Il y a moins de trois ans, Boris Johnson menait les conservateurs à leur plus grande victoire électorale depuis 1987.

Maintenant, le Premier ministre a perdu le soutien de ses députés et démissionne de la tête du parti conservateur. Comment en est-on arrivé là ?

L’affaire Chris Pincher

Le mercredi 29 juin, le député Chris Pincher – à l’époque chef de file adjoint des conservateurs – s’est rendu dans un club privé de Londres. Selon ses propres termes, il a « bu beaucoup trop » et « s’est mis dans l’embarras ».

Il a été accusé d’avoir peloté deux hommes, ce qui a conduit à une vague d’allégations, certaines remontant à des années. Cela a déclenché une chaîne d’événements qui s’est terminée par la chute du Premier ministre.

Premièrement, Downing Street affirme que M. Johnson n’était pas au courant d' »allégations spécifiques » concernant M. Pincher avant de le nommer whip en chef de file adjoint en février. Les ministres ont ensuite réitéré cette ligne – même si elle s’est avérée inexacte.

Le 4 juillet, la BBC rapporte que M. Johnson a eu connaissance d’une plainte officielle. Le lendemain, un ancien fonctionnaire – Lord McDonald – explique que le Premier ministre en personne était informé de la plainte.

M. Johnson a ensuite admis qu’il avait été informé en 2019, et s’est excusé d’avoir nommé M. Pincher au poste de chef de file adjoint.

Le partygate

En avril de cette année, le Premier ministre a été condamné à une amende pour avoir enfreint les règles de confinement, après avoir assisté à un rassemblement le jour de son anniversaire en juin 2020.

Il s’est également excusé d’être allé à une soirée « apportez votre propre alcool » dans le jardin du Downing Street lors du premier confinement.

Plus largement, la police métropolitaine a infligé 126 amendes à 83 personnes pour avoir enfreint les règles du confinement à Downing Street et Whitehall.

Et un rapport de Sue Gray – une haut fonctionnaire – a décrit une série d’événements sociaux organisés par le personnel politique qui ont enfreint les règles de verrouillage.

« La haute direction du centre, à la fois politique et officielle, doit assumer la responsabilité de cette culture », a-t-elle écrit.

En décembre dernier, M. Johnson a déclaré aux Communes que « toutes les directives ont été complètement suivies dans le n° 10 ». Il fait actuellement l’objet d’une enquête par un comité des Communes pour savoir s’il a sciemment induit le Parlement en erreur.

Le coût de la vie – et une hausse des impôts

L’inflation a fortement augmenté en 2022, au taux actuel de 9,1 %.

De nombreuses raisons échappaient au contrôle de Boris Johnson. L’invasion de l’Ukraine par la Russie, par exemple, a entraîné une hausse des prix du pétrole et du prix des denrées alimentaires.

Et, alors que le gouvernement a pris certaines mesures – par exemple, en réduisant les taxes sur le carburant de 5 pence par litre – il a également procédé à une augmentation des taxes en avril. L’assurance nationale a augmenté de 1,25 pence dans la livre.

Le gouvernement a déclaré que la hausse des impôts paierait pour les soins de santé et les services sociaux, et les changements intervenus cette semaine ont atténué le coup – mais toute personne gagnant plus de 34 000 £ par an paiera toujours plus.

« Au milieu de la pire crise du coût de la vie depuis des décennies », a déclaré le leader travailliste Sir Keir Starmer en avril, « le gouvernement choisit d’augmenter les impôts des travailleurs ».

La suspension d’Owen Paterson

En octobre 2021, un comité de la Chambre des communes a recommandé une suspension de 30 jours pour le député conservateur de l’époque, Owen Paterson.

Le comité a déclaré qu’il avait enfreint les règles du lobbying, pour essayer de profiter aux entreprises qui l’avaient payé.

Mais les conservateurs – menés par le Premier ministre – ont voté pour suspendre sa suspension et ont mis en place un nouveau comité pour examiner la manière dont les enquêtes étaient menées.

Après un tollé, M. Paterson a fini par démissionner. M. Johnson a admis plus tard qu’il avait « accidenté la voiture » dans sa gestion de l’affaire.

Manque de concentration – et d’idées

Boris Johnson a remporté sa majorité écrasante grâce à une politique claire et facile à suivre – Get Brexit Done (Réussir le Brexit).

