No. 208 - The Return of the Javid - Boris Beware!

Dear James,

On ‘Any Questions?’ on Friday evening, a BBC journalist, Chris Mason, asked in desperation, ‘What do you have to do to get sacked from this government?’ The answer came as a howl of mirth from the audience. Their instant derision sums up how many in Britain see its present government;  incompetent, defensive, deceitful, paranoid and finally ridiculous in the amazing contortions into which it gets itself. Fewer and fewer believe anything they say or do. Your government’s credibility James is approaching zero. 

Yesterday however, against all predictions, Mr Hancock did the right thing. He resigned. Boris’s lightning conductor for the many mistakes of the Covid-19 crisis has gone despite Mr Johnson’s pained explanation that it was not he who pushed him. Even now Boris demonstrates his inability to make hard decisions under which any and every minister is protected from claims of incompetence or poor performance. While Mr Hancock departs with a modicum of honour declaring that a man who makes the rules cannot break them, Boris is left looking weak, confused and unprincipled. Which, of course, he is.

In the end the Hancock affair will go down in history as a footnote. The big question now is what it does to Boris. In selecting Sajid Javid as the new Health Secretary he has been forced to import a hard hitter into his cabinet who, has already shown a certain independence of mind and who perhaps, will not bow to Boris’s flummery. Boris probably thinks he is covered by the job he has taken on, which, next to that of Home Secretary, is one of the most poisoned of chalices in any government. The demands on Mr Javid are immense. Yet Mr Javid has demonstrated that most rare of qualities in the present government: principle. 

In February 2020 Javid, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, became unique in Boris’s first team by resigning on a matter of principle. Prompted by Boris’s  senior adviser Dominic Cummings during the latter’s own onslaught on any adviser not umbilically connected to himself, Boris had ordered the Chancellor to sack his team of advisers. Mr Javid stood by them, said they worked "incredibly hard" and refused to accede to Boris’s demand. So he himself was effectively, sacked. "I felt I was left with no option but to resign," he said. In his letter of resignation, he added, "I believe it is important as leaders to have trusted teams that reflect the character and integrity that you would wish to be associated with." So not only is he principled he knows how to flatter. Watch your back Boris. You now have at least two potential successors in your cabinet. Surely, it is only a matter of time?

So after yesterday, Boris has had to accept a man who will be no push over. Javid is one of the few survivors from that distant past when cabinets had real debates, integrity was seen as essential and dismissal was the price for non-performance.

Dominic Cummings, Javid’s own bête noir, has of course since been defenestrated himself but only to be replaced by Boris’s latest non-elected  ‘senior adviser’, Carrie Johnson, née Symonds, his latest wife.  Most seem to think that Mr Javid’s selection is down to her rather than to Boris who, trapped between ‘she who must be obeyed’ and a man of principle, must be quaking in his boots.

I may be snatching at straws and I’m certainly no supporter of Mr Javid’s politics but I can see that, at heart, he is a decent man. The Brexit mentality of overclaiming, refusing to accept responsibility for errors and lying where necessary all subsumed under the cover of angry nationalism, may at last be subject to a degree of challenge from within the cabinet. Yesterday Mr Hancock was dismissed by Tory grandees telling Boris that the Health Secretary had exceeded his ‘sell-by date’. The writing may be on the wall for more than Mr Hancock. 

Remember James, the Tory party hierarchy always, in the end, acts pragmatically. They have no other principle than to stay in power. Boris was always a risk. He has now become a liability. Mr Hancock’s resignation may just be the start of your leader’s ultimate demise.

‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’. Thus, the way of all tyrants!

Kind regards,

BH - Your concerned Constituent.