The writer is in Australia.
Such are the hardships of life as a regular Spectator columnist that I find myself on a flying visit to London, Budapest and the Italian Dolomites. This trip just happened to coincide with the saga around Boris Johnson and his resignation from Parliament. So here’s my outsider’s take, the favoured vantage of many readers of this, Australia’s best weekly.
Claim one. Boris completely blew his huge 2019 mandate. Elected on a strong Brexit platform that pushed for much lower immigration, lower taxes, big deregulation, standing up for national sovereignty against the EU over Northern Irealand and the like – a policy mix that warms my heart – Boris came into office massively popular. Within months the Covid pandemic hit. Boris’s instincts were against going down the path of thuggish authoritarianism where the public health clerisy, the Pravda-like legacy media and politicians drunk on power imposed the worst public policy fiasco on almost all democracies not rhyming with ‘Eden’. They trafficked in fear not backed up by facts; they imposed picayune and petty rules that clearly would have no effect; they weaponised the police; they made the old die alone; they undercut personal autonomy by pseudo-imposing mandates for a vaccine that was never tested as to whether it stopped you getting or spreading the virus; the list of inroads on our civil liberties going on into the distance and it still makes me white-hot with anger when I recite this list of brutalities. (And don’t forget readers, the Spectator Australia virtually alone stood up against this from day one based on, you know, core liberal values missing from just about all Liberal politicians.)
So Boris instinctively knew the cost of lockdowns would be massively higher than the benefits – a claim that last week’s meticulously peer-reviewed study out of Johns Hopkins University, put on the front page of the London Telegraph a couple of days ago, details to be true in depressing chapter and verse. Alternatively, just check out cumulative excess deaths from the start of the pandemic versus Sweden’s (any country that locked down is doing worse), or the state of the economy (Sweden’s doing better), or debt, or kids who missed years of school and will never recover etc. Boris knew it. He had his chance to be a peacetime sort of shadow of his hero (and mine) Winston Churchill but he fluffed it. He didn’t have the inner resolve and the ability to learn detail of a Ron DeSantis who could front incredibly hostile press conferences every day during the pandemic and explain why the Swedish ‘no lockdown’ path was the right one, with data and detail at his fingertips. So Boris crumbled and succumbed to the thuggish lockdown zealots and their manifestly wrong Neil Ferguson modelling. That meant he also had to oversee a Government that spent like drunken sailors, mortgaging the kids’ and grandkids’ futures to pay people to do nothing (the effects of which are still everywhere; you’ll have noticed Australia’s productivity – the one factor that correlates with future wealth almost 1:1 – has tanked). And of course by going along with the thuggishness he instinctively knew was wrong he opened himself up to charges of hypocrisy and rule-breaking when he went and had a bit of cake and a drink with those in his office.
Outside of lockdowns Boris also let a sort of waffly romanticism (perhaps also of the sort related to the new younger girlfriend and her worldview) push him to buy into the stupid Net Zero religion, nowhere foreshadowed before the election. He poured more money (unconnected to reforms) into one of the worst health systems in the democratic world (and if you’ve lived all over the place as I have you’ll know that Australia’s health system is right up there with the best despite all its flaws and over-bureaucratic insanities). Basically, Boris was a massive disappointment to those of us who fully supported the manifesto he put to the voters in 2019 and which won him a landslide victory.
Claim Two. Despite everything noted above Boris was still miles and miles better than Rishi Sunak. Sunak is leading a McKinsey/Goldman Sachs Government. He has increased taxes to the point that the current Tory Government – I emphasise that this is a nominally conservative Government – is the biggest-taxing and biggest-spending one since Clement Atlee’s Labour after the Second World War. On Northern Ireland Sunak basically threw in the towel and surrendered to the EU, with a few face-saving little trifles that still leave a sovereign part of the United Kingdom under the jurisdiction and rules of the EU. Sunak is overseeing a Government that is allowing the highest immigration ever – and this when the promise was to rein in immigration to well under 100,000 people per year. (And for those inner-city elites sitting over their six-dollar lattes who moan that there are so many jobs the locals won’t do just remember the incontrovertible economic truth that any job will be done if you pay enough, meaning that these elites just want super-cheap cleaning ladies, garden services etc.) On free speech and the culture wars the Sunak Government has done a bit – more than Morrison and the Libs here ever did – but not much and nothing like what you see in Florida and Sunak certainly hasn’t tried to rein in the judges. If you were to stumble across a visiting Martian and ask this alien how he would classify the Sunak Government just based on the policies it is pursuing the Martian would tell you it’s a Labour Government with a willingness to incorporate Green Party policies.
So here’s the main point. Both claims one and two are true. And that means Boris was, and is, the better option for the Tories in Britain. He’s been taken out by a cabal of other MPs, many in his own party. When Boris complains it is a hatchet job by Remainer types who never wanted Brexit, well, it’s hard to see how he’s wrong. I know that many say Sunak was and is a Brexiteer. But he sure kept a low profile about it. And he’s not yet done a single thing in office to show the slightest willingness to deliver on it. Plus, the Tory Party MPs removed Boris against the desires of the party membership. They then removed Liz Truss whom the membership picked over Sunak and put Sunak in anyway. Good luck getting the membership out to campaign for this man who is running the sort of insiders’ corporate Tory Party that will see all of those Red Wall seats (delivered by Boris and only ever possibly by Boris) vanish at the next election. To be blunt, this Sunak incarnation of the Tory Party deserves to be smashed at the next election. If it weren’t for the awful Keir Starmer as Labour leader it would be. It probably will be anyway.
Oh, and Boris is right that the establishment Remainer forces are doing all they can to undo Brexit. Such is the elites’ contempt for democracy. And Tory MPs’ contempt for the party base.
James Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at Queensland University. This article first appeared in Spectator Australia.
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Woke is evil
He was arrested for defending a Christian Cllr’s right to object to the gender perverts and mentally ill deniers of chromosomes, dna and mitochondria. If the other Cllr had been a Mahometan or Hindu no arrest by the Pervert Gestapo. As in the DisUnited States, the Plod is simply a Gestapo for Gov’t special interests.
What are Cllr Lawal and Stevens doing in the Tory party if they believe in the principal of freedom of speech?
The worrying thing about this story is the extent to which it is now normalised. We have already had victories over precisely this, yet the police are persisting with the same approach. Suella Braverman has even addressed precisely this, yet the police are ignoring all she has said. These stories are multiplying despite crossing legal bounds and no one is held to account. And now, dare I say it, even the commenters annoy me (in the Telegraph not here – here is much better). When they express outrage now they just look to me like birds who, with the publication of the story, have been fed some bird feed and while they are pecking away the real culprits are moving on, setting the next domino in place ready to start the show and flip our world into totalitarianism.
The UK is increasingly a Christophobic country.
There is not one single case of the plod arresting a Mahometan for objecting to the mentally ill pervert cult.
Woke is evil
Sheesh! Welcome to clown world eh?
The decision makers in Plod-world should be made accountable for this nonsense.
Too many things to say about this disgraceful incident and not enough time, therefore I’ll leave it to the late, great George Carlin. He could be talking about any government in the laughably labelled ”free and democratic” West here. As long as governments overreach and employ goon squads to trample all over our liberties and keep us in check basic rights such as freedom of speech and democracy are just one big, fat illusion. A privilege to be given and taken away at their behest.
“Sooner or later the people in this country are going to realize the government does not give a f*** about them. Government doesn’t care about you or your children or your rights or your welfare or your safety. It simply doesn’t give a f*** about you. It’s interested in its own power, that’s the only thing, keeping it and expanding it wherever possible. Personally, when it comes to rights, I think one of two things is true. I think either we have unlimited rights or we have no rights at all.
And rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter. You see how it’s going?”
https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/1695813659883434338
Thanks for that Mogs. Very true.
When’s the kick back going to start…
Andrew Tate and Alex Jones get together and discuss the state of the world, propaganda, control and feminisation of men.
https://youtu.be/aAQ8pKYnsHM?si=Elw__oDPCDWq5XbS
A bit shouty but makes one second guess the relentless attacks. He’s awake.
Wokery in conjunction with the Liberal Progressive virus denies you the right to have an opinion on Equality, Diversity, Race, Gender or Climate. Whoever thought that in a supposedly free country that we would be denied an opinion? If you have an opinion that does not comply with the tenets of the 5 agenda’s I listed you are committing a crime of HATE. —–How totally absurd. I disagree so I am guilty? But this article shows another extension to that absurdity where someone who then neither agrees nor disagrees with another persons allegedly hateful view gets into a spot of bother for saying that person should be free to have his opinion. —–What a dreadful slippery slope where non Progressives will soon all be in the woke gulag.
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
Your distillation of the current state of play is absolutely spot on.
We now have Stasi ..Official .
Again totally disproportionate Police action .
The law needs changing ..
The people are sovereign. The government is there to serve.
Legally unenforceable manifestos presented at 4 or 5y intervals give governments no right to remove a millennium of rights.
The globalists don’t think so and are laughing at such a quaint assertion. And at the moment they are winning.
As a resident of Northamptonshire I’ll be dropping the Chief Constable a line on the line he has crossed.
I know his PA!
I cannot get my head around this, how is this even possible ?
So police really turned up to someones house and arrested them over a tweet and locked them up for 9 hours.
The police are not fit for purpose,
How many police officers did that tie up in a nice & easy job with no need to patrol streets, a smart middle class family to terrorise with ease and no nasty loudmouthed perps to nick? What’s not to like?
Quite. I hope he sues Northamptonshire Plod. Incidentally, during the Covid nonsense wasn’t it the head of Northamptonshire Plod who threatened to have his minions search people’s shopping for “non-essential” items?
Well it took 6 or 7 to arrest that poor autistic teenage lass who had the temerity to say one of them looked like her lesbian nana. Would they even send that many if some violent thug was kicking off in town on a Saturday night? It’s a chuffing joke. Let it never be said, should you ever have the misfortune to be burgled, that the police can’t be with you for 5 hours due to lack of resources.
Mogs, the plod will not attend household burglary cases.
Well it took 6 or 7 to arrest that poor autistic teenage lass who had the temerity to say one of them looked like her lesbian nana. Would they even send that many if some violent thug was kicking off in town on a Saturday night?
It depends. If bouncers call the police, they’ll usually act, as that’s one of their peer groups. Ordinary members of the public or even bar staff are usually told to get lost. They’re supposed to hire bouncers for protection. But that’s certainly not a racket. No, no, no, this cannot be!
To answer that you need to consider what is going on at a deeper level. Consider, there is a relationship between this and Donald Trump’s arrest. It might sound tenuous, but consider what is driving those two things and that is the level that answers your question. No of course it’s not a single coordinating entity – if there is one they haven’t directly asked for this, but it IS a confluence of interests and philosophies where the centralisation of greed and power is leading the world to a very dark place.
No manpower issues for Northants police, then; though looks like some of them have been ‘wasting police time’ and ‘impersonating a police officer’.
Stephen Mold
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire
Email- Commissioner@northantspfcc.gov.uk
https://www.stephenmold.com
Please drop Mr Mold a polite, factual line on this travesty.
I hereby politlely request that people self-identifying as Northamptonshire police beings refrain from acting as strongmen for the local Labour party in future, something they’ve been factually doing so far?
No bloody chance of that leading to anything except maybe laughter and some other police forces being tipped off wrt potential troublemakers which could do with some proactive policing. Didn’t you ever wonder why open sale of stolen goods and trading of supposedly illegal drugs is happening everywhere in plain sight? Hint: It’s not because the police alone cannot see this. They just know why they ought to turn a blind eye to it.
He needs to name the scumbag labour councillor.
Isn’t it about time a senior copper was fired for promoting this sort of conduct amongst the lower ranks? Unless and until serious consequences follow this behaviour will continue.
Are the police given any training these days? The incidents where plod goes rogue seem to be occurring with increasing frequency. It’s almost as if they are trained to act outside the law. No surely not…
I’ve just sent Stephen Mold, the Northamptonshire Police Commissioner a message.
Please consider dropping him a polite, respectful and factual message.
Sir,
As Christian who lives in the county I’m frankly appalled by the treatment by Northamptonshire Police of Messrs Lawal and Stevens in this case of woke policing.
For the record, I hugely respect our force.
It seems the Chief Constable is now targeting Christians who hold the traditional Biblical view of homosexuality.
I wish to raise a formal complaint over this matter. As a published author and local speaker who has many Christian friends within the county, I also need to make you aware we feel intimidated by this woke policing. It seems policing ‘without fear or favour’ is no longer the ethos.
Sincerely
Thank you Neil.
Yet another fine advert for the Free Speech Union. It could be one of us next and I am not being glib with that comment.
This seems eminently winnable for the FSU. Go on Toby, tear them a new one!
We’d better all sign up and pay our subs then.
On the other hand, so far as I know the police do not harass the High Street Bible-thumpers that I see and hear every week who warn me of all manner of Evil in the world sometimes referring to activities banned by Leviticus. Perhaps police policy, guided by the Home Office, is to turn a blind eye unless the preacher or tweeter also holds a position of actual political influence?
The clue is he had been reported to the police by a local Labour Party member. Labour party members don’t enlist the police to help them furthering the political agenda of their party wrt to street preachers whose ranting and raving is of no conceivable concern to them. They probably could, though, which is bad enough.
I’m on a roll here … now written to Chief Constable Nick Adderley, copied to Police Commisioner and local MP.
Please do likewise if you can – remember they’ll be coming for you next.
Enough is enough.
Sir,
You will no doubt be aware of the action of your force against Anthony Stevens who was arrested, then held in custody for 9 hours simply for tweeting a link for a petition to defend King Lawal, both Northamptonshire councillors. The context is that King was sharing his traditional, Bible-based Christian beliefs.
For the record, I have long held our county’s police in high regard, publicising its efforts for motorcycle safety on my YouTube channel, the 3 videos now with over 100,000 hits. Your officers have always been highly responsive and effective on the occasions we have needed assistance. As an advanced rider, my mentor and riding buddy is an ex-police instructor. I was best man for a police sergeant’s wedding and have always held the thin blue line in the highest regard.
As a Christian myself of 50 years faith, I am frankly appalled by your officer’s treatment of Mr Stevens, and that in front of his family. This was clearly designed to intimidate, to send a message.
These actions bring Northamptonshire Police into disrepute, clearly abandoning the principle of policing ‘without fear or favour’. It is obvious now that some groups get more favour than others. I would remind you that Sir Robert Peel was a committed Christian and UK law is strongly rooted in Judeo-Christian principles.
I have raised the issue with the Commissioner and hope you focus your resources – paid for by people like me – on real crime and not wokism.
Sincerely
Excellent
Excellent letter. But will it get an equally excellent reply?
The content of the reply doesn’t really matter, Neil has set an excellent example of what we all need to do in our locality in similar cases if we wish to be both heard and the issue remedied. We are in the situation we find ourselves in because good people do nothing.
Response received 29/8 …
Thank you for emailing the Chief Constable, when this matter was brought to the attention of the Chief Constable he commissioned a review into the circumstances and facts. This is a live investigation so no comment will be made at this stage and will await the findings of the initial review.
Regards
Xxxx
Inspector xxxxx
Staff Officer to CC Nick Adderley / Head of Executive Support
Why is Toby Young saying the police have made a serious mistake? Is there evidence that it was a mistake rather than policy?
First question to Police…who has made the complaint?
Isn’t it about time that the ‘complainers’ were clearly identified?
If the police won’t tell you, don’t let them in in the first place…it’s about time that the people who make these bogus complaints were identified, so that they can be equally smeared by the publicity and hopefully successfully sued……?!
Someone must be wondering if Jesus Christ can save these two gentlemen. Chiefly from themselves. An elephant only has itself to blame if it lumbers into a pit. Or gets eaten by a pride of lions.
It’s never wise to defend the indefensible. Burning a book is hardly a matter of speech, free or otherwise. Being fascinated by these book burnings is ignorant. Tweeting a photo of the scripture concerned being placed on the floor would be offensive. Adding the strife of tongues to the plotting of men that is politics is not being slow to speak, as the Christian scripture would advise the counsellor.
Christian virtues do not rule England. If the Christian counsellor had been more aware of the nature of the ‘formidable season’ in which we live, and which, as a Christian he could have learned about quite easily from his Apostle, Paul (2 Tim. iii. 1-5), he could have saved himself a lot of unnecessary inconvenience. And Paul would have advised the counsellor to give respect to whom respect is due.
Book burning is a perfect example of free speech.
Quit rimming the islamists – they hate useful idiots like you as much as they hate the people applying a match to their handbook – you are the kuffar – you are beneath the animals to an islamist.
Before you start with the “not all muzzies” nonsense – consider this
“Radical” islamists demand the global caliphate as soon as possible and by any means necessary.
“Moderate” islamists are happy to wait for the radicals to deliver…
TRUST NOT A ONE OF THEM.
“Someone must be wondering if Jesus Christ can save these two gentlemen”
Save them from what?
Please give examples of “speech” and please clarify what speech you think should be prohibited by law and why.
What “respect” is due, to whom? Why is saving yourself inconvenience a virtue?
Do you think either of the men has committed a “hate crime”?
If you don’t think burning a book is “speech”, consider what action would have been taken had the book being burned been some bland volume such as a dictionary. Do you seriously think any action would have been taken? It’s absurd to think that would have been the case, therefore the action of burning a religious text is quite obviously speech.
So many of these cases seem to result from police not being very bright, and not understanding the laws that they are supposed to be upholding.
This seems to be repeated so often. Time for our Home Secretary to provide unambiguous orders to the police forces that speech upsetting senribilities in others us NOT an offence. This ‘hate crime’ thing has to stop.
The UK Keystone Cops are woefully Incompetent. They don’t understand that the day of reckoning will be upon them.
It seems that the only written part of our constitution is being torn up, the Magna Carta. It is probably the most important legal document ever written, and the fact that the Police do not understand it speaks volumes about their now undeclared purpose. This “hate speech” thing is bad law, made by idiots in Parliament without a clue of life, because pressure groups wanted it to kick back at some “foreign practices” which were criticised by the indigenous population. I am sure you all know what these include, rape, grooming etc.
I found this one of the most extraordinary actions to date by our woke police. I hope the FSU will help this councillor sue the pants off Nottinghamshire Police. It is also indicative that he was reported to police by a Labour councillor, which suggests what we might be in for when Labour next get into power.
Just a piece of advice if this should ever happen to you. The first thing you must do at the police station is ask to see the duty solicitor and not say anything else until you have spoken them.
This is now England . Banana Republic