
Nobody should be in any doubt that Theresa May had to go. There is also little doubt that Boris – for reasons way beyond his character alone – was and is probably still the only candidate available who could facilitate a way out this political and potentially constitutional mess.
The problem is, that in his finest hour, Boris is displaying nothing fine in terms of a soon-to-be PM at all.
And it’s not like he isn’t being given the chance.
Some of us have been concerned by what looks like Boris’ regressive steps on policy to buy off Conservative MP support for many weeks.
But with the stage now reached where Conservative MPs (other than Hunt) are absolutely no further risk to his bid, he is not doing anything to say, reassure or at the very least demonstrate that he is ready to leave stupidity like ‘One Nation Conservatism’, the old politics that has now been rejected, or indeed the worst parts in May’s tenure and her management of the Brexit process behind.
We hear of the multifaceted anachronism that is ‘One Nation Conservatism’ seemingly at every turn.
Yet the People don’t want to hear about Conservatives working just for one – i.e. themselves – anymore.
We’ve been there. We’ve done that. It’s why we are in the mess that we are now in.
Then there’s this spurious idea that May’s Withdrawal Agreement, that the EU has always rigidly told us couldn’t be unpicked, can now be unpicked. Does anyone really need to say anymore?
The only way that Brexit can be solved and the doors to opportunity opened as they should be, is to ditch the whole ridiculous waste of time that was May’s travesty of a deal, go back to the People with a new Manifesto, and if necessary a formal Electoral Pact with the Brexit Party – as any true conservative leader putting the Country above self and Party surely now would not only realise, but accept and be prepared to communicate that they have to.
Yet the biggest flaw to have now become so rawly exposed, is Boris unwillingness to come clean about what most people living in the real world would have written off as a simple domestic argument.
The politics involved didn’t actually matter, because in the age of social media it’s sadly what we have become used to.
No. It’s the lack of honesty or openness and willingness to show a human side that has now left this would-be Prime Minister so perilously exposed to an ongoing trial by media that endangers not only his premiership before it begins, but also the whole Brexit cause.
Neither Hunt nor Boris could become what we might visualise as being the perfect PM.
Hunt, because he is an ardent Remainer, who like May before him will do the minimum he perceives possible to take what he believes to be some kind of middle road, keeping us fully committed to the EU, whilst crafting some kind of fix and covering message designed to lay the foundations of the argument that the Referendum Result has been honoured, but is strangely then acceptable to all involved.
Boris, because his talents and abilities were better suited to 3 years ago, when May hadn’t already set up her predecessor to fail by walking away from the table, leaving the legacy of a brexit-age dead mans hand that will only be escapable if she is replaced by a player who can rise to the very significant needs of the occasion.
Make no mistake that the situation the next Prime Minister is about to inherit will require the capability to provide not just history-making leadership, but vision, understanding, drive and a level of selflessness – unrecognisable in todays politics – that will make their tenure a worth a whole lot more.
Yet being ‘all that’ doesn’t have to be about the person, the character, the man who will be the next Prime Minister alone.
It is the actions that the next Prime Minister will take and the people they surround themselves with who advise them, that will contribute to what history will see as their own specific legacy and no more.
If neither Boris nor Hunt can face up to the reality of the situation that awaits them, the fact is that their time as Prime Minister is already a lost cause and it will be remarkably short.
Brexit will be the legacy by which they could easily become the third Prime Minister crushed by Brexit, instantly recognisable for nothing more.
To succeed, they MUST work with that very dark hand that they have been given, and accept that the leadership they will have to demonstrate is immediately about coalition, not only with Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party, but with the People and the Electorate itself. They MUST employ a vision and robustness which will look out for the interests not only for those who Voted Leave, but also for those that Voted Remain.
The alternative to doing so is simple and the direction of travel will not be a choice which either of them will have.
If they fail to recognise the direction that they sill soon have to take, we will either all suffer at the hands of a Marxist Government that wants to crush everything that encourages success and individuality for anyone and everyone. Or we will be thrust back into the hands of the EU on punitive – not just surrender terms – that will very quickly demonstrate what bad choices the Conservative Party and a series of Prime Ministers have consistently made.
image thanks to wikipedia