Principles

Spotted this in a newspaper article last weekend:

"We are about to have yet another Old Etonian prime minister, chosen for us by an ageing, Jag-driving, 19th-hole-bothering Conservative gerontocracy with an imperial twitch and a growing passion for a no-deal Brexit. 

"The Old Etonian in question is the most cartoonish example of the caste: an entitled, amoral chancer who has repeatedly and flagrantly proved himself unfit for office. His sole qualifications appear to be impermeable self-confidence, a schoolboyish sense of destiny, and a character act that even Richard Curtis would have rejected as a half-worked cartoonist’s doodle."

A succinct description of Boris Johnson, who does not portray a single, traditional, Conservative attribute or value. If the Tory membership elect him, then a majority of them will have proven themselves an amoral bunch who are prepared to cast principle to the wind in pursuit (mistakenly, in my opinion, as he will not want to be remembered for being the PM who oversaw the dissolution of the Union) of their treasured Brexit - a Brexit that none can articulate the benefit of and are increasing admitting will be disastrous to the economy and jobs by virtue of the narrative having changed to 'the pain will be worth it'. Again, exactly how it will be worth it is left unanswered.

Brexiteers are fixated on principles in their arguments about Brexit - mainly the principle of sovereignty (although it only became that when all the other arguments were debunked), which they don't appear to understand when many bandy about words like 'traitors' in respect of the sovereignty of Parliament and the judiciary - yet principle will be the last thing on their minds if Boris is elected PM. There's the fishy stench of hypocrisy about their principles, especially when the only truth-teller and pragmatist among the candidates was eliminated at the 2nd vote.

Boris, thank heavens, doesn't have the drive, determination or work ethic to become a fascist leader (and we are increasingly slipping down the road toward a form of populist, anti-intellectual, right-wing fascism), but should he forge a pact with Farage in order to save the Tory party from well-deserved decimation, then he had better beware, as he will be cast aside in a coup by someone more cold, cunning and calculating.

In the words of George Santayana; "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."