Mais depuis lors, estiment ses détracteurs, il y a un manque de concentration et d’idées à Downing Street.

Son ex-conseiller devenu critique en chef, Dominic Cummings, l’a accusé à plusieurs reprises d’être un caddie incontrôlable, virant d’un poste à l’autre.

D’autres ont remis en question la philosophie du Premier ministre – ou, en fait, s’il en avait une. En juin, le député conservateur et ancien ministre Jeremy Hunt a accusé M. Johnson de manquer « d’intégrité, de compétence et de vision ».

M. Hunt parlait avant un vote de confiance, que M. Johnson a remporté – mais les plaintes devenaient de plus en plus fortes.

Les défaites aux élections partielles s’enchaînent. Après la dernière, M. Johnson a déclaré qu’il ne subirait pas de « transformation psychologique ».

Mais ce n’est plus la préoccupation des députés conservateurs. Ils ont parlé, et le Premier ministre s’en va.

World Opinions – BBC News

L’article Boris Johnson démissionne : 5 choses qui ont conduit à la chute du Premier ministre britannique est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The prime minister promises to ‘keep going’ despite a growing list of Conservative officials resigning in protest.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told MPs he would “keep going” despite a growing list of Conservative ministers and other officials resigning in protest over his handling of the case of a senior official accused of sexual misconduct.

A delegation of Cabinet ministers planned to meet with Johnson at his Downing Street office on Wednesday evening to press him to resign, according to British media reports. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and longtime loyalist Brandon Lewis were among those expected to demand that he quit.

“The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when you’ve been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going. And that’s what I’m going to do,” Johnson said earlier at the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament.

David Davis, a Conservative legislator who had previously called on the 58-year-old leader to resign, told parliament that he was again asking Johnson: “to do the honourable thing, to put the interests of the nation before his own interest, and before … it does become impossible for government to do its job.”

Johnson said he did not believe that it was against the national interest for him to remain as prime minister.

“I thank him very much for the point he’s made again. I just couldn’t disagree with him more,” Johnson said.

Key resignations

The development came a day after Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid quit, saying the prime minister was not fit to govern.

Johnson quickly replaced the two men but a string of junior ministers have also quit and his support inside the Conservative Party is shrinking rapidly.

Opponents hope to change party rules to allow a new no-confidence vote on Johnson. He survived one such vote last month, with 41 percent of MPs voting against him.

The Conservative Party committee governing the rules, the so-called 1922 Committee, has decided to hold an election to its executive on Monday, before deciding whether to change the rules to bring forward a confidence vote in Johnson, three Conservative lawmakers told the Reuters news agency.

World Opinions – agencies

L’article Analysis. UK’s Johnson refuses to quit despite mass resignations est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The departure of Munira Mirza, Downing Street’s head of policy, suggests that time is running out for Boris Johnson’s government. Sliding in opinion polls and under investigation by the police over illegal lockdown parties in No 10, the administration has a fin de régime aura. Ms Mirza, reputed to be the prime minister’s most trusted and influential aide, said that she was quitting over a matter of principle – a rare thing in Mr Johnson’s shrinking circle. She was unwilling to stay silent over his scurrilous slur against Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer.

After working with Mr Johnson for 14 years, Ms Mirza must have been acquainted with his modus operandi. But his claim that Sir Keir spent “more time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” from the dispatch box was a smear too far. Sir Keir had been director of public prosecutions when Savile was questioned under caution by police in 2009. But he was not involved in the decision not to pursue the case and there is nothing to suggest he knew that Savile was a serial sexual abuser and failed to prosecute him. A day after Mr Johnson’s deplorable attack, he was rebuked by the Commons Speaker, but refused to backtrack.

This appears to have been the final straw for Ms Mirza. Her resignation letter reveals that she understood the damage that peddling such conspiracy theories could do, even when her boss did not. Ms Mirza wrote that “this was not the usual cut and thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse”. She called on Mr Johnson to apologise: “I appreciate that our political culture is not forgiving when people say sorry, but regardless, it is the right thing to do.”

The departure of the prime minister’s most trusted aide does nothing to dispel the fin de régime aura of this Conservative government

This plea went unanswered. During a visit to Blackpool, Mr Johnson claimed that his comments were about Sir Keir’s “responsibility for the [CPS] as a whole”. This is a justification, not an apology. The prime minister is constitutionally incapable of expressing remorse for what he has done wrong.

