“Following an excruciatingly painful week for the out-classed and ill-equipped novice Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is visibly losing control of the narrative that he has carefully attempted to construct in his mission to become Prime Minister”, writes Julien Hoez, 26, political analyst, political commentary, political advisor and alumnus of United Europe in his blog.
He continues: “Despite his strong ego, Johnson has lost multiple crucial votes in the House of Commons. MPs have voted repeatedly to constrict his ability to fulfil his promise of a no-deal Brexit, which will likely receive Royal Assent soon; he has been prevented from holding a General Election on his terms; and his brother Jo Johnson subsequently quit as both an MP and as a Minister due to the “unresolvable tension” between his family loyalty and acting in the national interest.
He even went as far as to disrespectfully fire 21 Conservative MPs, including Ken Clark, Philip Hammond and Rory Stewart, due to them having voted to prevent a disastrous no-deal Brexit, regardless of how often he was spared for doing so, to satisfy his own ego, multiple times by Theresa May. His amateurish behaviour has single-handedly reduced his majority to -41, has damaged the interests of his country and his party and managed to end the career of distinguished MP Nicholas Soames, the grandson of his idol, Winston Churchill.
Yet, Boris Johnson is still hellbent on calling and running in an election. But how good of an idea is this really?
Collision with Reality
The honest reality is that the mask has dropped, the so-called ‘Boris Bounce’ is bust. Boris Johnson does not like what he is seeing in the mirror, with the public also beginning to recoil as they finally realise who is now steering the ship through turbulent waters.
We are seeing more and more signs of his inability to act as either a leader or as the ‘man of the people’ that he mistakenly believes he is. This was on full display during his recent trip to Leeds & West Yorkshire where he was repeatedly heckled in the streets.
One gentleman, who came across him and shook his hand with respect, asked him to “Please leave my town”, to which Johnson nodded in apparent confusion, the reaction clashing with the adulation his privilege led him to expect.
In a heated exchange, one Leave-voting citizen in Morley, West Yorkshire, was visibly angry with Boris Johnson attitude to the Brexit negotiations, taking him to task over the fact that he was in Morley “playing games” when he “should be in Brussels“.
He became visibly lost and befuddled once his attempt at repeating his favourite statement that “what people want us to do is leave the European Union on October 31st” was brushed aside and shut down by a man who made it clear that Boris Johnson was not fulfilling his duty to the country.
He repeatedly showed himself to be out of his depth and lacking in the dignity and interpersonal ability that we should demand from our leaders and our heads-of-states, and we’re still only at the tip of the iceberg.
Manipulative and self-centred
In a cynical attempt to look strong and authoritative during his hoped-for upcoming General Election campaign, Boris Johnson willingly misled West Yorkshire Police’s Chief Constable John Robbins on the speech he was giving yesterday and appears to have attempted to manufacture a strongman appearance surrounding by police officers.
In a letter published on 06 September 2019, John Robbins made it clear in a scathing statement that Boris Johnson has misled him on the involvement of him and his police force, having told him that it would be “solely about police officer recruitment”.
Instead, the West Yorkshire Police Officers were used as an authoritarian backdrop to highly political speech to which Johnson was late, and where he rambled on about Brexit, a General Election against Jeremy Corbyn, and made a few brief remarks about police recruitment.
The Prime Minister was poorly prepared for this speech, forgetting his lines, mumbling on occasion, and proceeding to ramble on for far longer than necessary to make his points.
At one point, a police officer physically collapsed due to the length of time she had been made to stand up for Boris Johnson’s speech, and his dismissive reaction to it immediately drew comparisons to how Barack Obama handled a similar situation where he stopped his speech, supported the pregnant woman in need, and got them the help they required.
This distant behaviour is not only reserved for members of the public but also members of Her Majesty’s Cabinet, with reports stating that the Prime Minister is almost exclusively receiving counsel from Dominic Cummings and Nikki da Costa which is leaving cabinet members unhappy with the direction Johnson is taking.
