Boris Johnston has become the UK’s new prime minister as widely expected- see June 2019 blog- by winning the Conservative party members’ votes for a new leader.
He has appointed what’s been seen a Brexit-orientated cabinet and the Conservatives have received an expected ‘Boris’ bounce in opinion polls over voting intentions in an expected early General Election.
Although many political pundits predict the Conservatives will take a beating at the polls it’s still unclear how much of a swing opposition parties will achieve or how the labour opposition will campaign as a remain- 2nd referendum party.
The road to Brexit on the 31st October 2019 remains full of mystery and drama set to unfold in the 90 days or so.
The EU isn’t willing to revise the exit deal already struck with the previous British prime minister and political tensions are again resurfacing within the UK’s constituent parts.
The Northern Irish hard border issue that has dogged Brexit negotiations thus far has already formed part of a terse conversation between Johnston and Irish PM Leo Varadkar according to the Financial Times. The SNP controlled Scottish government strongly opposes a no-deal Brexit, 62% in Scotland voted remain. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a no-deal Brexit would be damaging to the Scottish economy.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is in an awkward position herself with Boris Johnston. She opposes a no-deal Brexit and supported losing candidate Jeremy Hunt in his bid to be PM. Her wish to keep David Mundell as Scottish Secretary in cabinet was swept away in his dramatic re-shuffle on entering Downing St.
The pound has fallen to a post-referendum low against major trading currencies with the stock market rising to compensate for high currency translation for overseas earnings for UK exports and multi-nationals.
How bad the economy will become or what difficulties will occur after the 31st October 2019 will materialise in due course such as supply chain disruption with long queues and delays at ports, falling overseas investment or the London’s financial dominance gradual decline.
However, that’s democracy for you- to paraphrase US satirist H.L Mencken- when people decide what they want they should be given it good and hard despite what metropolitan elites may think what’s good for everyone.
Undoubtably, the country will survive and C.21st living will continue to be the best time to be alive ever in human existence.
Whether or not the country, depending on you point of view, unnecessarily shot itself in the foot for the coming decade or made a brave political decision that may avoid the political pitfalls of the flawed EU regime.
There are bigger issues to focus on such as the rise of the global technology giants such as US’s Google or China’s Baidu with the their global platforms developing artificial intelligence persuading us to use their products, gathering our data and surveillance of our moves and moods through the internet of things and facial recognition software.
Is that not more worthy of debate or the reform of democracy than Brexit or holding neverendums – or do the World’s elites get to set the agenda for that too without most people realising its implications?
I wonder if Boris will get the chance to even posture a position on AI development before Brexit and domestic politics overwhelms him and his cabinet in the coming weeks.
Brexit is domestic issue. It’s now about how to minimise it’s downside and focus on the bigger challenges facing the UK and it’s future.
LDC.