Boris Johnson's biographers now know the date on which his fate was sealed. It was Friday 3 June, 2022. The location was the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. The assailants were a crowd of people sufficiently pro-royal to have camped overnight for the best views. The weapon was their booing, heard loud and clear on the BBC. It was so apparent commentator Victoria Derbyshire had to take note of it, saying “We weren't expecting that”. There was, though, a message that the no doubt unrehearsed and unco-ordinated crowd wished to deliver. They were saying that Johnson was a man they no longer wished to see.
The motivations of those booing may have varied. Some may have had enough of the parties. Others the lies. Maybe it was the state of the economy, although I doubt it at that moment. But what was clear was that this female dominated (as I saw it) audience wished to let their feelings be known, and they succeeded.
Like Victoria Derbyshire, I did not expect this. A more likely pro-Tory crowd than this is hard to imagine. The Venn diagram of those voting Tory and those turning out to wave the royals must overlap fairly heavily. But that was not enough to save Johnson. He was not welcome. They were silent for Keir Starmer, as I did expect.
There will be Tory MPs reflecting hard in this. They should. Their future is intensely aligned with that of Johnson. They have the option to be rid of him. They could exercise that this week. I think it increasingly likely that enough of them will. But enough to be rid of him? The odds on that went up dramatically as that crowd booed. And famously, Tory MPs are always intensely loyal to their leader until the moment when they are not, which moment often emerges with extraordinary haste and little warning.
Those lingering should reflect on events in Canada in 1993. In that year the governing Progressive Conservative Party, which had ditched a deeply unpopular leader eighteen months beforehand and which had an overall majority and 156 seats, fought a general election and lost 154 of them. It was a world record defeat, but it suggests what can happen to parties with deeply unpopular leaders, even if they do change them. Carrying on with Brian Mulroney would have been worse for them though: the other two might also have lost their seats.
I am not convinced we are in that territory as yet. But the disastrous Mumsnet interview, followed by this incident suggest that Johnson's hold in power is slipping. He may yet make it to a general election. The existing crop of Tory MPs were selected solely for their loyalty to Johnson. It is why they are so truly appalling. Their courage might fail them as a result.
But it would seem that the electorate has decided. Johnson's popularity has been replaced by a sense of deep disquiet about him and his conduct. The belief that he is an untrustworthy liar has cut through. His days are numbered. It hasn't been such a bad Jubilee, after all.
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Agree. The Conservative party is now on a course of self-destruct we hope. The present subservient cabinet must go down as well as Johnson.
The booing was the highlight of the whole thing to be honest.
We rightly deplore popularity politics here but that display of un popularity was most welcome.
However, I have to point out a 40 year old colleague who has £60K worth of student debt, two kids and is employed by my org’ on an apprentices wage (very low) who thinks that Boris is ‘her man’ to sort things out. She turned up on Wednesday with flags and a royal jubilee sweatshirt (that she maybe could ill-afford) and obviously made no connection between the polity or establishment hierarchy and her own rather stretched circumstances.
There are still too many of these people in my view.
Johnson is like the proverbial Russian doll figure isn’t he?
He’s obviously a member of the same set of people but appears to be different to outsiders – willing to break what are seen as stuffy rules and traditions to get things changed and thumb his nose at convention. This is why he is in tune with many people who have come to deplore politics.
This in itself is a clear indication of just how much our politicians are hated by a lot of people, to the point that they are willing to trust him and those around him and disregard the wider issues at stake.
Johnson is an expert at exploiting this and I’m sure that some Tories know that they have made a pact with the Devil. Losing £84K+ a year as an MP is a big hole in one’s pocket. You have to give it to the decadent Tories – they know how to lock in unsavoury behaviour and motives into everything they do.
Let’s see what happens – if there has been an epiphany at long last.
25% at least will remain loyal to this madness forever
When talking about defence, elsewhere, the contortions of the Tory faithful when justifying the unjustifiable is remarkable to see. Aircraft carriers deployed without aircraft, the primary combat ships without the weapons to sink other ships, only 4 submarines in service, the Defence committee’s label of a porcupine navy etc etc. Both red and blue have cut resources but the steepest of these have been under blue governments. The faith, however, remains unshakable.
I suppose that I am just as bad but I don’t see my own vote as eternally fixed.
I do wish we could see a little more colour from the opposition, given the scale of Johnson’s falsehoods and the threats to our democracy I’d like to see things get a little more unpleasant in parliament. My suspicion is, however, that you couldn’t slip a Rizzla between the two main parties when it comes to policy and belief.
I think Boris Johnson is the Jimmy Saville of British politics, a very nasty piece of work who throughout his life has successfully hidden himself behind being a full-time “character”.
Like those comedians you see being interviewed that never drop the stage act, the real man and his motives are almost impossible to discern and if anybody gets too close well, there is always the army of powerful allies and sycophants to protect him.
A 40 year old with £60,000 of student debt and supporting Johnson? Surely the question has to be asked what is the value of our education system other that to line the pockets of the private sector?