The deliberate and intentional misleading of fellow lawmakers and the public is a serious matter. Parliamentary privilege confers immunity in respect of what MPs say. It can be a valuable tool. It is not an excuse for lying in parliament. Mr Johnson rose to the top by flouting such conventions, but his way of shaping taunts has come back to haunt him. While others were unable to see dying parents, he attended parties, then claimed shock that they were social events. The pain-free Brexit he promised cannot be delivered. Britain won’t be levelled up anytime soon.

Tellingly, Downing Street’s press chief also left on Thursday. As Tory MPs continue to pen letters demanding that the prime minister goes, these departures are evidence that he is running out of people to betray.

World Opinions By The Guardian View

L’article View on a Downing Street resignation: a smear too far est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Theresa May has made her first intervention in the row over Downing Street parties, saying she was angry to hear about them.

The former prime minister, who has frequently criticised Boris Johnson on other issues, has been conspicuously silent in the weeks since the “partygate” allegations first emerged at the end of November.

Now, however, she has said that if evidence were to emerge of deliberate wrongdoing then “full accountability” should follow and that “nobody is above the law”.

In a letter to her local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, she wrote: “It is vital that those who set the rules, follow the rules … This is important for ensuring the necessary degree of trust between the public and government.

“Like so many, I was angry to hear stories of those in No 10, who are responsible for setting the coronavirus rules, not properly following the rules. All those working at the heart of government should conduct themselves with the highest of standards which befits the work they do, and this applies as much to those working in No 10 as to other parts of government.”

The letter was sent before the Metropolitan police launched an inquiry into alleged parties after receiving evidence from Sue Gray, the senior official who has been asked by Downing Street to investigate possible Covid rule-breaking in Whitehall.

Former prime minister breaks silence to express her anger and expectation of full accountability

May said that “if there is evidence of deliberate or premeditated wrongdoing, I expect full accountability to follow”.

News of May’s intervention came as it emerged that key parts of Gray’s report into the parties could be pared back at the request of the police. Scotland Yard revealed it had asked for references to matters it was now investigating to be removed.

Johnson’s resignation from May’s cabinet was seen as one of the blows to her authority that led to her leaving No 10 in 2019.

She has since been a vocal critic of her successor, making a number of sharp interventions in the Commons and the media. She accused him last year of abandoning Britain’s “position of global moral leadership” by threatening to break international law during Brexit trade negotiations.

She also attacked the government’s decision to cut foreign aid, saying it had “turned its back on some of the poorest in the world”, and she dismissed government assurances on post-Brexit security arrangements as “utter rubbish”.

World Opinions – theguardian.com

L’article UK. ‘Nobody is above the law’: Theresa May wades into Downing Street parties row est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Acculé par le scandale des « booze parties » organisées en périodes de restrictions sanitaires, le premier ministre britannique multiplie les manœuvres grossières pour séduire les députés conservateurs, qui tiennent son destin entre leurs mains.

La fébrilité est à son comble à Downing Street, alors que le scandale des « booze parties » en série dans les locaux de l’exécutif britannique pendant les restrictions sanitaires de 2020 et de 2021 n’en finit plus de faire des dégâts et menace directement Boris Johnson. Ces derniers jours, les médias britanniques ont dévoilé les plans élaborés dans l’urgence par le dirigeant pour sauver son mandat.

Baptisés comiquement « Save Big Dog » (« sauver le gros chien ») et « Red Meat » (« viande rouge »), ces plans de la dernière chance alignent des mesures populistes destinées à flatter les instincts des députés conservateurs, qui tiennent le destin de M. Johnson entre leurs mains. Une demi-douzaine d’entre eux réclame publiquement sa démission et une vingtaine auraient déjà envoyé des lettres de défiance au puissant club d’élus

L’opération « Save Big Dog » consisterait à sacrifier quelques responsables – probablement Dan Rosenfield, le directeur du personnel de Downing Street, et Martin Reynolds, le secrétaire privé de Boris Johnson, celui-là même qui a lancé les invitations pour la BYOB party (« bring your own booze », « amenez votre propre bouteille ») du 20 mai 2020, en plein confinement.

