• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Does Boris’s Megalomania Conceal a Smidgen of Libertarian Sentiment?

by Toby Young
1 November 2021 12:15 PM

We’re publishing a guest post today by David McGrogan, a professor at Northumbria Law School and Daily Sceptic regular. He is gradually coming round to the idea that beneath Boris’s megalomaniacal lust for power there is a smidgen of libertarian sentiment.

He didn’t know we were at war, and wouldn’t have cared if he had. But I have made my peace with Boris.

This time last year, we had just been “plunged” (I feel duty bound to use this word) into the second full-on national lockdown, and my view of the Government had reached its nadir. It seemed to be hypnotised by opinion poll results which its own messaging had created, victims of a grotesque feedback loop whereby the fears of the population fuelled ever more fear-inducing restrictions. Either that, or the Government had fallen under the sway of a small coterie of scientific advisors whose own groupthink had rendered them incapable of anything other than worst-case scenario planning. Worse, certain high-profile members of the Cabinet seemed to be positively enjoying themselves: the sparkle in their eyes as they appeared on our TV screens hinted at deep wells of authoritarianism lying just below the surface of their placid faces.

But I am now convinced that, although we are not Sweden (the Lionel Messi of public health responses to Covid), we are in a better place than almost any other society. Yes, depressingly, in Scotland and Wales vaccine passports have been introduced and mandatory face-covering is still in place indoors. But life in England is pretty much back to, if not the old normal, then something close to it. We can go to pubs, restaurants, theatres and sports stadiums as we used to. Most of us haven’t worn a mask in months. Kids are in school. Students are on campus. Places of worship are open. Shopping centres are brimming with pre-Christmas energy. Better, we’ve stopped obsessing over the figures – “case” numbers have finally begun to lose the sway they once had over the public mood.

No, things are not as readers of this website would wish it. But compare our situation to that in France or Italy, where vaccines are near-compulsory and mask-wearing entrenched. Or Australia – zero-Covid hell. Or New Zealand, which has merrily embraced becoming a “two-tier society”. Or Austria, which has threatened to lockdown the un-vaccinated, Latvia (back under full lockdown), or Japan and South Korea (where everybody wears a mask every moment of the day they are not in their own homes). Imagine living in the U.S., where a doddering tyrant of a President clings onto Covid authoritarianism as his last best hope to display leadership (although some states have defiantly lifted all restrictions).

By the world’s standards, we have actually muddled our way through the pandemic with our “old normal” relatively intact. And this should, after all, be the bar by which success is judged. Negotiating to a position of living with the pathogen with one’s society unscathed is what pandemic management is all about. We seem to have almost got there. Most countries still appear to be largely stuck in the mindset that dealing with a pandemic means eliminating the pathogen and abolishing death, and, as we now know, in that direction lies nothing but madness.

Thank God that’s not us. And, while you’re at it, it may be worth thanking Boris, albeit through gritted teeth. He has revealed himself to be a very cynical politician over the last two years, adept at manipulating and responding to public opinion. At every stage, he seems to have judged the public mood to be going one way and leapt aboard, flinging principle in the dustbin en route. But what has been revealed since restrictions were lifted in July is that his inner sentiments are in favour of old fashioned, Cavalier-ish English liberty, as he has always liked to imply. In the white heat of March 2020, or winter last year, with the media baying relentlessly for lockdown and the scientists putting out a relentless tsunami of bleak forecasts, he allowed his hand to be forced. But now there is some wiggle-room he is erring in the right direction: toward personal freedom. We ought to be fair to him and give him some credit for that; we all know that if Keir Starmer was in charge things would look very different indeed.

Robert Caro, probably the greatest political biographer of the last 100 years, likes to say that “power reveals”. Once somebody has attained a position to do what they would like to do and to impose their decisions on others, you finally get to see what they are really like. The period 2020-2021 has revealed Boris to be almost nihilistic in his desire to retain power – a chameleon of principle. But it has also shown that there is a foundation of libertarian sentiment somewhere in the depths of his psyche. If I were being very optimistic I might even push the point and suggest that, since it is our electoral system that resulted in him being PM, our society shares that sentiment – at least more than many other countries – too. I wouldn’t have suggested any such thing in April 2020. But stepping out of my front door into an England that feels free once more, I can say it now.

