As expected it was Boris Johnson who went to Buckingham Palace and accepted he job of Prime Minister from Her Majesty the Queen after Mr Johnson’s win in the Conservative Party leadership election. The period of misrule by Theresa May is over and we should therefore allow ourselves to, in the words of Winston Churchill, ‘have a brief moment of rejoicing’ over the end of the May era.
The Boris Johnson premiership (I believe it is the first time that the United Kingdom has had a PM called ‘Boris’. We’ve had a Spencer, a Robert and a Benjamin, but we’ve never before had a Boris) has got off to a good start. He’s made some good picks for Cabinet posts such as Pritti Patel as Home Secretary, Andrea Leadsom as Business Secretary and former soldier Ben Wallace as Secretary of State for Defence. Also picking Jacob Rees-Mogg as Leader of the House is a big indication that Mr Johnson may be putting Brexiit at the heart of matters. Other picks by Mr Johnson are a bit more troubling.
I’m unhappy at a liberal wet such as Nicky Morgan being put in charge of culture and the slippery Sajid Javid being made Chancellor of the Exchequer. However although Morgan might end up pandering to the lefty art establishment it’s nothing like the damage that Javid could have done had he stayed at the Home Office. The elevation to Chancellor is a promotion but it also keeps Javid caged at the Treasury and not influencing Britain’s policing and border security. It’s better to have some people in the tent pissing out rather than outside the tent pissing in. One such individual is Sajid Javid.
Boris Johnson has made some stupendous tub thumping speeches and completely eviscerated Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons. The way the new Prime Minister verbally slapped down the leader of the opposition reminded me a lot of those performances at Prime Minister’s Question Time of the late Margaret Thatcher when she was laying into then Labour leader Neil Kinnock. However, unlike Mrs Thatcher, Boris Johnson didn’t just destroy Corbyn in debate, he left Corbyn a mockable figure and no amount of rote rhetoric from Corbyn could change that.
As I said, Boris Johnson’s premiership has got off to a good and positive start. He’s made an impact in both his speeches and in the swift and confident way that he has put together a new Cabinet. It still remains to be seen if he can be trusted over Brexit or if he can avoid the machinations of the Remainers in his own party and the actions of both Labour and the fanatically pro-EU Liberal Democrats.
If Mr Johnson can avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous Remaniacs and socialists then he may be a Prime Minister with a proper and worthwhile legacy such as Thatcher, Churchill, Peel, Disraeli, Attlee and Wilson. If Mr Johnson fails and by misadventure or by being outmanouvered keeps Britain in the European Union then he will be remembered as both a political disaster or the source of future problems just as Eden, Callaghan and Blair are so remembered.
Mr Johnson is not perfect as a Prime Minister, he is for example a lot softer on matters pertaining to immigration than I would like to see but he is the best of the very bad bunch of politicians currently in the Commons. The wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Left and from Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is a sign that the Left is worried that Mr Johnson is much more in tune with the views of the average man on the street than other Tory leaders and therefore poses a great deal of threat to the Left. I was pleased to see that in one of Mr Johnson’s speeches he championed free speech as a positive value. I hope that Mr Johnson lives up to his rhetoric about this issue as if he does so then it will not only enrage the censorious Left but embolden other Britons to use their voices and to stand up to the various taste and language bullies that the Left has embedded into so many of Britain’s societal organs.
Boris Johnson has come out of the starting gate making a good pace but these are early days and a lot could happen between now and the end of October when Britain should, frustratingly belatedly I might add, leave the EU. Will Boris Johnson be a great British hero or a great British disgrace is a question that only the passage of time can properly answer.