Elle pourrait être déclenchée juste après la publication du rapport de Sue Gray, la haut fonctionnaire chargée (par M. Johnson) de faire la lumière sur les « booze parties » à Downing Street. M^me Gray pourrait avoir bouclé son enquête dès la fin de cette semaine. L’opposition travailliste et les médias, presque unanimes, considèrent déjà « Save Big Dog » comme une grossière manœuvre de M. Johnson visant à faire porter la responsabilité des infractions au confinement sur les autres plutôt que sur lui-même..

Par Cécile Ducourtieux – Le Monde

L’article Royaume-Uni : les plans de la dernière chance de Boris Johnson pour se maintenir à Downing Street est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Johnson et Macron se sont rencontrés à Rome ce dimanche afin d’apaiser les tensions entre Londres et Paris autour de la pêche dans la Manche.

Le président français Emmanuel Macron s’est entretenu ce dimanche 31 octobre dans la matinée avec le Premier ministre britannique, Boris Johnson, en marge du G20 à Rome, en Italie, pour la première fois depuis la crise des sous-marins australiens, et dans un contexte de tensions entre Paris et Londres, notamment sur la pêche. Alors que les deux dirigeants ont décidé de travailler à « des mesures pratiques » dans « les tout prochains jours » pour favoriser « une désescalade » dans le conflit sur la pêche, a annoncé l’Élysée en fin de matinée, les désaccords ne sont pas encore complètement réglés.

« La balle est dans le camp des Britanniques » dans la crise sur la pêche entre la France et le Royaume-Uni, a déclaré Emmanuel Macron, en rappelant que des mesures de rétorsion s’appliqueraient mardi prochain si Londres n’acceptait pas la « désescalade » proposée par Paris. « Si les Britanniques ne font aucun mouvement, les mesures du 2 novembre devront se mettre en place, car ce sera une fin de non-recevoir », a prévenu le président français, en disant « espérer qu’il y aura demain une réponse positive », alors que Boris Johnson demandait une levée des menaces françaises.PUBLICITÉ

Le gouvernement britannique, lui, a affiché sa fermeté face à la France dans le conflit sur les licences de pêche post-Brexit et contesté le compte rendu français, affirmant que sa position « n’a pas changé ». « Si le gouvernement français veut se présenter avec des propositions pour une désescalade par rapport aux menaces qu’ils ont formulées, elles seront les bienvenues », a déclaré le porte-parole du Premier ministre britannique au sommet du G20 à Rome. « Notre position n’a pas changé », a ajouté le porte-parole du dirigeant conservateur.

Espoir de désescalade

Le porte-parole de Boris Johnson a ensuite indiqué que le Royaume-Uni continuerait à examiner les demandes des bateaux britanniques d’obtenir des licences de pêches sur la base de données, pas de menaces. « Nous sommes prêts à travailler avec le gouvernement français et les pêcheurs qui ont les données requises. Il n’y a aucun autre travail à faire », a déclaré le porte-parole de Boris Johnson. « Boris Johnson a exprimé son espoir d’une désescalade de la rhétorique du gouvernement français » et que celui-ci « retire ses menaces ».

Il s’agit donc de faire en sorte que « des mesures pratiques et opérationnelles soient prises le plus vite possible pour éviter une montée de la tension », a expliqué la présidence française. Un point sera fait mardi prochain sur la mise en œuvre ou non de mesures de rétorsion par Paris, a précisé la même source. Le différend porte sur « quelques dizaines de bateaux », donc « c’est parfaitement possible » de parvenir à une solution, a-t-elle précisé.

World Opinions Eco / AFP

L’article Pêche : « la balle est dans le camp des Britanniques », affirme Macron est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Dirigeants et militants du monde entier sont réunis depuis dimanche et jusqu’au 13 novembre à Glasgow, en Ecosse, pour la conférence sur le climat COP26, qui vise à tenter de contenir le réchauffement climatique sous la barre des 2 degrés d’ici 2100.

Joe Biden addressed world leaders at the COP26 Monday saying the U.S. plans to announce new climate initiatives.