Tags: Boris JohnsonLibertarianismMegalomania

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Over 4,000 Australian Healthcare Workers Suspended for Refusing the Vaccine

Next Post

CNN Reports on COP26, But Gets City Wrong

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

211 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Special Episode of the Sceptic: Charles Cornish-Dale on Testosterone Decline, How the Modern World Is Making Us Sick and How to Save the West

by Richard Eldred
11 July 2025
2

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Man Who Threatened Muslims With a ‘Boycott’ if They Cooperated With South Yorkshire Police’s Inquiries Into Rotherham’s Grooming Gangs Given MBE for Promoting ‘Integration’ and ‘Cohesion’

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

News Round-Up

14 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Why Are We Funding ‘Breastfeeding Men’?

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Farmers Turfed off Prime Land As Net Zero Gold Rush Grips Landowners

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Leaked TfL Documents Reveal Sadiq Khan’s New ‘War on Motorists’

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Farmers Turfed off Prime Land As Net Zero Gold Rush Grips Landowners

28

Man Who Threatened Muslims With a ‘Boycott’ if They Cooperated With South Yorkshire Police’s Inquiries Into Rotherham’s Grooming Gangs Given MBE for Promoting ‘Integration’ and ‘Cohesion’

27

Why Are We Funding ‘Breastfeeding Men’?

25

Simple FOI Requests for Data Said to Back Non-existent Temperature Stations Refused on “Vexatious” Grounds by UK Met Office

18

Raw Egg Nationalist: “Reproduction May Become Impossible”

26

Met Office Climate Report More Scare Story Than Science

14 July 2025
by Paul Homewood

Raw Egg Nationalist: “Reproduction May Become Impossible”

13 July 2025
by Laurie Wastell

German Greens Demand Price Controls on Ice Cream Because Their Own Policies Have Made it Unaffordable

13 July 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Emergency Exit at English Heritage

12 July 2025
by Mike Wells

Over-Labelling Children With ‘Special Needs’ has Failed a Generation

12 July 2025
by Mary Gilleece

POSTS BY DATE

November 2021
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Oct   Dec »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

November 2021
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Oct   Dec »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Man Who Threatened Muslims With a ‘Boycott’ if They Cooperated With South Yorkshire Police’s Inquiries Into Rotherham’s Grooming Gangs Given MBE for Promoting ‘Integration’ and ‘Cohesion’

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

News Round-Up

14 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Why Are We Funding ‘Breastfeeding Men’?

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Farmers Turfed off Prime Land As Net Zero Gold Rush Grips Landowners

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Leaked TfL Documents Reveal Sadiq Khan’s New ‘War on Motorists’

13 July 2025
by Richard Eldred

Farmers Turfed off Prime Land As Net Zero Gold Rush Grips Landowners

28

Man Who Threatened Muslims With a ‘Boycott’ if They Cooperated With South Yorkshire Police’s Inquiries Into Rotherham’s Grooming Gangs Given MBE for Promoting ‘Integration’ and ‘Cohesion’

27

Why Are We Funding ‘Breastfeeding Men’?

25

Simple FOI Requests for Data Said to Back Non-existent Temperature Stations Refused on “Vexatious” Grounds by UK Met Office

18

Raw Egg Nationalist: “Reproduction May Become Impossible”

26

Met Office Climate Report More Scare Story Than Science

14 July 2025
by Paul Homewood

Raw Egg Nationalist: “Reproduction May Become Impossible”

13 July 2025
by Laurie Wastell

German Greens Demand Price Controls on Ice Cream Because Their Own Policies Have Made it Unaffordable

13 July 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Emergency Exit at English Heritage

12 July 2025
by Mike Wells

Over-Labelling Children With ‘Special Needs’ has Failed a Generation

12 July 2025
by Mary Gilleece

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment