Boris Johnson

David Cameron
The present Government gives us the fifth PM in 12 years. However, 12 years in power seem to have exhausted both the Conservatives and public alike. Rather than growing stronger over time they have become weaker. But it’s not just the Conservatives as all political parties represented in Parliament have followed the Conservatives into weakness. It goes further in that all public servants have joined in this demise.

You may have noticed that we have another PM as the last one resigned. The new one is called Rishi Sunak, has been in post 6 weeks and we'll take a look at him later. You may have also noticed that things are not going well for us here in the UK and more on that later too. The outgoing PM Liz Truss had to sack her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng. But what did he do? Well he did what she told him to do! He had been in post for 38 days and the turn-around in his fortunes and by implication those of Truss, who served for 49 days, are remarkable.

Theresa May
So how did all this start? Brexit is not to blame for where we find ourselves and Michel Barnier, the EU’s Chief Brexit negotiator, has gone on record to say so. Even so there is an opportunity for those people who will never accept the Brexit result to gather themselves up for a fight.

Worlds largest gun, see below
In Part Two it was our intention to look at some of the people involved in the response to the war in Ukraine. It was a short list: Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Boris Johnson. However, now Johnson has resigned things have changed and the new PM, Liz Truss, has been chosen by the Conservative party. She has an opportunity to alter the way the UK responds to the war, we don’t know whether this will happen but for the moment we will carry on with this post.

First we look at Macron, he has been criticised for making contact with Putin, this has been described as weak. In time the war may reach a point where formal peace negotiation can begin, then perhaps the position of Macron changes as he will have a leading role. We may assume this is what he wants; but is this right? Probably yes as he put the effort into getting to such a position. Macron would most likely share this role with Erdogan from Turkey, also Finland and Sweden. The latter two who renounced neutrality following the invasion of Ukraine would be consulted. It will be interesting to see the role of the UK here. Post invasion under Johnson the UK took a rather belligerent approach to Russia. This we will return to later.

Just an old Prussian tradition So it’s auf wiedersehen to Angela Merkel who left office recently, she was Chancellor of Germany for 16 years. Back in 2005 it was a very different world, we had Tony Blair as our PM, in the USA George W Bush was President while Jacques Chirac held that role in France. Even so it’s worth looking at Merkel’s rise and departure and assessing her legacy. The latter is an unhealthy obsession with all leaders now and seems to dominate their time in office. We see this with Johnson on a regular basis during the two years he has been PM. With Merkel now gone from office we shall see if the eulogising of her continues and make no mistake here, for throughout her political life she could rely on a level of praise from the liberal left who adored her that came close to worship. It’s at this point we should note that this did not happen with Johnson, his rise to fame was very different. These people who praised Merkel did so not for what she did but for simply being the Chancellor of Germany. So will we see the adulation give way to a more critical analysis? Yes some people have been critical and their criticism goes back a long way, see HERE and HERE. Generally speaking she got an easy ride but did she deserve it?

Boris gives the Remainers a headache.
During the Brexit referendum campaign many alliances were made and new friends found. No doubt for the Remainers this is awkward, it brings back the memories and the hurt, but for the Leavers it's different. We are getting back to normal catching up on jobs in the garden and around the house and planning a little 'thank you' party sometime soon. It's in this mood we say thank you to two characters who have in their own and very different ways made a huge contribution to the referendum result.

First Boris Johnson. One of the features of the result is that the political establishment went into this referendum secure in the knowledge they would win. How did they know this? Because they had asked people who they could trust to tell them what they wanted to hear. Then proving their stupidity they believed it. In other words having started out rather detached from political reality they enhanced their isolation. Now Johnson has never been detached from public life in the same way that other politicians are, it's as if he defies gravity and more besides. He does as he pleases and the public like him for this.

His contribution to the Leavers was immense. He raised spirits and gave hope in a way no other politician from either side of the debate did. His critics will say he peddled lies about the EU.

BREL built loco
The news about the problems at locomotive builder Bombardier leading to the closure of the Derby works brought forth a range or reactions; the ritual gnashing of teeth being the one the MSM liked best. However, the first wave of reporting left out as much of this story as it reported. A typical MSM headline talking about Bombardier as 'the UK's last train maker' was not an incorrect statement but it would be wrong to try to pass off Bombardier as the last British train maker, for it is an enormous Canadian company. So the 1,400 jobs at the Derby HQ, while vital to Derbyshire, are perhaps no more than natural employee flows over the whole of the company on a global basis.