“We’ll demonstrate to the world the United States is not only back at the table, but hopefully leading by the power of our example. »#COP26: https://t.co/uH9woZS3kN pic.twitter.com/W17QppeTaC

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 1, 2021

Sleepy Joe#Biden at #COP26 #climatechangeconference. pic.twitter.com/XBggHjab6k

— Pablita 🍀#CloversForAssange🍀 (@saluti37) November 1, 2021

@BorisJohnson making sure a single day doesn’t pass without him being an embarrassment to the country #COP26 pic.twitter.com/Y9ehE6kcOB

— Mark Berry 💙 (@markberry) November 1, 2021

En tant qu’hôte de la réunion, le Premier ministre britannique Boris Johnson a accueilli les quelque 130 chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement lundi, parmi lesquels Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel ou Justin Trudeau. Dans son discours d’ouverture, il estimé que la prochaine génération « ne nous pardonnera pas » et « nous jugera à raison avec ressentiment » si la COP de Glasgow ne réussit pas.

How can you hold climate talks without including the most affected people? You can’t!

As world leaders sit down at #COP26, activists from @FFFMAPA are sailing up there to send a simple message: #StopFailing. #MAPA

RT if you agree pic.twitter.com/PDBxSwsLoG

— Michelle Harris (@vestharry) November 1, 2021

A just and climate-safe future is possible. @JustinTrudeau, for #COP26 we’re calling on you to deliver. https://t.co/f4mXTsDWRQ

— 🇨🇦 Mary Ann Clark (@Igraine1) November 1, 2021

« Le moment est venu de dire assez » aux énergies non renouvelables. « Soit nous les stoppons, soit elles nous stopperont », a renchéri le secrétaire général de l’ONU Antonio Guterres.

La COP26 est « le dernier et le meilleur espoir » de parvenir à limiter le réchauffement de la planète à +1,5 degré, objectif le plus ambitieux de l’accord de Paris, avait de son côté déclaré son président Alok Sharma à son ouverture dimanche.

How can you hold climate talks without including the most affected people? You can’t!

As world leaders sit down at #COP26, activists from @FFFMAPA are sailing up there to send a simple message: #StopFailing. #MAPA

RT if you agree pic.twitter.com/PDBxSwsLoG

— Michelle Harris (@vestharry) November 1, 2021

Sir David Attenborough has addressed world leaders at #COP26 with a reminder that ALL nations must act to create a better, fairer world. We believe that businesses can lead the way. If you agree, join us in sharing Sir David’s powerful words. #EyesOnCOP26 pic.twitter.com/7hfa4mAnIF

— B Corp UK (@BCorpUK) November 1, 2021

Les dirigeants du G20 se sont entendus dimanche à Rome sur un objectif de limitation du réchauffement climatique à 1,5 degré au-dessus des niveaux pré-industriels. Mais cet engagement est jugé « faible » par les organisations écologistes.

Le président chinois Xi Jinping et le président russe Vladimir Poutine, à la tête de pays émettant énormément de CO2 (plus d’un quart des émissions mondiales pour Pékin), ne sont pas présents personnellement en Ecosse.

First Minister @PaulGivan and deputy First Minister @moneillsf speaking from #COP26 in Glasgow on the importance of governments, communities and individuals joining together to tackle climate change.
#TogetherForOurPlanet pic.twitter.com/lqtf2QQS7Q

— NI Executive (@niexecutive) November 1, 2021

World Opinions News / agences

L’article La prochaine génération « ne nous pardonnera pas » si la COP de Glasgow ne réussit pas, avertit Boris Johnson est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The United Kingdom has become the first country in Europe to record more than 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths, according to official figures by the health department.

The UK has the fifth-highest toll globally – after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico – and reported a further 1,631 deaths and 20,089 new cases on Tuesday, with critics accusing the government of an apparent slow initial response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The 100,162 deaths registered are more than the country’s civilian death toll in World War II and twice the number killed in the 1940-1941 Blitz bombing campaign, although the total population was smaller then.

“I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and, of course, as prime minister, I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

“What I can tell you is that we truly did everything we could, and continue to do everything we can, to minimise loss of life and to minimise suffering,” he added during a briefing.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Bradford, said Johnson’s comments were unlikely “to calm down those who feel he was too late every step of the way in taking action; he was behind the curve”.

Earlier this month, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, one of the oldest and most prestigious medical journals in the world, told Al Jazeera the UK was struggling to contain the pandemic because its government “has steadfastly refused to follow the science, despite claims that it is doing so”.

