It’s looking increasingly likely that Boris Johnson will be the next British Prime Minister. You know the one, a jolly fellow who is a bit of a clown and is game for a laugh? Funny chap, bit awkward but harmless.
Right? What could possibly go wrong?
An unbearably posh politician who benefited from an elite education, Johnson was arguably initially made famous by appearances on the popular television comedy show Have I Got News For You. He was able to show his witty side, laugh with panel members and present himself to the British public as someone they’d want to go to the pub with. Someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously and who is a bit of a breath of fresh air.
Unfortunately, pretty much every move he’s made in his political life stands up against this summary of his attributes. He is also a journalist, paid an obscene amount of money to write columns that people who actually need the money could write for a fraction of the price. They boost his ego and his public profile, and they give us a glimpse into the real Boris Johnson.
It was in one of his columns that Johnson wrote about Muslim women. He “described women wearing burkas as looking like letter boxes and bank robbers. He was actually talking about women wearing niqabs, not burkas, but he’s never been known to let facts get in the way of a good story”.
He’s talking about Muslim women who, when living in the UK, will be under his rule as Prime Minister. But that doesn’t matter to him. He’s also insulted gay men (“bum boys”), all LGB people (“we don’t want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage”), Black people (“It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies”) and women (“She [Hilary Clinton]’s got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”).
That is a fraction of the gaffes he has made, direct quotes from his own columns or statements in Parliament. But are they really gaffes?
Dog whistles
What Boris Johnson seems to be doing is what has become known as “dog whistling”. By making a rude and offensive statement about Muslims, even if he later apologises, he has made it known to the racists of the world what he really thinks. By insulting gay men, even if he later apologises, we feel he could, with a wink, let us know that he really, really does think that “If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog”.
He doesn’t need to stand by his own statements once he has made them, for his message has already been put across to those he wants to reach. With a nudge and a wink, he can apologise (or not – he doesn’t always) and try to justify what he has said, but the bigoted dogs heard the whistle that was silent to those who are not Islamophobic, homophobic, racist or misogynist.
We know what he really thinks. He gives it away.
Whose Prime Minister?
The thing is, because we have a Parliamentary political system rather than a Presidential one, the vast majority of the country does not get to pick this next Prime Minister at all. For all intents and purposes, the Conservative Party is picking its next leader. Never mind that its next leader will be Prime Minister by default.
So, for the next round of voting, Conservative MPs get to vote on who they want as their next leader. The first round took place yesterday and Johnson stormed it. When it has finally been narrowed down to two candidates, Conservative Party members get to vote on the final man (and it will be a man; the two female candidates were knocked out yesterday).
124,000 people with an average age of 57 – 72 (the demographics of the Tory Party membership) will get to make the final decision on who our next Prime Minister will be, and they love Boris Johnson. They hear the dog whistles and they love his “character” and he will almost certainly win.
This does not feel democratic, even if it is the way our constitution has been put together. And Johnson himself objected to this very process when Tony Blair stood down and Gordon Brown took his place:
“It’s the arrogance. It’s the contempt. That’s what gets me. It’s Gordon Brown’s apparent belief that he can just trample on the democratic will of the British people. It’s at moments like this that I think the political world has gone mad, and I am alone in detecting the gigantic fraud.
[…]
“They voted for Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to serve as their leader. They were at no stage invited to vote on whether Gordon Brown should be PM… They voted for Tony, and yet they now get Gordon, and a transition about as democratically proper as the transition from Claudius to Nero. It is a scandal. Why are we all conniving in this stitch-up? This is nothing less than a palace coup… with North Korean servility, the Labour Party has handed power over to the brooding Scottish power-maniac.”
For once, I can’t say I disagree with him.
Photo: Tom Page