The Daily Telegraph - 24.07.2019

The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 24 July 2019 *** 19

T

o judge by Jeremy Hunt’s

hapless performance as Foreign

Secretary in recent days, it is

hard to escape the conclusion that,

with his failure to win the Tory party

leadership, the nation has had a very

lucky escape.

It is not just that, as the minister

with primary responsibility for the

Iran brief, Mr Hunt has completely

misjudged the ayatollahs’ mindset,

with the result that they have hijacked

a British-registered oil tanker

operating in international waters. He

then compounded his error by

promoting the utterly fatuous notion

of creating a “European Maritime

Mission” to afford better protection

to shipping operating in the Gulf

area.

Mr Hunt, in common with other

senior ministers in Theresa May’s

outgoing government, clearly prefers

the idea of establishing a European-

centric naval force in the Gulf over the

Trump administration’s invitation to

join its own effort, Operation Sentinel.

It has even been suggested that, had

Mrs May accepted the offer

Washington made last week to protect

British shipping, we would not have

suffered the national humiliation of

witnessing the British-flagged tanker

Stena Impero being boarded and

hijacked by Iran’s Revolutionary

Guard. One more reason why Mrs

May’s removal from Downing Street

today cannot come soon enough.

The prime motivation behind the

May/Hunt approach has been to avoid

upsetting the Iranians at all costs. To

do so would risk placing the nuclear

deal with Iran, which is already under

pressure following Donald Trump’s

decision to withdraw last year, in even

greater jeopardy. Cooperating with

Washington, therefore, on enhanced

protection for Gulf shipping might

give the impression that Britain

supports the Trump administration’s

view that the agreement is “the worst

deal ever”.

The result is that, thanks to the

Government’s muddled thinking, we

now have a British oil tanker

languishing in the Iranian port of

Bandar Abbas. In any other political

circumstance, there would be calls for

those responsible for creating this

mess to resign.

Mr Hunt would be under intense

pressure to explain his actions, as

would Penny Mordaunt, the Defence

Secretary, who professes to love her

job above all else but who has been

largely anonymous during the present

crisis. Both of them will be lucky to

survive the changes Boris Johnson is

planning for his new ministerial team.

It would certainly be foolhardy in

the extreme to expect a motley crew of

French, German, Italian and other

European contributors to join the

Royal Navy in conducting escort

duties through the Strait of Hormuz

when the logical option would be to

join forces with the powerful aircraft

carrier battle group the US Navy has

operating in the area.

And repairing relations with

Washington should be one of Mr

Johnson’s top priorities if he is really

serious about reversing the

precipitous decline Britain’s standing

on the world stage has suffered under

Mrs May’s premiership.

The outgoing Prime Minister’s

supporters will argue that, with Brexit

occupying so much of her time, it was

inevitable that other pressing global

security issues, from Iran to Russia,

would take a back seat.

But, as we have seen from the

leaked diplomatic correspondence of

Sir Kim Darroch, hitherto our man in

Washington, the May government’s

priority has been to avoid

confrontation at all costs, even if it

means appeasing despicable regimes

such as Tehran under the ayatollahs.

One of the major challenges facing

Mr Johnson, therefore, is to undertake

a radical reset of Britain’s global

outlook, one in which the transatlantic

alliance is treated with respect, rather

than the disdain that has characterised

the May premiership.

And, with the right team behind

A golden opportunity for UK to think globally

It’s vital the new man at

No 10 repairs relations

with Washington damaged

by Mrs May’s disdain

CON

COUGHLINHLIN

H

ow will history judge Theresa May’s

period in Number 10, which comes

to an end today? Her tenure of three

years and 12 days is not the shortest

of recent times, having surpassed

that of Gordon Brown, and is only

marginally behind James Callaghan’s. She is the

second woman to occupy the post – both Tories, it

should be said – and the fourth Conservative prime

minister in succession laid low by Europe.

She assumed office in July 2016 after the

resignation of David Cameron following the Brexit

referendum vote, and arrived armed with a radical

domestic agenda that never saw the light of day.

The reason is that her premiership was consumed

entirely by Brexit, the attempts to deliver it and the

calamitous failure to do so.

Mrs May was a Remainer during the referendum

campaign, albeit a self-styled reluctant one. But

since Brexit was the cause of the crisis that brought

Mr Cameron down, the task of securing the UK’s

withdrawal should have fallen to a Brexiteer.

Indeed, it should have fallen to Boris Johnson.

Three years on and what should have happened

then has happened now. Mr Johnson will today

go to Buckingham Palace to kiss hands with the

Queen and return to Downing Street as prime

minister. Unfortunately, those wasted three years

have made a task that was difficult enough at the

time much harder.