“The lessons from the science have been that when there is a rise in infections, you need to clamp down immediately to suppress transmission to reduce the prevalence of infection in the community. But at every stage, the government has delayed and delayed and delayed locking down, with the result that the virus has got out of control,” Horton said.

“The result of that is increased hospitalisations and deaths. This has been entirely preventable if the government had acted with more decisiveness, and sooner.”

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who has repeatedly accused Johnson of being too slow to respond to the pandemic, said the prime minister’s indecision had cost lives and worsened the economic effect.

Johnson, who contracted COVID-19 himself and ended up in intensive care, has defended his record, saying it is easy to find fault when looking back.

England, by far the most populous of the UK’s four nations, re-entered a national lockdown on January 5, which includes the closure of pubs, restaurants, non-essential shops and schools to most pupils. Further travel restrictions have been introduced as the government battles to speed up vaccination delivery and keep new, more transmissible variants of the virus at bay.

In December, the UK became the first country in the world to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and has set itself the task of offering jabs to everyone 70 and older, those who are clinically vulnerable, front-line health and social care workers and older adults in care homes by mid-February.

Up to Monday, a total of 6,853,327 people had received a first dose and 472,446 a second dose.

The government has said the vaccination rate and the success of the vaccinations are key to being able to ease restrictions as the UK battles with the highest number of deaths per 100,000 people in the world, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

“Unfortunately we’re going to see quite a lot more deaths over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccines begin to be felt,” Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical officer said.

New variants have also alarmed scientists, and Johnson has warned the prospect of a “vaccine-busting” variant could mean lockdown measures are needed for longer.

The UK is due to announce whether it will also bring in mandatory quarantine in hotels for some or all arrivals and has warned the public not to book summer vacations.

“My thoughts are with each and every person who has lost a loved one – behind these heart-breaking figures are friends, families and neighbours,” Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.

“I know how hard the last year has been, but I also know how strong the British public’s determination is and how much we have all pulled together to get through this.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

L’article UK passes grim milestone of 100,000 COVID deaths est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Searching for the lesser ironies native to the UK, we might alight on the puzzle that Boris Johnson is beloved of many who can’t wait to point out that “facts don’t care about your feelings” – and yet is himself incapable of serving up difficult facts without endless reference to how it’s all making him feel. Is the prime minister in the business of making new year’s resolutions? If so he might consider trying to develop a stiff upper lip this year. It looks like we’re going to need it.

Should Johnson fail to toughen up and take himself in hand – a locked-on certainty, given the form book – then we are condemned to endure what might well be the worst months of the pandemic thus far, led by someone whose first thought seems always to be for his own emotions. “I hate having to take these decisions …”, “I deeply regret having to do this …”, “I do this with a heavy heart …” Once you’ve noticed the tic you can’t stop hearing it. If only he’d take back control of himself.

I can no longer remember any Boris Johnson podium address that wasn’t riven with subconscious invitations to consider the real victim in all this: him. No matter what you’ve been through this year, please do take more than a moment to consider the heartaches and ballaches visited upon a man who simply wanted to be world king, but would settle for being the kind of prime minister who smiled and drove diggers through polystyrene walls – yet now has to deal with all this shit in his in-tray instead. Of course, there is the odd bright spark. Johnson would have enjoyed being told by Bill Cash during Wednesday’s trade deal debate that he was like both Alexander the Great and Churchill. Even if that is like being told you make a lot of sense by Mrs Rochester.

His compassion for the public may be limited, but never let it be said that our leader is a man who neglects his own emotions

But mainly, we are forever being subjected to self-dramatising speeches about the latest virus measures he hates, to which the only dignified response is: I couldn’t care less how it all makes you feel. You’re the prime minister. The people listening are the ones you’re supposed to lead, not your psychotherapist.

Was this the way with the PM’s noted idol and supposed political lodestar, Winston Churchill? I’m afraid I haven’t Johnson’s Churchill biography to hand – though of course, I never permit myself to be more than four feet away from Sir Richard Evans’s majestic review of it. (Sample blast: “The Germans did not capture Stalingrad, though this book claims they did.”)

But even without this canonical text to check against, I think we can be sure that Churchill did not feel the need to deliver all his wartime announcements laced with frequent expressions of how he was handling the whole thing of having to deliver all these wartime announcements.

