It is now clear that Boris and his glued on adviser, Dominic Cummings, have a plan which they believe will deliver not just Brexit, but a thumping majority in the Commons, giving five years of a new kind of post Thatcher Conservatism, based on popular social policies, an end to austerity and a tempting borrow, tax and spend programme, either in a Queen’s speech or a Manifesto, well to the left of centre.
The strategy is to foment a fierce antagonism, amounting to a passive civil war, which pits the people, with their champion Boris, against parliament and the establishment. This includes the judges and everyone that stands in their way. Brexit is the energy which drives the essential anger; the people won the referendum and voted to Leave and everyone has ganged up against them to stop that happening. So this is a battle to save democracy. What amounts to a mild dose of socialism will be the reward for winning the fight. And the bigger the anger, so it must be stoked night and day, the more likely is that victory theirs. Meaning Boris and Dom.
The fact that Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU and in Boris and Dom’s people’s democracy these two countries will be dragged out of the EU, against their democratically expressed will, into all sorts of economic difficulty by leaving, is ignored. As are the 16 million across the Union who voted to Remain.
On the other side are Labour, led by Corbyn (ha ha ha), languishing in the polls, but don’t be fooled. They are about to offer, not a mild dose of socialism, but a full whack of the real thing. And the interesting point is that they are playing to an anger of a different kind entirely. Anger against austerity, Universal Credit, housing costs, fuel costs, rip offs, fat cats, social care, the NHS, jobs, bosses earning billions, nurses forced to eat via food banks, trains that run late, child care costs, company crashes leaving people stranded with holidays ruined or new hospital builds halted half-done; the list is long and grows longer as you think about it. As does the anger grow. Bigger and Bigger. Bigger even than Brexit.
Corbyn will offer to new economic settlement. Boris will offer Brexit at any cost. But the Lib Dems will remind everyone that Brexit was originally offered free, with bonus handouts. So that they will do the only thing that stops the whole sorry Brexit tale now and forever. They will cancel it. Well only if they win.
Yesterday one of the BBC News programmes had a leading anchor visit the constituency that had the biggest Brexit majority, 67% Leave, to sound out voter opinion. It is the kind of Labour seat Boris and Dom just have to win. There was an experiment with balls dropped into jars in the shopping mall. A jar for each of the parties. Lab, Con, LibDem, Green and the Brexit party. Willing shoppers took part, dropping the little balls in their choice of jar showing how they planned to vote, for an hour or so. The Cons did well, Brexit not so well, the Lib Dems badly (remember a Leave on steroids constituency), but in the end it was Labour jar that had the most balls. That was a surprise. If Boris and Dom cannot win there, they cannot win full stop.
So prepare for a very big battle. But one in which people are fighting for different things. So who knows what will happen. Boris with a landslide? Corbyn in Number Ten? Or another hung parliament and back to square one?