The United Kingdom gets its Trump
The UK has just made another fatal mistake, has just put another nail in its coffin and has just signed its death warrant. Boris Johnson is another Trump
Don't get me wrong - I have nothing personal against Boris Trump, sorry Johnson. Well after all he was born in New York, wasn't he? And like the occupant of the White House, Donald Johnson, sorry Boris, has also allegedly said some pretty wacky things. True, he has also managed to cobble together a pretty interesting resumé, having worked as a journalist in a number of publications writing about a variety of topics from politics to cars, has served as a Member of Parliament, Mayor of London and Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom before becoming leader of the Conservative Party and tomorrow, Prime Minister.
Buffoonery and bumbling - Boris
This does not mean he is a nobody and it certainly doesn't mean Boris Johnson is not intelligent. But here's the rub - when will Peter's Principle come into play? Peter's Principle is the point at which a person's utter incompetence catches up with them and unless Boris Johnson can tame himself, get real, gain some gravitas and look Prime Ministerial, all he brings to the political scene is buffoonery and the figure of a bumbling, upper-class Great British eccentric, who at the drop of a hat might call Africans piccaninnies and class gays as bum boys, if he has not already.
True, as Mayor of London he cut crime and true, as Mayor of London he overspent. True to form, for someone who may have an ability to show touches of brilliance and panache but who lacks the ability to sit down, concentrate and grasp detail. Politics needs a mixture of groundbreakers but also an army of those boring little grey people who turn up on time, correct you when you say it is nine o'clock informing you that actually it's eight fifty-eight, people who have never been drunk in their lives, who always knock on the office door, always twice, at precisely the same time, who say the sensible thing, marry someone who glares when one looks at the bottle of gin and bother to study the dossiers. The Prime Minister has to be a mixture of both.
And we are speaking about the best of times. Because of people like Boris Johnson, with his lies about the European Union, the United Kingdom today finds itself in a terrible place, about to embark on a career of self-destruction the likes of which have not been seen since Crassus' disastrous foray into Parthia, to be annihilated at the Battle of Carrhae and it is said, die a horrible death with liquid gold poured down his gullet.
Johnson was one of the main exponents of the Brexit campaign based on nonsensical statements about huge sums of money becoming available for the National Health Service if the UK left the EU and he, alongside Nigel Farage (now of the Brexit Party) whipped up the hype against the EU, swallowed hook, line and sinker by a gullible and chronically misinformed public.
And now Johnson makes noises about a no-deal Brexit, which would be astoundingly harmful to the UK economy and would see the British exports increase in price, making them less attractive, meaning factories would close, jobs would be lost; SMEs, the backbone of the British economy, with profit margins squeezed, would see their doors closing, meaning more unemployment; imports would necessarily be more expensive, so prices would rise. The growing uncertainty would push the pound under, seeing billions and billions wiped off the board in the Stock Exchange, just for starters. Huge social benefits payments would ensue, less money would be available for public services, hospitals and schools would get worse. The United Kingdom, in fifty years' time, if it remains outside the European Union, will go back to being what it always was - a rainy, miserable, grey place shivering in the cold on the outskirts of civilization, the poor man of Europe, and this time around without friends, without a say in the business it will now have to pay to do which today it enjoys for free. Nuts? Ask Boris Johnson, that's what he supports.
How anyone in a position anywhere near ministerial level can seriously postulate a no-deal Brexit and expect the other 27 members of the Euto change their tune after they have already signed a deal and then expect to be taken seriously is mind-boggling, is a demonstration of shit-headed arrogance, pigfaced insolence, and in short, buffoonery, bluster,bumbling, bimboesque clownery of the worst category.
I wish Boris Johnson well but I have that gut feeling that the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom has just made a fatal mistake. The only option now is for Boris to go for his no deal, get blocked by Parliament, call an early election and lose it. Then can the next Prime Minister please get real, man up, get sensible and realise that most people in the UK do not want any form of Brexit?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Twitter: @TimothyBHinchey
timothy.hinchey@gmail.com
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey works in the area of teaching, consultancy, coaching, translation, revision of texts, copy-writing and journalism. Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru since 2002, and now Co-Editor of the English version, he contributes regularly to several other publications in Portuguese and English. He has worked in the printed and online media, in daily, weekly, monthly and yearly magazines and newspapers. A firm believer in multilateralism as a political approach and multiculturalism as a means to bring people and peoples together, he is Official Media Partner of UN Women, fighting for gender equality and Media Partner with Humane Society International, promoting animal rights. His hobbies include sports, in which he takes a keen interest, traveling, networking to protect the rights of LGBTQI communities and victims of gender violence, and cataloging disappearing languages, cultures and traditions around the world. A keen cook, he enjoys trying out different cuisines and regards cooking and sharing as a means to understand cultures and bring people together.
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