I make no secret that I am of the left and have been all my life. I was a Labour councillor for two separate stints in different places, although I no longer have anything to do with the Labour Party. When I chaired committee meetings I did not allow personal abuse from anybody and I insisted that members on all sides be heard with respect. I know I earned respect from the Conservatives for this, because they said so when I stood down, and I was able to work with them to get things done, to coin a phrase.
Boris Johnson's career is well-documented, from the report of his Eton housemaster who said "I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else". Has anything changed? I believe he is a man who is ruled by expedience, who will say anything that will get him out of whatever hole he's in at any time, and then say exactly the opposite a few hours later when he is back in his comfort zone. He is a man who will go to great lengths to avoid scrutiny, who has surrounded himself with low-quality sycophants after purging the his party of experienced voices able to stand up to him.
Conservative leaders have come and gone and it would not surprise anybody that I have disagreed with all of them in many ways on policy and philosophy, but this one is different. This one is not a Conservative in any sense that I recognise. This one doesn't have a political philosophy besides being allowed to do just as he likes. This one makes up policy on the hoof according to what he thinks will make him look good in the headlines, and then changes it a few days later when it doesn't look so good for him. This one announces policies that he knows full well won't pass the courts, just so that he can undermine the authority of the law.
You would expect somebody like me to say things like that, I don't doubt. But here's the thing: If I was an old-fashioned, traditional Conservative like the ones I was able to work with in local government then I'd be appalled by what has happened to my party. There are local government elections in a couple of weeks and the likelihood, judging by the polls and the results of local byelections in recent weeks, is that Conservatives are about to get a drubbing, not least in their traditional rural and small-town redoubts. It won't be because the Shires have fallen in love with Labour, it will be in disgust with the way their party leader is playing fast and loose with their traditional values.
Here endeth the sermon. It feels good to get that out of my system.