“I hate having to be the one who suggests we shall fight them on the beaches … I deeply regret having to indicate we may be required to fight them on the landing grounds … Nobody likes being the one whose job it is to announce we shall never surrender …” It is fair to say that Churchill was not unburdened by self-regard, yet he seems to have realised that what the people really needed to hear in their hour of need was not how it was all making HIM feel.

Inevitably, the prime minister’s needy vacillation has proved highly transmissible among his ministers. Gavin Williamson has spent much of the latter half of this week explaining his chaotic and belated actions on schools with the words “no one wants to be making these decisions”. And yet, I bet there are people who would quite want to be secretary of state for education, and to make those requisite decisions, so perhaps Gavin could stand aside for them? Perhaps Johnson will eventually steel himself to tell Williamson – with deep regret and a heavy heart, no doubt – that he is being moved on from a department he has turned into a full-spectrum clusterfuck for a year now. Until then, the self-dramatisation continues. As you may know, Williamson prominently displays a bullwhip on his desk. This is the version of Indiana Jones where our hero never beats the boulder hurtling down the tunnel behind him, and the mere act of reaching back for his hat causes the loss of both his arm and the educational prospects of an entire generation of children.

Speaking of touches of affectation, when the prime minister comes through the No 10 double doors to announce close to a thousand deaths, as he has twice this week, it can be seen that this 56-year-old man has nonetheless still taken the trouble to mess up his hair just before. What felt mildly excruciating in pre-corona times seems truly grotesque when persisted with today. The podium turns themselves betray even more weirdly skewed priorities. A couple of weeks ago, a shielding and frightened member of the public asked a question in which she said she had already lost two loved ones to Covid. Clearly incapable of feeling compassion for anyone other than himself, Johnson declined to express any, and handed the question over to Chris Whitty.

The reason all this is particularly important is because it tells us so much of why our pandemic story has unfolded the way it has. Time and again, Boris Johnson has so deeply regretted even the prospect of having to do difficult things that he hasn’t done them, meaning he has had to do even more regrettable things later. He seems most comfortable casting himself as forever the passive victim of events as opposed to someone who should be out in front of them, shaping them as decisively as possible. A fascinating article by the pollster James Johnson this week charted the PM’s descent in the focus groups over the course of the past year. “As yet another inevitable decision was finally made,” he reported, “people came to think more and more that the man who was meant to lead them was following them instead.”Advertisement

Buck up, toughen up, show a stiff upper lip – I’m sure there’s some archive Boris Johnson column out there lamenting that these are now deemed inappropriate responses by “the PC brigade”. Either way, I am happy to oblige him by considering them easily the most suitable exhortations in this particular case. For God’s sake, prime minister – do man up.

By Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

L’article With a heavy heart, Johnson will always remind us who the real victim is: him est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Leaving the EU was an emotionally charged political proposition, not an economic one. It was a desire rooted in a vision of British sovereignty richly marinaded in a heady mix of nostalgia and bogus victimhood, fanned by Britain’s media, and which made the enormous error of confusing sovereignty with power. The reality of that error will come home to roost in the months and years ahead. But Brexit was never about the price of potatoes or cars. In the end, it wasn’t even about standing up for Britain’s one genuine shared diplomatic triumph of recent decades, the Northern Ireland peace agreement.

Britain leaves the EU with its sovereignty compromised, its economy weakened – and its leader walking a tightrope

The initial hoopla on Christmas Eve about the trade deal with the EU must be seen from that perspective. Stupid headlines about a Merry Brexmas conceal the fact that what is being celebrated is in fact a thin deal and bad economic news for Britain. But economics has always been secondary in Brexit. Trade deals, like economic arrangements more generally, are not Brexit’s first-order objectives but its second-order consequences. If free trade had been the objective, Britain would have stayed in the single market and the customs union. It was nonsense for Boris Johnson to pretend on Thursday that the EU deal will create “a giant free-trade zone”. There was one there already. And this deal says little about services.