The way the negotiations with the EU were

conducted – and especially the inclusion of the

relationship with Ireland in the Withdrawal

Agreement – has led to entrenched positions

being adopted that have made a deal far more

difficult to achieve.

The problems caused by the sequencing of the

talks were compounded by Mrs May’s greatest

mistake – calling an

election that cost her

the parliamentary

majority she inherited

from her predecessor.

There was a perfectly

good rationale for

that decision: she

needed a substantial

Commons majority to overcome the objections

to Brexit she knew she would encounter.

Ironically, she won a bigger share of the vote

than any Tory leader since Margaret Thatcher in

1983 but lost her majority. By ending up in a worse

position than before, with the balance of power

held by the one party that would not countenance

treating Northern Ireland differently from the rest

of the UK, she was stymied.

She tried hard, of that there is no doubt, often

answering questions in the Commons for hours

on end and undertaking a punishing schedule

of meetings in pursuit of Brexit that would have

floored many people half her age. But she was

temperamentally unable to convince enough

parliamentarians, not least the Brexiteers on her

own side, that her plan made good on the promises

she had made earlier in her premiership.

Announcing the outcome of the leadership

contest yesterday, Charles Walker MP said he

hoped the party would be kinder to the next

prime minister than it had been to Mrs May.

Perhaps, in different times, she might have made

a good premier. Doggedness and perseverance

are qualities that can always be deployed in the

national interest but have in this instance proved

to be a handicap.

Moreover, as even her own former aide Nick

Timothy put it recently, she saw Brexit not as an

opportunity but as a damage-limitation exercise.

Her misfortune was to take office in circumstances

that required the political and diplomatic skills that

she lacked.

We are now about to discover whether Mr

Johnson can succeed where she failed.

His first task is to construct a Cabinet with the

expressed purpose of delivering Brexit by October

31. Its entire focus must be on that endeavour. All
    domestic policy planning, which has effectively
    ceased in any case, needs to be put aside to ensure
    that if the UK has to leave without a deal then it is
    fully prepared for whatever disruption that might
    cause. It was encouraging to hear the upbeat tone
    in Mr Johnson’s words to the party yesterday
    but now is the time for hard work. There are just
    99 days to Brexit. We wish him well.

A new chapter after

three wasted years

R

eaders may wonder what got into the

novelist Lucy Ellmann to make her write, in

Ducks, Newburyport (longlisted for the

Booker Prize), one sentence of 1,000 pages, for it

would be hard to better the 4,391-word sentence in

James Joyce’s Ulysses mentally uttered by the

soliloquacious Molly Bloom, who herself was of the

opinion that length isn’t everything, a judgment

surely reinforced by Jonathan Coe’s 13,955-word

sentence in The Rotters’ Club (2001), intentionally

modelled on the single-sentence novella, Taneční

hodiny pro starší a pokročilé by Bohumil Hrabal, as

if that made it any better, since, unless a long

sentence is deployed in jest, as the newspaper

stylist Bernard Levin once succeeded in doing with

one of 1,667 words that filled an entire column,

then it serves only to puzzle – or annoy.

Long sentence to serve

established 1855

him, Mr Johnson has the opportunity

to reinvigorate Britain’s global brand.

For example, a paper published

today by the Policy Exchange think

tank, with the backing of former

foreign secretary William Hague, sets

out a radical and ambitious eight-point

doctrine for reviving British influence

post-Brexit. Called Making Global

Britain Work, it advocates a wholesale

restructuring of Britain’s foreign

policy establishment, with

responsibility for foreign aid being

returned to its traditional domain in

the Foreign Office. It also calls on a

future government to spend 3 per cent

of GDP on defence, a move that would

go some way to repairing the glaring

deficiencies in the strength of our

Armed Forces, clearly evident during

the recent crisis in the Gulf.

Mr Johnson, who in private

acknowledges that more needs to be

done to strengthen the Services, will

likely be receptive to these and other

ideas that help to reassert Britain’s

standing as a major world power,

rather than one that lurks in the

shadows of its European partners.

Now that Mr Johnson has emerged

triumphant from the Tory party’s

tortuous election process, he has a

golden opportunity to make Britain a

force to be reckoned with on the world

stage rather than, as has recently been

the case with Iran, treated with

derision.

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READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion

Letters to the Editor

SIR – I feel energised now that Boris

Johnson is to be in charge. His

enthusiastic, optimistic approach is

infectious and it is long overdue.

I’m not particularly political, but I

vowed not to vote Conservative again,

after the Brexit agreement imposed by

Theresa May at Chequers. Now maybe

the Tories will get a second chance

from me and many like me.

Nearly as important, we will see

the end of the “grey-faced” brigade of

Mrs May, Philip Hammond and others,

sitting in positions of power and

thoroughly depressing the population.

Hopefully even Sir John Major will get

back in his box and not reappear.

Here’s to a future to look forward to.

John Gibson

Seahouses, Northumberland

SIR – Boris Johnson brings to mind

“Denry” Machin, the vigorous hero of

Arnold Bennett’s 1911 novel The Card,

identified with “the great cause of

cheering us all up”. So may it prove.

Jane Moth

Snettisham, Norfolk

SIR – July 23 should henceforth be

known as Boris Day, with a bank

holiday in his honour.

Terry Scott

Cleadon, Co Durham

SIR – Huzzah and huzzah. At last. Had

Boris Johnson been elected three

years ago, we would now be reaping

the rewards of our departure from

the EU. These past few weeks have

been an expensive and time-wasting

exercise, allowing the pessimists to

grab the headlines.

The anti-Boris cabal that is forming

should consider the disaster it could

inflict on the party. We really are

on the Last Train to San Fernando.

Judith Barnes

St Ives, Huntingdonshire

SIR – Following Boris Johnson’s ascent

to the top of the greasy pole, it behoves

his colleagues in the Tory party to

unite behind him, without public

reservation.

It is high time Philip Hammond,

Dominic Grieve and friends stopped

their antics (aimed at stopping Brexit)

and accepted the result of both the

referendum and the party leadership

election. If they do not do so, I will

assume that they are arrogant and

self-indulgent enough to be putting

themselves above democratic process.

That people of their experience

and seniority should behave in this

way is reprehensible, and chilling for

those of us who believe that our vote

should mean something.

Peter Johnson

East Preston, West Sussex

SIR – Boris Johnson’s only option is

perfectly clear. He has the support

of the country, so he must go to it.

He does not have the support of

Parliament, so he must change it.

There is no problem.

As soon as his first foot crosses the

threshold of 10 Downing Street, he

must call a general election. He must

order all Conservative associations

to deselect Remainer MPs. Many will

comply. Of course, some won’t.

If Jeremy Corbyn gets more votes

than either the Brexit Party or the

Conservative Party individually,

which is by no means certain, there

is a bigger majority of Leavers in

the country than there was in 2016.

Corbyn will certainly get less than

Farage and Johnson together.

Farage and Johnson will have more

Nays than Corbyn has Ayes, The

Queen should then send for Johnson

or Farage, and Farage will concede the

premiership to Johnson. There is then

a substantial majority for Brexit on

October 31, and Boris will have to work

with Farage.

I guess Boris Johnson can work this

one out for himself. He is not just an

ideological bumble like the Remainers.

He is not going to say so in advance.

Lord Walsingham

Merton, Norfolk

SIR – Ah, but Boris Johnson didn’t

really win, because those who voted

for him didn’t understand what they

were voting for.

Ken Stevens

Sonning Common, Oxfordshire

Boris Johnson brings a renewed optimism that will win back support for the Conservatives

Police and the fantasist

SIR – If Carl Beech (the fantasist

now convicted of perverting the

course of justice, report, July 23) had

claimed that the Duke of Edinburgh

was involved, would the police have

searched Buckingham Palace?

After 30 years in the police, half

of it in the CID, I did not work with

anyone who would have believed this

nonsense. I understand, but don’t

accept, the policy of believing without

challenge any allegations of a sexual

nature, but even then there has to be a

cold assessment of the claims.

While an investigation should

have started, this ought to have

included a review of the complainant’s

background. I understand from press

reports that Beech’s own family

had told the police he was a liar and

fantasist. I find it incredible that a

£2 million investigation can be carried

out with no corroborating evidence.

The modern police service is geared

up to handle sexual allegations with

understanding, but good, experienced

detectives can still spot a liar a mile off.

Jim Kirkwood

Kilmarnock, Ayrshire

SIR – Carl Beech has finally been

found guilty. Tom Watson, the deputy

leader of the Labour Party, was the

person who, after a brief time with

Beech, used parliamentary privilege to

encourage and support him, and was

thus instrumental in this sordid affair

wrongly entering the public domain.

Harvey Proctor (report, July 23)

rightly says that Mr Watson “gave

oxygen” to Beech’s perverted attempt

to blacken the names of several

innocent public figures. So did we get

a statement of contrition and apology

from Mr Watson? Some hope.

John Ball

Shoebury, Essex

SIR – My WI committee of astute and

intelligent ladies would have seen

through the fantasist “Nick” in under

half an hour, and saved the gullible

police force £2 million.

Val Mann

Ipswich, Suffolk

Fun with e-scooters

SIR – I heartily agree with Tony

Parrack (Letters, July 22) that

e-scooters are part of the future for

London transport.

