Give Boris the benefit of the doubt
Often in this year which is staggering to a close I’ve found myself thinking of my old friend Auberon Waugh, and not only because he used to tell us that it would be better for us to be governed by Belgian ticket-collectors than by British politicians. I don’t know if they still have ticket-collectors on Belgian buses. Here of course bus conductors or clippies as we called them were got rid of long ago, presumably as an economy measure. Perhaps our triumphant Prime Minister might reinstate them as a first step in his revival strategy for the North and Midlands. Real jobs, you know.
Naturally I have been thinking quite a lot about Johnson and wondering if those of us who dismissed him as a shallow mendacious chancer should now acknowledge that he is a statesman of near-Churchillian stature who will bring healing to our bruised, battered and bewildered nation. “Wait and see,” as Asquith said.
Bron once, rather mysteriously, described Thatcher as “sheep-faced”. (The Spectator, 9th October, 1982, if you don’t believe me and care to check.) One wouldn’t say that of the present Prime Minister, though, when he hurried into that industrial fridge to escape the attention of a journalist, there was some resemblance to an errant sheep being persuaded into a pen by a Border Collie.
Actually, viewed front-on, it’s not a sheep he resembles, but an Old English Sheepdog, shaggy, likeable, trustworthy, if a little bemused. In profile he makes a different impression, sharper and not at all amiable.
Everyone knows that Johnson has always wanted to be Prime Minister. The question has been – has he sought the job because, like Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, there were important, even to their mind vital, things they were determined to do, or is he more like the Renaissance Pope who said “God has given us the Papacy, let us enjoy it.”?
Well, of course, he is committed to getting Brexit done. He had told us so more often than one cares to count. But, even on the question of Brexit, there have been doubts. We all know about the two columns he prepared for the Daily Telegraph – one advocating Leave, the other Remain – before he committed himself to the Brexit side – a good career move as it’s turned out.
Still there are precedents for such equivocation. I have never supposed that Disraeli had any strong view about agricultural protection before he saw that Sir Robert Peel’s determination to repeal the Corn Laws gave him the opportunity to establish himself as the voice of the Tory right. Likewise over the Suez Question in 1956 Harold Macmillan was resolute in support for armed action against Egypt until suddenly he wasn’t and became the first man in the Cabinet to rat. Consistency can be overrated. Successful politicians are usually light-footed, ready to shift their ground. Gladstone thought that in politics right timing was all, and nobody can deny that over the long-drawn-out Brexit drama Johnson has got his timing right, just as Macmillan did over Suez.
Of course Brexit isn’t done yet. There is still a long way to go. There will be twists and turns and obstacles in his path before any deal can be concluded. But he is surely committed to it now, and not only because “returning were as tedious as to go o’er”. He has already shown himself ruthless in his commitment, ditching the Tories’ erstwhile allies, the DUP, without hesitation or apology.
But beyond Brexit, who knows? Can he satisfy the different wishes and demands of the ill-assorted coalition of voters that has given him his big majority in the Commons? Can he please both the City of London and the traditional Labour people who have only, as he acknowledged, lent him their votes? Many of them want protection, state support and a curb on immigration.
For the moment Johnson has pulled off a conjuring trick worthy of Disraeli’s alliance of the Peers and the people. Can it hold? Disraeli led only one majority government in his long career. It lasted the length of a Parliament – seven years in the nineteenth century. It then met with a resounding defeat.
Interesting times lie ahead. For now at least, Johnson must be given the benefit of the doubt. That is his reward for victory. Moreover, he has the nation a service. He has seen off Jeremy Corbyn, for which we are truly thankful. Being faced with Corbyn was a stroke of luck for the Prime Minister. Prime Ministers need luck. Will Johnson’s hold, or will he soon have us thinking that government by Belgian ticket-collectors would be, if not better, at least no worse?