Opportunity Lost: Johnson’s Legacy

The end of Boris Johnson’s membership of Parliament, much like the end of his premiership, should not be mourned. A vast opportunity for radical reform of the British state and economy could have been built on the back of an 80-seat majority and achieving nearly 45% of the popular vote. It wasn’t[1]. Instead opportunity was wasted as Johnson’s government vacillated between technocratic authoritarianism and governing incompetence. Getting Brexit done meant leaving Britain’s sovereignty over Northern Ireland in limbo. It meant maintaining net zero delusions and asset-stripping the British state of manufacturing[2] and energy storage capacity[3]. Overall, it was a continuation of British sclerosis[4] that has been a recurring theme[5] for decades[6].

Yet the celebration of the sun setting on Johnson’s political career is more revealing of its celebrants than anyone else. Johnson represented a tepid challenge to the ruling class in Britain. A politics tinged with populism that wanted to repivot the British economy away from managerialist decline and toward greater autonomy in its trading relationships, economic policy and control of immigration. At least that was what Johnson’s Conservative Party stated. It obviously did not happen.

But the most vocal critics do not criticise Johnson on this. Instead they see in his conniving hypocrisy the apogee of their enemy. Johnson was not just a stereotypical politician who flip-flopped on issues, held to popularity over principle or was tolerant of a certain level of corruption. Rather than a continuation of the politics of Blair and Cameron, he was a different animal, one that could not be tolerated in “polite society”. Any innocuous action, whether work parties during lockdown or maintaining favours to his political allies (Paterson and Pincher) was treated as anathema to politics itself.

Such critics see in his policies and actions an emerging executive authoritarianism bordering on fascism, and they aim to make sure that anyone who promotes or supports this is foreclosed from legitimate political discussion. In positioning Johnson as a unique evil in modern politics, simple opposition is not enough. Absolute condemnation and a salting of the earth are required. Invasions of privacy and constant leaks[7] of Johnson’s contacts are necessary. Parliamentary bans akin to Keith Vaz (who hired prostitutes and offered cocaine to them) are needed to punish Johnson for his erroneous accounts of lockdown parties in and around No. 10[8].

The irony though is that more fundamental questions are avoided when approaching criticism of Johnson’s premiership in this way. If No. 10 were happy to have workplace parties and flout lockdown rules, doesn’t this question why our governing elite were so happy to ignore them in the first place. Did they not see a large risk in COVID to themselves and their families? If not, why not? They certainly thought the risk large enough to lockdown the country for the equivalent of more than half a year.

Johnson’s critics won’t ask these questions though because they support the technocratic structure that underlay them. Lockdowns to them were a benefit not a cost. In the same vain they won’t criticise his government’s inaction on immigration, its lack of reform of the civil service or its lack of ambitious change around the British economy. Why would they? That would represent a break from the past 40 years of governance. And if you thought they have been harsh in their criticisms of Johnson now, one can only imagine how vociferous and implacable they would have been if he had truly lived up to his radical potential.

“Boris’s present difficulty speaks to more elemental questions. What we are confronted with, now, isn’t the decadence and drift of the Johnson Government, but whether opposition politics is possible in Britain at all. Via the Privileges Committee, Whitehall and a declining class of lobby journalist asserts its old control over the executive”[9]. While Johnson’s premiership was an opportunity wasted, the outcome of modern politics means it is now an opportunity lost, and potentially lost for good. If a Machiavellian but still mainstream politician like Johnson can be destroyed in the manner they have, then what hope is there for a truly radical opposition.

Johnson’s best moment of clarity and fight seems to have only come since resigning as an MP. His response to the Privileges Committee report is exactly the type of rhetoric needed to cut through the sacrosanct bullshit that pervades political institutions. But its too little too late. A similar phenomenon happened with Trump, whose most radical moments came pre- and post-presidency. Maybe the realisation that Trump’s opposition to the ruling class and deep state (which was as tepid and light-touch as Johnson’s) has resulted in organised opposition from the security agencies[10] and the bringing forward of malicious prosecutions[11] will mean he will truly oppose these power structures in the future. But I remain sceptical.

With the Labour Party looking set for victory in the next general election, their political programme seems to hope for the extinction of political opposition and strong executive power. They want to maintain the managerialist economy, “building on Britain’s strengths requires state promotion of green energy, life sciences, professional services, universities, remaining strategic industries”[12], and construct a fully technocratic governing apparatus, from local councils to regional assemblies[13] constituting a bureaucratisation of British life.

Reforming to stay still is the most oppositional a politician or party can meaningfully be. Which means actual opposition will have to take the same approach as their enemies and salt the ground of governance and the economy. If all we are being promised is pain, then we should be corrosive and cleansing in its application. The sanctified halls of politics should not escape the immiseration foisted on the rest of us.

[1] https://unherd.com/2022/07/boris-johnson-broke-britain/

[2] https://news.sky.com/story/inside-the-arms-race-to-build-the-batteries-which-will-power-britain-12537246

[3] https://news.sky.com/story/the-surreal-but-also-real-problem-of-britains-gas-glut-12614797

[4] https://thelibertarianideal.com/2023/03/30/britain-is-becoming-a-third-world-country/

[5] https://thelibertarianideal.com/2022/08/08/the-conjuncture-continues/

[6] https://thelibertarianideal.com/2022/11/30/sleepwalking-into-managed-decline/

[7] https://twitter.com/EdmundGriffiths/status/1670212843721875456

[8] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12197673/Boris-Johnson-fury-committee-finds-DID-deliberately-mislead-MPs.html

[9] https://dailysceptic.org/2023/06/15/whatever-you-think-of-boris-ejecting-from-parliament-the-man-responsible-for-the-governments-majority-is-a-victory-for-the-blob-over-democracy/

[10] https://im1776.com/2023/05/26/the-durham-report/

[11] https://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-sock-drawer-and-trumps-indictment-documents-pra-personal-files-13986b28

[12] https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/05/untangling-reevenomics.html