NEWS 5
3August 2019 THE WEEK
...and how they were covered
Boris Johnson professes to love the United
Kingdom, said The Independent. He extols
“the awesome foursome” and speaks of the
UK as “the most successful economic and
political union in history”. But how can
that be squared with his readiness to
countenanceano-deal Brexit? The very
idea is anathema to the Scots who opposed
quitting the EU in the first place: 62% voted
Remain in the 2016 referendum. And if
Scots are givenasecond chance to vote on
independence, they might well now choose
to sever their 300-year-old ties with their
neighbour to the south. When Johnson visited Edinburgh
this week, he was loudly booed as he arrived at the official
residence of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and chose to leave
by the back door. Johnson’s stance on Brexit represents the
“most lethal threat” to the union since the partition of Ireland
in 1922. Without an abrupt change of course, the new Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom could also be its last.
It doesn’t help that Johnson is at loggerheads with his
party’s best-loved figure in Scotland, said Chris Deerin in
the New Statesman. “Charismatic, funny, outspoken, smart
and brave”, Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Tories,
has turned around her local party’s fortunes. Indeed, the
13 Scottish Tory MPs returned to Westminster at the last
election are now vital to the Government’s survival, said
Euan McColm in The Times. But Davidson,aconvinced
Remainer, is no fan of the new PM: in the leadership
election she voted for three other
candidates–anyone but Boris. And the
mutual antagonism grew yet more intense,
said Alan Cochrane in The Daily Telegraph,
when Johnson last week sacked Davidson’s
close ally, David Mundell, as Scottish
Secretary. Growing demands for the
Scottish Tories to break away from the UK
party may prove irresistible. But Johnson is
fully aware of the need to soothe Scottish
sensitivities, said William Hague in The
Daily Telegraph. His concern to appease
local opinion is the reason he deliberately
chose Scotland as the place to announcea£300m
investment in “Growth Deals” for the devolved nations.It’s not just the pursuit ofano-deal Brexit that makes
Johnson unpopular with Scots, said Tom Devine in The
Guardian. “Foppish, rich, incompetent, xenophobic,” he
is for many the embodiment of the archetypal right-wing
English Tory,afigure utterly out of sympathy with their
“social democratic” attitudes. Even before Johnson moved
into No.10, the polls were suggesting that almost 50% of
Scottish voters backed the independence cause. With him in
power, there may now be an absolute majority. Of course,
it’s the PM who has the power to decide whether Scotland
should holdasecond referendum, and Johnson won’t be
in ahurry to give his approval. But if it ever does come
to avote, the nationalists may find that he is their best
“recruiting sergeant since the days of Margaret Thatcher”.The last day of the summer parliamentary session is when
the Treasury usually starts to wind down for the holidays,
said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. Not this year. Sajid
Javid, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, will have his
work cut out trying to meet the new PM’s spending pledges.
And Javid isn’t well cast for the role of big spender, said
Philip Aldrick in The Times. The son of poor immigrants
who becameamultimillionaire investment banker, he’s a
small-state, low-tax, free-market liberal. But Johnson has
decreedabreak with austerity, so Javid will have to oblige.And whatabreak it is, said Ruth Sutherland in the Daily
Mail. The cost of his proposed splurge is “mind-boggling”.
Johnson wants to spend £100bn alone on projects to bridge
the North/South divide. “Boosterism” is how he describes
his new approach, but can it succeed? Or will it unbalance
the entire economy? More to the point, said Dan Bloom in
The Mirror, will any of his promises be enacted? He wantsto recruit 20,000 police officers but doesn’t say when; says
he hasa“clear” plan for social care but doesn’t say what;
promises 20 new hospital upgrades but doesn’t say where.
And he still has to set aside £5bn to reverse school spending
cuts. And that’s on top of preparing forano-deal Brexit.Feasible or not, Johnson is undoubtedly gearing Whitehall
up for the task, said Theo Bertram in the New Statesman. He
has told all ministerial special advisers to report directly to a
single supremo, Dominic Cummings (see page 21)–amajor
strengthening of No.10’s power. He has dispensed with 18
Cabinet committees, leaving just six in place, three of them
focused solely on Brexit. And underlying all this frenzied
activity isacentral insight, said Nick Timothy in The Daily
Telegraph: the recognition that delivering Brexit is not going
to heal the deep division in our society. However it turns out,
one side or the other will feel enraged. Boris has realised that
the only way to unite the country is to spend, spend, spend.Not many people would cite topless sunbathing asapsychological
factor behind the impulse to vote Remain. But in the case of men of
acertain age–myage, in fact–Ihave ahunch it might be. At any
rate,Iwell remember asateenager my feelings of boundless admiration–mingled with curiosity
and desire–for the semi-naked French women nonchalantly walking past my startled parents,
frowning onabeach in Nice. It was suchacompliment to the onlooker. We are all far too
sophisticated to makeabig deal of this, the women seemed to be saying; we don’t need to abide by
silly, life-restricting rules and conventions. Who would not want to embrace the continent after that?
They had Brigitte Bardot, we had Mary Whitehouse. Join the European Community? Yes please.
But how quaint it now seems, that deep faith of 1960s middle-class youth in the need to break
free of rule and convention. It was the glorious contempt for stultifying rules that madeCatch-22and
Something Happened,two of my favourite novels of that era. In the former, Joseph Heller savaged the
mindless dictats of theUS military, in the latter the life-destroying monotony of office protocols. But
rereading them today, when the impact of EU regulations isanational obsession, something jars. You
reflect that the war inCatch-22was the deadly serious war on fascism; that the jobs inSomething
Happenedwere proper jobs, not zero-hour contracts. And that the women of France no longer feel
so happy going topless (see p.6). And you realise that rules matter after all.THEWEEK
Jeremy O’Grady
The threat posed by no deal: adisunited kingdom
Promises, promises: but can Johnson deliver them?
Davidson: no fan of the new PM
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