee!
How can there be any peace and good will when there are implacable wormtongues like Freedlands gaslighting with his open and shut to comments (within two hours!) article publushed yesterday evening! In the Guardian.
The article seemed to me to make fair points
The analysis was broadly correct
I am not a great fan of Freedland, but I think you might need to address some reality as well
no love for Clive Lewis ?
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” (Aldous Huxley). Your list has a morbidly familiar ring to it. And, as you say, there’s no immediate sign of anyone around whom the opposition parties can effectively rally in order to halt this ugly trend. In our new dystopian age where truth and lies are interchangeable, and people are unable to distinguish between the two, as neo-fascist ideas are gradually unravelled they will come in the form of ‘anti-fascism’, and surreptitiously implemented with populist endorsement.
Johnson now has more executive power than Trump. However ‘inclusive’ his rhetoric may sound, he and his cronies will embark on the most cynical, right-wing agenda since Thatcher. Actually, it will be worse because Johnson is less principled than Thatcher who probably believed most of what she said. And expect it to last for at least the next 20 years or until a crisis erupts of such a magnitude from which the government of the day will be unable to disassociate itself.
As with all political leaders, he is indebted to his sponsors. With the Labour Party it used to be
largely the Trades Unions. With the Conservatives it has always been ‘money’ in its various manifestations of privilege, land & trade. Today it’s disproportionately from global oligarchs who want unfettered freedom to write their own rules of wealth extraction. Couple them with the sociopaths whose bible is ‘Atlas Shrugged’ (https://atlassociety.org/about-us/who-is-the-atlas-society) and you have the ingredients for a very toxic political cocktail.
Furthermore, I have no faith whatsoever that so-called ‘moderate’ Tories will exercise any constraint over their new Führer, with whom they are in thrall. Compassionate Conservatism is an oxymoron. To those political innocents who voted for this power-hungry, narcissistic, amoral egoist, and his shape-shifting mafiosa, I have two words in a language beloved by their new emperor: ‘Caveat emptor’.
It is a national tragedy that the majority who do not identify as Conservative (i.e. 54% of the voter turnout and possibly as much as 70% of those eligible to vote) is so ruinously divided & fragmented. Like Trump, Johnson will do everything within his considerable powers to solidify his core and further fragment his opponents. If Scotland and NI eventually succeed in going their separate ways then the England will remain a Conservative playground for decades to come.
End-of-year rant over. Happy Christmas everyone. And may the New Year bring bottomless cups of comforting coffee – one of life’s still affordable pleasures, at least for the time being.
When coffee goes I am out of here….