I recently visited Brussels, where

the e-scooter is readily available and

much used. It is common sense for

them to help alleviate congestion.

As well as being environmentally

friendly, they are good fun.

Myles Power

Sychdyn, Flintshire

Aircraft carriers vital

SIR – I fear Brian Sanders and Ian

Kelman (Letters, July 23), in opposing

aircraft carriers, have no concept of

the need for a balanced fleet.

Our global blue-water Navy has

to be ready for any crisis, not just

today’s. Should, God forbid, the

present dispute lead to a major war

between Iran and America, there is no

way we could remain a bystander, not

least because the Iranians wouldn’t

let us.

Carriers will be crucial to ensure

the safety of our surface assets and

in countering Iranian attacks against

shore bases, airfields and other nations

in the region. Our carriers will not be

ready in the short term, so for now we

rely on the Americans and French.

There are many other scenarios

worldwide in which the carriers

will prove their worth over the next

50 years and beyond.

Anyone who thinks the Royal Navy

would have been allowed to buy

frigates in lieu of the carriers does

not understand the workings of the

Treasury or of Whitehall.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead

London SW

SIR – I suggest we scrap HS2 and buy

a navy.

Hugh Lantos

Litton Cheney, Dorset

Train carriage safety

SIR – Have the regulators (report, July

22) really thought about fitting historic

carriages with central locking and bars

on the windows?

In a serious incident, the carriage

could be on fire and central locking

disabled – a catastrophe in the making.

J A Dupont

Clevedon, Somerset

GP receptionists

SIR – As a practice manager for more

than 30 years, I must take issue with

the reported arrangement of GPs’

receptionists being asked to triage.

Triage must be done by a medically

trained member of staff. Having such

staff at reception would save hours

of wasted time, prevent unnecessary

appointments and reassure patients.

I was triaged recently by a

receptionist at my own surgery, who

suggested that I went to A&E. After

11 days of diarrhoea and vomiting, A&E

is the last place to which I should have

been directed.

Let receptionists do what they are

good at.

Wendy Evans

West Harptree, Somerset

A flock of ewes in Cumbria with the farmer’s mark and dyes indicating the tup

STEVE HOLROYD / ALAMY

sir – The RSPCA’s response to the

sheep coloured pink at the Latitude

Festival (report, July 22) is typical

of its humourless soppiness. It does

the animals no harm – nearly every

sheep in Britain has a coloured

marking of some sort. Rams (or tups

in some parts) carry bags of colour

on their chests so farmers can see

which ewes have been served.

My favourite British eccentric of

the 20th century was Lord Berners,

who dipped doves in food colouring

to create brilliant blues, turquoises,

pinks, reds and greens. I was

delighted to find the tradition lives

on at his home in Faringdon. I’ve

tried it myself – the birds come to

no harm.

If the RSPCA were really

concerned about sheep and their

“dignity”, it would campaign to stop

millions of them going through an

agonising death in ritual slaughter

each year. Otherwise it’s just a

platitude at Latitude.

Benedict le Vay

Emsworth, Hampshire

Sheep have more to worry about than dyeing

SIR – By focusing on the new charges

for garden waste, both Andrew

Smith (Letters, July 18) and Peter

Cope (Letters, July 22) give a very

partial view of our local councils’ new

waste-collection arrangements.

In the borough of Tonbridge and

Malling, household collections will

now include plastics, glass, aerosols,

food and drinks cartons fortnightly

and food waste weekly. Those living in

villages who do not have a car cannot

be expected to take plastics and glass

by bus to collection points. The new

measures should increase the amount

of recycling and therefore reduce the

general waste sent to landfill.

As the collection of garden waste

is the only service for which a charge

can be made, it is a sensible way of

covering the additional services.

Both Mr Smith and Mr Cope are at

liberty to compost their own garden

waste, as we all used to do before the

days of bins. The charge for garden

waste is entirely voluntary and, in our

borough, is only £32 if one opts in by

the end of next week.

Rev Christopher Miles

Hadlow, Kent

SIR – Birmingham city council makes

an “annual” charge for garden waste

collections, although the service only

runs from March to September.

It costs £48 if you pay online

and £50 if you subscribe over the

telephone. Even if you do subscribe,

you can never be completely sure that

your brown-lidded wheelie bin will be

collected on the allotted day, if at all.

Michele Platman

Birmingham

SIR – Anyone with a garden should

have room to compost their waste and

return it to the soil. Why do we need

garden-waste collections?

Ron Mickleburgh

Killigarth, Cornwall

Garden waste charges subsidise other services

May’s misfortune

was to take office in

circumstances that

required political

and diplomatic

skills that she lacked

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