Boris Johnson and the Theatre of Politics

Anne Marie Waters

Friday 10th June 2022

The show must go on, as they say, and it is one hell of a show.

This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a confidence vote in the Commons, and won. He scraped through by 211 to 148 votes, meaning that 148 Conservative MPs want him gone (or at least, that’s the part they have in this play).

The vote is triggered if and when at least 54 Tory MPs decide they want it, and its hard to know exactly why they did. Boris Johnson is a disaster but exactly who on the Commons front benches isn’t?

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for example was open about his desire for “change”, and to watch a spat between him and Nadine Dorries on Twitter was embarrassing.

Rory Stewart, who, like Hunt, stood in the last Tory leadership election, said that Johnson is “now fighting for his survival day in, day out… all that Downing Street is thinking about is the next newspaper headline and that is no way to govern a country”.

My question is: how is that different to the usual way of things? Politicians all care about newspaper headlines, in fact, it seems to me that its the only thing they care about.

Did Johnson care about having parties during lockdown until the papers printed it? Does anyone think his conscience was bothering him?

Speaking of parties during lockdown, is this the reason Tory critics believe the public has lost trust in Johnson? If so, there’s a problem for Labour because they did the same thing. Who can the public trust? Another Tory leader? Like who? The billionaire Rishi Sunak? What exactly has he done for the British public? Where is the evidence that he gives a damn?

There isn’t any, because he doesn’t, none of them do. This is a theatrical performance. Politicians live in their own little world of media headlines and political manoeuvring in Westminster. It’s a game. It’s a game of ego, and backstabbing, and most politicians enjoy it. It excites them.

It’s easy for the politicians because they are well-off and will never really suffer the consequences of their decisions.

Stewart says the country needs to be better run, but he has no real idea what that means, if he did, surely he would say so. So let me say it instead.

This country needs elected representatives that actually care about what happens to it, both now and in the future. There isn’t a single Member of Parliament who has convinced me they are this person. Having parties during lockdown was disgusting and revealed to us just how big a sham these lockdowns were. This had real consequences for real people, some of whom couldn’t even spend final moments with dying loved ones. It’s beyond immoral.

But is far from the worst thing this government has done. We are in a cost of living crisis and people will be genuinely reduced to poverty. We are invaded by hostile strangers on a daily basis. These strangers don’t feel the cost of living crisis though, they’ll be fine in taxpayer-funded hotels. The result of this will be the destruction of English villages like Linton-on-Ouse, and that’s just the start. Expect terror attacks, and expect rape – a lot of rape.

The country is a mess. Immigration is a mess, the economy is a mess, the criminal justice system is a mess, and none of the contemptuous worms in Westminster will do a thing to make it better. They don’t even pretend they will. They are too busy playing games and trying to out-ego each other.

The people have got to take matters in to our own hands. The only way back is to realise that neither of the big parties act in our interests. Then we need to accept that the media keeps them in power because they are all part of the same bubble, all acting on the same stage.

If we want a country run properly, we have to run it ourselves. If we don’t, we can continue to helplessly watch the play. Because the show most certainly will go on.

Anne Marie Waters

Leader

For Britain

Text ‘Join’ to 60777