Boris facing a huge task
IT’S over…the most unedifying, divisive and ugly election campaign in decades.
It ended with the general public demanding: “Get Brexit Done.”
What must be addressed next is the collapse in trust between those of us who do the electing and those who wish to be elected.
The reason is plain. Brexit wasn’t so much the elephant in the room, rather the entire damned zoo.
Politicians’ skulduggery, dodgy dealing and insufferable sense of arrogance in that they knew far better than us has made voting in any future election as attractive a proposition as chowing down on a bowl of kangaroo testicles.
No party emerged with credit, but at least Boris Johnson – left, with girlfriend Carrie Symonds outside No10 – nailed an instantly understandable tagline for the Conservatives.
The Lib Dems were never able to recover from the fact that the more the public saw of their leader, the less they liked her.
In little more than a month, Jo Swinson, left, went from touting herself as a future prime minister to being unable to appeal to the good folk of East Dunbartonshire. The Brexit Party’s supporters went into the election with high hopes, having trounced all others in the European elections six months ago.
That sense of purpose was not to last, and for once questions need to be asked of doughty campaigner Nigel Farage. Having said he would “definitely” stand as a candidate for the party he founded, he opted not to see his promise through.
Then, having declared his party would “definitely” fight for every seat, he backtracked.
Farage was the commander who marched his men
(and women) to the top of the hill, only to break ranks halfway up and order many to about-turn.
However, the biggest turkey of this Christmas election was the Labour Party.
Jeremy Corbyn, inset, was unable to apologise for the allegations of anti-Semitism and had a grasp on numbers equivalent to that of a monkey with an abacus. Most of the party’s literature was notable for an absence of any pictures of Corbyn – in some cases, even any mention. His policies were dismissed by everyone from former spy chiefs to economists – even his own health secretary.
Senior Labour figures spoke openly of the need to replace him. Now the public have done the job for them.
For the Tories, the hard work starts here. As Boris said, many voters have “lent” them their votes. The next General Election will not be fought on Brexit, and Boris must show that the Conservatives can care for and nurture the NHS and deliver on promises about the police, education and the environment. Britain voted to smash through the political roadblock. But if the Conservatives are to count on the working-class vote again, the days of Eton and Oxbridge Tory toffs must end as the party embarks on perhaps its biggest change yet.