His egocentrism has even led to Johnson suggesting that he is willing to break the law in order to force a no-deal Brexit, which would cause untold damage to the United Kingdom and it’s citizens, and would represent a complete disregard for one of the main pillars of society.
“They just passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do.” – Boris Johnson to Conservative party members.
He outright told reporters that he would refuse to obey the new law, despite the fact that he risks being held in contempt of parliament and could be sent to prison for doing so. He was even encouraged to become a Brexit “martyr” by Iain Duncan Smith by breaking the law, which suggests an almost deification of illiberal, no-deal supporting politicians who are undermining the rule of law.
Unfit for Office
His shocking behaviour makes it abundantly clear that the illiberal Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not fit for office, and that he is actively taking a hammer to the cornerstones of British society and democracy.
His abuse of what should be an impartial police force, his disregard for a citizen’s health, and ignoring his duty to his country in the Brexit negotiations all highlighting how ill-suited he is to the role.
When you then add his sexist remarks to Jeremy Corbyn, calling him a “Big Girl’s Blouse” and calling former Prime Minister David Cameron a “girly swot“, we’re seeing someone who’s not only unfit for office but someone who in any self-respecting business would punish and dismiss.
With Vote Leave currently operating as the primary government office, we’re seeing many tasteless and bizarre strategies being employed which seem to be aimed at undermining democratic institutions, undermining the independence of the Police Force, undermining British foreign representation, and playing childish games in politics, no doubt under the advice of Dominic Cummings and Special Advisor Chloe Westley.
The childishness was on full display in the Westminster Press Lobby, where Senior member of the Conservative Party professional staff Alan Mabbutt decided he would send lobby journalists chicken breasts with stickers carrying Jeremy Corbyn’s face, an allusion to him being a chicken.
We’re seeing schoolboy politics in full effect, with the office of the Prime Minister being brought into disrepute and the public being taken for fools by a Prime Minister who seemingly cares for no-one but himself, so it’s just as well that a General Election is on the horizon.
To fight an Election
British citizens will soon have the chance to vote in a General Election, where they will need to pick which party they believe in the most, that they trust the most, who will protect the country’s interests in the best possible way.
They will also be asked to pick what form of Brexit that they want to take, whether that be Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage’s no-deal Brexit, the Liberal Democrats revocation and full European Union membership, or whether they want to see a Second Referendum / People’s Vote on a renegotiated soft-Brexit.
However, it seems that Johnson’s campaign team have privately admitted that in picking October 15 for an election, that they had taken into account university term times and believed this would limit the number of students voting, due to many students not wanting to travel to their home address or being registered to vote by proxy.
However, in doing this, Boris Johnson has shown that he fears the youth vote and what that will do to his already non-existent majority. He appears to fear what is the increasingly progressive younger generations who are pro-European and support environmental policies that come into conflict with the Brexiteer drive for deregulation.
This is why it’s essential that everybody register to vote immediately so that they may express their views, and should they disagree with Boris Johnson and his behaviour. as many of us do, vote him out of office and install a Prime Minister who can command the confidence of the British people.
Every single citizen must fulfil their duty in voting, to raise their voice to the rafters and to let Boris Johnson and his Brexiteer colleagues know what they think about his attempts to smash the system with his weak imitation of Trumpian politics.
Every single citizen has a duty to inform their friends, families, colleague and neighbours of what is happening, to ensure that they are all signed up to vote, to help them to sign up to vote if need be, to help engage those around us in democracy and ensure that our shared liberal values are maintained and protected from this wannabe autocrat.
If we don’t all play our role in this, then nobody knows where this runaway train may take us. This is why we all have a duty to ourselves and to democracy to fight Boris Johnson tooth and nail on his plans take Britain’s knees out from under her.”
Julien Hoez is currently Campaign Assistant for the Anti-Brexit activist and business-owner Gina Miller, supporting her work across multiple Brexit campaigns. Julien regularly appears on various news outlets, including Al Jazeera English and the BBC, discussing key topics of the time. In this role and as Interim Managing Director for Vocal Europe, he discusses policy and convenes national and international discussions on some of the most pressing issues facing the local and international community.