Chris Johns
EEXIT. England Should Leave the UK: It will mean an extra £800m a week for the NHS
Arlene Foster joins a long list of people, not all of them women, whose career or lives lie in ruins because they trusted Boris Johnson. The promise not to put a border in the Irish Sea was broken by Johnson’s signature on that trade deal with the EU.
There are those who rest in career graveyards simply because they entered Johnson’s orbit. The DUP, drunk on power and a £1 billion bung, supported Johnson over Theresa May, thereby taking a big step along the road to Irish unity. Foster hasn’t just resigned as leader, she’s left the DUP altogether. If only she hadn’t trusted Johnson.
That point about the Union is important. Johnson has no particular affinity with Scotland or N. Ireland and personally couldn’t care less about whether they stay within the U.K. His nationalism is as English as is his electoral power base. He knows how much money the English taxpayer would save if England left the Union. England would be a one-party state - Tory - forever.
Surely Johnson cares about his legacy? Isn’t it the Conservative and Unionist Party? No and yes.
Legacy is probably a ‘nice to have’ for Johnson but he doesn’t care about it too much. If how someone behaves reveals what they believe, Johnson looks the epitome of a schoolboy existential nihilist. He read some philosophy at Oxford and has come to the conclusion that nothing really matters. Freddie Mercury at the end of Bohemian Rhapsody arrived at the same conclusion, just as superficially but without the accompanying collateral damage: a country in chaos.
The only other philosophical school of thought that has much of an impact on Johnson’s belief system is Hedonism. Again, Johnson’s understanding is superficial: the Epicureans - famous hedonists - believed that moderation in all things was the route to happiness. Hedonism isn’t what the Bullingdon Club thinks it is.
The only reason why Johnson might care about the Union is if it brings his tenure in Downing Street to a premature end. For that reason he will probably put up a half-hearted defence of the UK: it will be easy for him to just say no to calls for another independence referendum in Scotland. It causes him the least hassle and he will enjoy the anger of Scottish Nationalists.
Irish unity, on any feasible time-scale, will only come long after Johnson has departed for wives and pastures new. If his actions today makes Irish unity more likely in 10 years time, why would he care about that?
However, someone with a grasp of the numbers might be whispering in Johnson’s ear that an English exit from the kingdom - let’s call it EEXIT - might not be the political disaster that many suggest. Brexit was originally the preserve of cranks on the far left and the swivel-eyed-loon wing of the Tory party before it went mainstream. Maybe EEXIT is the next big idea, the one that buys many more years of power.
It’s not about Scotland or N. Ireland: that’s looking at things through the wrong end of the telescope. It’s about England: the case for its exit. Brexit was more important to the English than the Union: lots of polls have told this story. Let’s simply take the momentum of nationalism to its logical conclusion.
If Johnson could get rid of Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, the English taxpayer would save, by my calculations, around £40 billion a year. The false claim that Britain would ‘save £350m a week for the NHS’ convinced enough people to deliver Brexit. Surely the entirely true claim that England leaving the U.K. would save over twice that fictitious Brexit number would persuade enough people of the merits of the next big political schism?
Nothing can guarantee survival in Johnson’s court. Being frogmarched at gunpoint out of Downing Street can happen at a moment’s notice, as one hapless adviser found to her cost. Absolute loyalty to the leader is demanded at all times; competence - let alone ability - is deemed wholly unnecessary. Hence the continued existence of Priti Patel and, to be fair, much of the rest of the cabinet.
Autocrats and demagogues the world over demand only loyalty from their servants and advisers. In this way Johnson resembles Trump, Putin and Kim. Chaotic, amateurish regimes nevertheless survive, all running the same playbook. Putin made a comeback, via a change of the rules. Trump desires something similar. But the one thing they all need is the big idea. Make America Great Again; Get Brexit Done. The acolyte who combines absolute fealty and comes up with the next big nutty idea is destined for survival, if not greatness. If I was an insecure UK cabinet minister I would be whispering EEXIT into Johnson’s ear.
The most important thing is to evade the consequences of the chaos. That usually involves creating more chaos. Eviscerate some political opposition; invade a small country - that sort of thing. Have a big idea that captures the headlines, dominates social media and avoids scrutiny of serial failure. It’s politics as reality TV.
Ireland is uniting economically. Ulster unionists correctly fear that this is a prelude to political union. Scottish nationalists, should they triumph in the upcoming election, will demand another independence referendum. And they won’t shut up if Johnson simply says no. Even Welsh nationalism, once only a matter for stand-up comics, is surging.
It’s time for Boris to go on the offence. Turn that telescope around. Save £800m a week for the (English) NHS. Time to embrace - and cause - yet more chaos, have some more fun, get to enjoy the newly decorated flat for a good while longer. Media carping about Carrie Antoinette is as unfair as it misses the mark, the true source of the interior design ideas: having erased the John Lewis horror, it’s only right that he gets to gaze at his Trumpesque wallpaper for many years to come.