My wife was watching various Jubilee events attended by Johnson, what struck me was that at such an important State Occasion he was scruffy & fidgeting – unlike Starmer.
Despite Eton & Oxford he clearly doesnt know how to behave at these events.
John
Read Simon Kuper’s ‘Chums’ – I can assure you that much of the sheen of Oxford and it seems ‘the other place’ is just illusory these days.
I was speaking with a family member the other day about matters. She had grown up knowing politicians who fought wars, saw the state of Europe after the war, had been down the pit and seen a lot of real life. They were quite a generation.
Her contempt for those like my colleague above seemed to me to be a success of the Fascist techniques that have been employed to divide us but even she grasped that those in charge now (even of those parliamentarians from less gilded lives) have mostly silver spoons in their mouths and know nothing about what they are supposed to managing.
This disjuncture between the lives of the rulers and the ruled is major problem at the moment in our polity.
I think Boris knows how to behave. What Eton taught him is that, for him, these things don’t matter. I was an undergraduate in Oxford in the late 60s. This was before the Bullingdon Club existed but there were plenty of Bullingdon types around. I had to share a set of paired tutorials with one in my second year. It became quite clear that he thought I should do all the work and he should take all the credit. It didn’t work out too well for him in the end, but that is another story. I asked him once why he had this attitude and he said words to the effect that if he failed the course he would get another chance but if I did I would be stacking shelves at the local supermarket.
On the other hand there are some old Etonians who manage to survive the experience and end up decent human beings but it seems to me they are the exception rather than the rule.
‘And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.’
If we were ticking boxes more would be ticked than not.
I wonder who the subversive Anglican Clergy person was who chose the passage.
Philippians 4:8, which states: “Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable … think about these things.”
to which I add Galatians 6:7
King James Version
7 ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’
Let us hope so.
Superb trolling, I thought
I also felt pleased by this (and a bit surprised too):
https://twitter.com/Daily_Express/status/1532667058034552835
It was a lie
They were cheered
“They were cheered”
No they weren’t my daughter was there..
So the BBC dubbed it in?
Why? I mean, genuinely, why? Why would anyone be pleased at the crowd booing Harry and Meghan and not booing Chales and Camilla, William and Catherine, all of whom display far more greed and entitlement than the first 2?
Rather sad to have got so little out of such a wonderful weekend…
…(whether involved in Jubilee celebrations or other productive activities)
How sad to think you believe you know so much about my weekend
I have to admit that I’ve not paid much attention to the jubilee. Mainly because June 4th is the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre and I will be at various events to mark the anniversary including a candlelit vigil outside the Chinese embassy. However the news of Boris Johnson being booed did break through. Maybe the jubilee will be remembered for this rather than anything else, and, curiously, I think it will be more pleasing to Johnson’s ego than if he were completely ignored.
“Perkins we’re losing the Battle of Brexit, at this stage of the game what we need is a futile gesture, we’re going to bring back Imperial measurements -it will raise the whole tone of the forthcoming election”
Could be—and I’m just guessing here—that the Booing of Boris by what was obviously a Royal-supporting crowd wasn’t so much a wish to have a new PM as a personal thing. They are angry at him for: 1) lying to the Queen and 2) partying the night before the Queen attended her husband’s funeral and had to sit alone.
But who knows what this might portend. It would be great if they stopped voting Tory altogether …especially for THESE kinds of Tories. But I’m not hopeful.
@ Jan Foley, well, a lot depends on how long he remains PM for, if he’s PM at the next election then they might feel unable to vote for him
Maybe?? to be honest I’ve lost faith in the vast majorities of the electorates ability to vote in their and the Countries best interest, remember Dave and George being booed at London 2012? and here we are ten years later and still the same sorry bunch of goons are wrecking the place.
In my limited experience there seems to be far too much “their all the same” sentiment around and a heck of a lot of folk have disengages entirely.
“their (sic) all the same”
Maybe not all but there is little difference between the Starmerite Labour Party, the Lib Dems, and the One Nation wing of the Tory party.
Whatever other merits they may have, they’re all neoliberal in their economic analysis which will mean that their ability to do any better job than the present right wing of the Tory party is going to be seriously impaired.
Kay Burley
@KayBurley
·
19h
OK, let’s set the record straight about what happened outside St Paul’s yesterday:
I heard cheers and also #boos for the PM
I heard cheers and also boos for #HarryandMeghan
I heard only cheers – and the loudest of the day – for #WilliamandKate
I was there.
So, boos happened
And that was pretty odd given the audience
They also happened when he came out. And last night
“And that was pretty odd given the audience”
why is celebrating the queens jubilee party political??
All of life is political
“All of life is political”
only if you make it and it is all it concerns you. Supporting Everton instead of Liverpool is not political. Nor is going to see Pearl Jam instead of Queens of the Stone Age. Nor is going to the British Museum or watching an ITV drama or cheering on England and being g delighted they finally won a test match. To you these might be political to 99.99% of the population it is everyday life. So not everything is political, far far from it and thank god for that.
I think you’re on the wrong blog if you are that naive