Boris Johnson will always be linked to Brexit, a process which is increasingly looking more like Dunkirk than Agincourt. That subject is too complex to be addressed in today’s post. Leaving Brexit aside, how will Johnson be remembered in the future? What issues does he leave for his successors to clean up?
Here are the top three items:
- BREAKING THE NORMS: Like Trump, it just became accepted that BoJo was self-indulgent, had little patience with legal norms, and had an on-again, off-again relationship with the truth. That part of his legacy will not be repeated. British politics will return to normal after he leaves.
- CULTURE WARS: British politics historically were based more on class than race, mostly because the country was ethnically homogeneous. BoJo’s great revelation was that British society had changed, and that you could win an election based mostly on identity politics; in the end, that was what Brexit was all about. Today’s Conservative Party is an unwieldy coalition of older, socially conservative people in small, stagnant towns (mostly in the north) and affluent businessmen in the south; what the two groups have in common is their antipathy for young, cosmopolitan, socially liberal Londoners. Finding a way to keep the coalition together will be the first task for Johnson’s successor as party leader.
- LEVELING UP: What does this mean in practice? Boris had no idea. His successor will have to find a way to define it and implement it in the face of increasing fiscal constraints, which will be no mean task.
Who is likely to follow Boris? Tune in tomorrow.