Boris Johnson, Leader of Britain's Conservative Party
and Prime Minister of Great Britain since 2019 when
he led the Tories to a resounding electoral victory which
gained them an historic 80-seat majority in Parliament,
recently --- and some say expectedly --- announced his
resignation from the latter. Having been elected on
the promise to make good on Brexit, promptly
getting the U.K. out of the European Union, and also
the promise to focus on economic matters, Johnson
campaigned from the right but governed to the left, which
made for confusion, disappointment, and anger from
not only the people of Britain but from members of his
own party.
Prime Minister Johnson said that he would remain as
PM until a Conservative successor is chosen. What
brought down the one time high-flying political phenom,
who had been the Lord Mayor of London? Johnson's
government was weakened by a series of scandals,
the most notable being not one but several office parties
while his government imposed lockdowns on the British
people, scolding them into compliance. But the biggest,
and the ugliest, scandal centered on Tory Chief Deputy
Whip Chris Pincher, Boris Johnson's vote wrangler with
allegations of sexual harassment. Prime Minister Johnson
repeatedly claimed he hadn't been aware of them and kept
Pincher (ironic name!) on his team.
However, the biggest torpedo which helped take Johnson
down was the failure of his economic agenda. He actually
wanted to build a left-of-center conservatism (?!) with
its primary focus not on the standard conservative points
of prosperity and making a business-friendly economy but
rather on income redistribution, climate change, and culture
war battling (!!). While Johnson campaigned as a conservative
but governed like a liberal, results were produced leaving
much to be desired by his fellow Tories in Parliament and
by the British electorate.
Johnson failed to capitalize on Brexit to turn Britain into an
economic powerhouse. Instead of cutting corporate taxes in
order to attract investment he toyed with the idea of raising
the corporate tax rate from 19% to 26%. The agenda to invest
in the economically depressed north of England never happened,
despite promises and assurances aplenty from 10 Downing Street.
To make matters worse, Johnson thought up income redistribution
programs which would not have done nearly as much to help
economically hurting Britons as job creation would have.
Boris Johnson's painful experience serves as an example of what
is likely to happen when campaigns, then governs as Johnson did.
Moderate/liberal Republicans, are you paying attention? Are you
taking notes?
As if things in Britain weren't bad enough, the country became
enveloped in an inflation crisis which caused oil and natural gas
prices to soar, along with electricity, causing hardship for people
trying to make their homes comfortable. Of course this is making
the prices of other goods and services go flying as well, especially
affecting the cost of transporting them to market. Rather like in the
U.S., eh wot old chap?
So where do Great Britain's Conservatives turn for effective leader-
ship? A good question. The Tories have to take stock of what they
have learned from this misadventure, and whom should they trust
to repair and strengthen the British economy, and quickly. And
believe me, quickly is the operative word here, for Britain hasn't
got the luxury of time.
MEM