What was finally agreed this week is a worse trade deal than we had as an EU member state. Britain has expelled itself from the EU because sovereignty is what really matters in Brexitland, not trade. As a result, for probably the first time in human history, these have been trade negotiations that aim to take the trading partners further apart, not closer together. That would be difficult enough with goodwill, and has been doubly difficult because of Britain’s unrealistic tactics. But that is the looking-glass world Britain now inhabits. If taking back control means giving up some of the prosperity, along with the other benefits, that went with EU membership – and it certainly does – then the leavers say: so be it.

It is an inconvenient and ironic truth that all trade deals, including this one, will involve a compromise of sovereignty for mutual benefit. That is what making deals means. Ursula von der Leyen was spot on when she described “pooling our strength and speaking together” as what sovereignty means in practice in the 21st century. This deal is absolutely no different. This truth is, of course, being brushed over in the immediate media silliness that burst out on Thursday. But when the dust settles and MPs come back to Westminster to debate the deal next week, they will see that Britain has had to give up some sovereignty in order to be able to go on trading with by far our largest and nearest market on preferential terms.

The only sense in which this amounts to a triumph for Johnson is that it completes the detachment of the United Kingdom from the EU that a majority of voters opted for four and a half years ago. That is undeniably important. It is the consummation of Johnson’s lifelong campaign of lies about the EU. It may, in fact, mean that Johnson’s premiership now has no other particular purpose. But the deal involves considerable political risk for the government, because the economics of Brexit and the politics of Brexit have always pulled Johnson in opposite directions.

Johnson is nothing like as clever as he thinks he is, but he is not stupid either. He knows that geographical proximity and established supply networks matter massively in trade, and therefore that trade with the EU cannot simply be abandoned. He knows that the Office for Budget Responsibility calculated that failure to strike a deal would have led to lost GDP potential of more than 5% over 15 years. He knows that small, medium and large businesses are only surviving on their margins as the Covid pandemic deepens again. He knows that, post-Covid, the UK will face huge fiscal pressures that would be much worse if there was no deal.

And he knows something else too. Even if part of him would prefer to ignore it, he knows that no deal would have handed Nicola Sturgeon the biggest and best Christmas present she could have dreamed of in her efforts to take Scotland out of the UK. As Brexit begins to fade in the prime minister’s rearview mirror next year, the task of saving the union looms ever closer. All of these factors always pointed towards a deal.

Yet there was always a party-political logic at work in Johnson’s calculations too, and this pulled him in the opposite direction, towards no deal. Johnson is, after all, not just the prime minister of the UK. He is also the leader of the volatile, fanatical and potent leave movement. This is what made him the leader of his party. It is the reason he won the 2019 election. And the leave movement would have been more than happy with no deal, because a complete break with Europe is in many ways the sovereigntists’ ideal.

So getting the choreography of the EU trade deal right has been critical. That would have been true even if this was a normal year and this was a normal Christmas. But the circumstances of 2020 – with Johnson’s Covid handling the subject of widespread and persistent criticism, including from within his party, and now amid the Christmas trucking chaos in Kent – have made that doubly vital.

Johnson’s original strategy after the 2019 election, urged on by Dominic Cummings, was to demand rigid party discipline, cabinet unity, the bypassing of parliament and, above all, to starve Nigel Farage of any political oxygen to shout betrayal. Covid severely disrupted that approach but did not derail it. Yet when the pandemic threatened to get out of hand in the autumn, control of the optics became even more crucial. The process had to go right down to the wire, with at least one apparent collapse, to ensure as little time as possible for party resisters to organise and for Farage to build up a revolt. That is what happened.

Nevertheless, none of this guarantees that Johnson is now home and dry on the EU trade deal. For one thing, Brexit will never cease to divide Britain. The issue will never be settled. Meanwhile the extravagant pre-Christmas exercise in brinkmanship suggests that there is in fact plenty in the deal for backbench zealots and Farage to object to. Von der Leyen’s comment that this is a fair, balanced and responsible deal is not what the MPs in the European Research Group want to hear.

Even at the very end of the year, even with coronavirus spreading, even with most minds focused on the festive season and even with most of the press dutifully portraying Johnson as a commanding leader, things could fall apart in the coming days. One should never forget that, among all his many qualities, Johnson is a compulsive political risk-taker. Given the ferocity of the emotions that Brexit will always arouse, this deal may prove a much bigger risk than anyone, including Johnson, yet realises.

By Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

L’article Boris Johnson has ‘got Brexit done’. With a deal that will please no one est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.