Bristling Brock speaks out...


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Bristling Brock has just read an article by Boris Johnson themed along the lines of 'let's all get behind the push for leaving the EU and abandon all this political controversy !'   As a sentiment I suppose there's not too much to challenge here but Mr Johnson took a couple of thousand words to express himself in flowery, jingoistic, almost poetic terms to be then topped off by telling us all what a magnificent Foreign Secretary and Mayor of London he had been.  Crikey !  Was BB reading an article by the Archbishop of Wherever ?  What was the purpose of this splurge of magniloquence (BB had to look that word up) ?

The reason was Tory Party political solidarity.  Not a surprise, many of us would say, as 'Party Politik' has been the principal raison d'etre of all the Brexit shennanigins that we've witnessed this last few years.   It is disappointing in the extreme that someone like Mr Johnson - a character and, no doubt, a reasonably talented one - could resign from the Cabinet on the point of principle that Brexit wasn't being negotiated effectively by the PM, join a group (within the Tory machine) that shared that outlook and now, in the most effusive terms preach to us that the only way to deliver Brexit is to back the deal (that's the PM's most awful of awful deals) so that Brexit (no doubt in name only) can be 'delivered' and thereby make political division melt away and turn into some magical surge of British fervour for the future (under the benevolent guidance of the Tory Party, of course).  Bristling Brock is almost under the impression that Mr Johnson has been sniffing something off the table-top.

Bristling Brock has always regarded Mr Johnson as a contender to be a leader.  He's not a detail man, for sure, but he has the power of rhetoric and oratory that underpins a presence that appeals to many, a mould breaker and someone different in the grey corridors of Westminster.  A certain Mr Churchill was not a detail man in his day, but he had the power and charisma of someone who passionately believed in his cause and the outcome.  And that carried a nation with him in 1940.  Now Boris, in a somewhat different style, could have followed in his footsteps - until he wrote that article.  What he has now achieved is to inform us all that he holds Party above all else - the Tory Holy Grail is the very key to the way forward, for Mr Johnson's new ambition is not to bring the best Brexit about for the nation's benefit but to position himself as the best choice of leader in the new world order of Toryism .  Unfortunately for him, not many of us outside of Westminster believe that for a second.   Frankly, there isn't a prospective Tory candidate anywhere on the scene that would make most of us get out of bed to go and vote for, and Mr Johnson has just added himself into that morass of grey ordinariness.  It's also worth pointing out that the same critique can be levelled at the Labour Party - can anyone really imagine (or stomach) a Corbyn/McDonnell/Abbot triumvirate heading a British government ?

So, having trashed the prospects of the two main political blobs in Britain, what are we left with ?  At the moment, not a lot.  Such new parties as are tentatively emerging have not yet demonstrated a foothold - the Brexit Party may disprove that but the rest, made up of disenchanted and vocal emigres from the other party's have neither the gravitas nor gumption to swing elections.   This blog has long envisioned a reformation of our political infrastructure with principled and visionary leaderships that hold the nation above all else.  It has to happen for without that radical change we will continue to be governed by a status quo that puts its vested interests first.  Right now, regrettably, there is little sign of a true Messiah coming along to whip governance and parliament into shape - but Bristling Brock remains optimistic that this right and proper restructuring will eventually come about.  After all, the very future of Britain in this fast changing world will rely upon that sea change.