There is much talk of Johnson arriving back in the UK this morning to begin his campaign to be prime minister again by next Friday.
He might do that. Of course, I do not know what he will do. I do not pretend otherwise. But let's not pretend he will necessarily go for the premiership again.
He was expected to do so in 2016. The signs were all there. But he realised the time was not right, aided by Gove, admittedly. He walked away from a contest he was expected to win.
I think he might do so again. He will love this wave of publicity. He will ride all the income generating opportunities that it creates. They are his motivation.
And precisely because coming back and then suffering a short, chaotic premiership will harm those chances to make money he is already beginning to enjoy, he will walk away, playing the statesman and saying the time is not right. Someone will play the Gove role, again.
At least, I hope so. I have to hope so.
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The Conservative Party is the creature of Markets. The most critical Markets for Conservatives have already turned against the Conservatives; but it is no just this Government the Markets are turning against. They have turned against the Conservative Party. Either a Sunak government will destroy the lives of millions of British people to appease the Markets, and save the Market reputation of the Party (and quite likely fail in the attempt – because the Market realises, if you destroy the lives of most ordinary people in the UK, you destroy the economy); or Johnson wins, and the fate of that catastrophic decision is that the Market, which owns the Conservative Party, will finish the Party – in an elegantly apporpriate coup de grâce, once and for all.
I submit this as an alarming surmise, but in the current insanity, a plausible one.
Possible
I’ve got to say Richard that the whole idea makes me very anxious. Liz Truss was useless, but at least she was a terrible liar. Johnson’s talent for lies is that he tells people what they want to hear, and he seems to continue to impress the party membership with those endless deceptions.
I long for an end to the chaos, and for government to start trying to solve problems again. Johnson would perhaps hasten the demise, but I just don’t think the cost is worth it.
I wanted to protest this weekend but I didn’t see any events organised as yet. Please could you share anything you hear about? I am not sure that people protesting for an election will make any difference, but at least I would be actively doing something then.
I have heard nothing as yet
Plausible. Or at least as plausible as any Johnson-stands scenario, I think.
Be that as it may, one thing is beyond dispute: whether he stands or not, his decision will not be based on any moral considerations whatsoever.
I was listening to the Tory MP for downtrodden and forgotten Broxtowe the other day and all he could talk about was Boris coming back because no doubt said MP had not thought yet about getting another job. Talk about desperate to the point of absurdity.
Johnson in the run for it? God, I just hope that he falls flat on his face if he does.
It is worrying that some think that the criminality he has been accused of was overblown. Perversely, I actually agree. Throwing a few parties is nothing to the other things he did – lying about BREXIT, incompetently dealing with Covid (to me his biggest crime) and proroguing parliament.
But there you go. It could very well be that he is welcomed back in some form or other. I mean, since the obvious thing that should be happening is NOT happening – a GE – well, the Neo-liberal Tories are just making their own reality again aren’t they so anything is possible as they go about their business (see Mirowski).
When all this is over, I just hope we’ve learnt some lessons about strengthening our democracy and the accommodation of political party’s being able to select leaders is effectively ended.
‘And precisely because coming back and then suffering a short, chaotic premiership will harm those chances to make money he is already beginning to enjoy, he will walk away’
There’s no arguing with your basic premise, but I can remember thinking much the same thing about Trump in 2016.
I could be wrong
It happens….
Good Morning Richard,
I don’t twitter but I read your email every day.
Your writings are much appreciated, I discovered them only a month or so ago and they have enabled me to feel that there is actually some sanity in this country albeit not in the Government.
Although I am not an academic and am often out of my depth, I find myself in agreement with some of your contributors (especially PSR) and feel I would like to indicate that. Is it possible to attach a clickable thumbs up sign to the contributions? Or do you feel that would be turning your sensible contributions into a FaceBook tribute act?
We tried it and it just got abused, so it went quite quickly
Sorry…..
i have thought the same. But How abused ? I can’t see how this works, if its ok on twitter and Fbook why not on a blog ?
Because I have to monitor it
But in this case you are right, fortunately.
How much of an improvement Sunak will be, though, I am not sure.