Politics is never straightforward. Nor is is it always obvious. So while the eyes of the world are now transfixed at the spectacle, and spectacle it certainly is, of Boris the Clown becoming Boris the Ringmaster (more about that later) it may be that history will see greater significance in the election of Jo Swinson as leader of the Liberal Democrats.
She is the first woman to be elected leader of her party. The Tories have had two women lead them. Labour none. She comes to the fore at a moment of national political crisis, when Brexit chaos is starting to cause real damage to the economy, to Britain’s standing in the world and moreover to its power, authority and global reach. It seems that almost all the assumptions of the Brexit campaign have proved optimistic, unreal, undeliverable or pure fantasy. Some of it has been outright lies.
The Tory party is split in so many directions that it has ceased to be a party, more a perpetual argument. Labour has become so nuanced that many have become confused as to where it is headed and it has also lost control of the anti-semitism issue. But the Liberal Democrats are rising to such a level in the polls that they beat both the Tories and Labour in the local and Euro elections. They are determined and clear cut. Their flagship policy unites their party from end to end and top to bottom.
It is that the Lib Dems oppose Brexit and they want to stop it. Maybe the time is coming when they unite the majority in the country to join their crusade to rescue our country and Union from the greatest act of folly and self harm in its entire democratic history.