Time for a change – in more ways than one
WHERE do we go from here? The British electorate face a challenge like never before. The nightmare of the Johnson era has gone forever but a Johnson crony (Sunak or Truss) will be imposed on the rest of us by 160,000 Tory Party members who are richer than, whiter than and older than the average Brit.
And Michael Gove described Britain is “a beacon of democracy for the rest of the world to follow”!
Do the two candidates have integrity? Rishi Sunak kept his American green card, which involves keeping a permanent home in the US, while he was an MP from 2015 onwards and while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The second most important political job in a country no longer involves a total commitment to that country?
At least Mr Sunak has said that if he wins he will immediately declare a “state of crisis” with special emphasis on the NHS.
Identifying the NHS as the national crisis is a positive step but can sufficient improvements be made there without turning even more of it over to private investment which means that profit for the shareholders is more important than the health of the nation?
Liz Truss says that her first priority will be “a bonfire of EU red tape that is preventing the UK from being profitable”.
In championing attack mode, Ms T is following the teaching of Professor Patrick Minford, one of the very few British economists who see nothing but positives in leaving the EU.
In 2017 he stated that post-brexit UK could do without industry and agriculture as major economic sectors and that every household would be £5,000 per annum better off by leaving.
The opinionated professor has also recently stated that the new Australian trade agreement will bring us a £69 billion advantage. This figure is 37 times higher than the Government’s own estimate.
Is it wise for a prospective PM to take on such a Brexaddict position? Is it sensible for her to commit so totally to a disputed policy when in 2016 she was speaking very strongly in favour of Remain?
Mrs Thatcher, the chosen role model for Ms T, infamously said of herself: “This lady is not for turning.”
Johnson was demoted by his own MPS because he couldn’t tell the truth. Will a female Johnson II help us to bind up our wounds any more than the Pied Piper of Eton did?
Surely the Truss camp’s continued identifying of one thing – EU membership – as a cause of all our national misfortunes is worrying. This version of the “truth” pins the chaos at Dover entirely on the French, who failed for a few hours to send enough agents to man the frontier booths there. That parts of the M20 have, because of Brexit, been a lorry park off and on for months is ignored.
With Brexit “we” chose to reject an international system; some of us still seem surprised that we cannot rush through the new frontier that we voted for as if it was the old non-frontier.
Shouldn’t we as adults, responsible as much as MPS for the nation that we live in, demand the shortest possible period of power for one of these limping Johnsonites as they lead us through the most challenging period of our history since 1945? Such a major crisis should inspire major reforms.
Couldn’t we have, by 2025, an adult political system with proportional representation, the maturity to welcome coalitions and full attention on the challenges of the climate crisis so that our kids have a liveable future?
Jeremy Hall Crockernwell