No.96 - It's Confirmed - A Vote for Johnson is a Vote for Farage

Dear James,

So Nigel Farage has confirmed that a vote for Boris is a vote for him. They are one and the same. How does that make you feel, now that the bad boy of the right has withdrawn candidates from contesting 317 Tory held seats, to confirm your party as Brexit Party Mark 2? Goodbye One Nation Tories!

What a dreadful first week it has been for you! We’ve been thrown back to the bad old days when our two ancient parties, courtesy of the BBC and the other broadcasters, battled things out on the basis of our old national divisions while the other parties are virtually excluded from the debate. This time however, our two aged and decrepit monsters have one thing in common. Both have discovered veritable forests of money trees. Your party, the Tories, are offering  £20bn p.a. on capital projects, a weak-wristed ’Sorry’ for the last ten years of crippling austerity. Labour is offering £55bn p.a. to fund its blueprint for Utopia. Having made their offers both then set about each other attempting to bulldoze each other’s forests. Mr Kwarteng accused Labour’s plan of costing £1.2tn over 5 years and then refused to reveal the costings of his own spending rampage. Back to the future? More like a return to the past with no way back even to the present! 

All this grand spending smacks of ‘back of the envelope’ stuff rather than any careful consideration of the needs of the UK today. When you plan to raise the government spending from 39% of GDP to 44% + that’s a massive reversal of decades of policy that deserves many months of open debate. Instead, all we get is the, ‘I’ve had a bright idea guys, why don’t we…? At least Corbyn can justify his offer with a bit of ideology. For the Tories it is pure unadulterated, knee jerk bribery. 

Meanwhile the two party leaders continue to play out their poor characterisations of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Corbyn pretends serene calm in the face of his approaching calamity. Boris has been briefly reflated by Farage’s decision but his energy now comes in small bursts when, for example, a camera is near or he is amongst adulating friends. But the main part of his bumbling exuberance has relocated to the outer skin of his being and sits there like the last dermatological defence of that once bounteous certainty. On Sunday Boris was accused of ‘looking like a scruff’ at the Cenotaph while Corbyn was accused of ‘not bowing deeply enough’ at the same event. From the sublime to the ridiculous, our two party system splutters on, care of the BBC and others, towards its sad demise.

Of course Boris doesn’t do detail - least of all, on his own ‘new deal’ with the EU. On a visit to a crisp factory in Northern Ireland he insisted there would be no checks on goods going from NI to GB. More bluster in the face of the facts. Later Mr Barclay confirmed that there would be some small web based data to fill in but it would not be onerous. Is this what Boris meant when he promised there would be “unfettered” access to GB for manufacturers in Northern Ireland?  The DUP and the NI police are now warning of para-militarist discontent at the deal. And we know what that might mean. 

James, neither of our ‘main parties’ has a coherent leader, a unified party or a convincing set of thought out policies. Your party has lost the very best of its MPs and now, effectively, recruited the very worst to its ranks. Both ‘main parties’, in their own ways, are threatening the break up of the United Kingdom and both will condemn our nation to the same old class warfare, same old prescriptions, same old excuses and same old lies for another generation.

Against this background, the Lib-Dems seem downright adult and responsible in their response to the crisis. In one fell swoop, cancelling Brexit would remove the risk of years of ever more protracted negotiations, and ever deeper uncertainty. The Lib-Dems have a well thought out climate change policy, sensible policies on schools, child care, the NHS, public services and our fundamental issue behind all issues – inequality. 

James, the journey you began as a Remainer in 2016 has now delivered you, uncomplaining, in to the hands of Brexit Party Mk 2. You are now for all intents and purposes a fully blown Faragist!  I just hope that many of the One Nation Conservatives who voted for you in 2017 will now see the light. Their party has left them. They are homeless. So why not be honourable for once James?  Be true to whatever remains of your 2016 Remainer soul and suggest that they vote for the only sensible party left in our political landscape! The Lib-Dems would be only too willing to offer them refuge.  

Kind regards, 

BH - Your Concerned Constituent