If Boris Johnson calls and wins general election, Britain can reverse Brexit decline - Sir Andrew Cook

JULY 1939: August approaches and Continental Europe swelters in a heatwave. The fashionable resorts – Le Touquet, Biarritz, Aix-les-Bains among them – are thronged with the European haute-monde, ‘en vacances’.
What kind of Prime Minister will Boris Johnson perove to be?What kind of Prime Minister will Boris Johnson perove to be?
What kind of Prime Minister will Boris Johnson perove to be?

The international situation is worrying, but not so much as to spoil their holidays.

Throughout Britain, the seaside towns are packed with the less well-off, enjoying the summer break. Factories are busy, pay is good.

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Then, a few weeks later, in September, all hell broke loose.

Sir Andrew Coook has looked at political comparisons between 1939 - and the Brexit-dominated events of today.Sir Andrew Coook has looked at political comparisons between 1939 - and the Brexit-dominated events of today.
Sir Andrew Coook has looked at political comparisons between 1939 - and the Brexit-dominated events of today.

July 2019: August approaches and Continental Europe swelters in a heatwave.

The great hotels of the Italian lakes and the Cote d’Azur are busy. The economy is healthy. People are generally happy.

But in England, the mood, like the weather, is unsettled. A mood of doubt and unease clouds the holiday season. The chill of autumn is not far off, and with it the chill of fear. Fear of losing one’s job. Fear of economic downturn. Fear of inflation and the rising cost of living. Fear of extremism. Fear for the future of Britain.

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I need no reminding of this as I reflect on the parallels between 1939 and the present day.

The House of Commons was packed for Boris Johnson's first appearance as Prime Minister.The House of Commons was packed for Boris Johnson's first appearance as Prime Minister.
The House of Commons was packed for Boris Johnson's first appearance as Prime Minister.

Britain may not face a military threat, but it does face economic and political turbulence as the Government continues to struggle with the unforeseen consequences of the so-called ‘Brexit’ vote: a vote instigated and won by a political grouping which one can justifiably categorise as the hard right.

But what has it achieved? Confusion bordering on chaos. The fracturing of the broad centre, upon which sensible and pragmatic government ultimately depends. The rejuvenation and empowerment of the hard left.

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Who is responsible for this? There are many, but top of the list are the two prime movers, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson: like bright boys recklessly meddling in the chemistry lab after school, they mischievously uncorked the bottle on which was written ‘status quo – tamper with at your peril’, and out popped the genie.

‘Oh cripes!’ they exclaimed, as the genie swirled around the room before flying freely out through the open door. ‘What have we done?’ they think, but do not say. Uneasily, they furtively scurried away.

The Headmistress, Mrs May, entered the lab. Helpless and appalled at the uncorked bottle, for she knew full well that genies cannot be forced back into bottles, she tried to make a plan. The plan was messy and the staff threw it out. The school disintegrated into confusion and disarray. The Headmistress resigned.

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The analogy is obvious. The British ‘Brexit’ genie is out of the bottle and threatening the status quo which has brought years of relative prosperity. Extremes of ‘right’ and ‘left’ have gained ground. The centre has crumbled. And lo, the ringleader of the naughty boys who let the genie out of the bottle is now the British Prime Minister.

Will Boris Johnson be a Chamberlain or Churchill? Will he appease or lead? Or will he be a Lloyd George, of whom it was said “He has the veracity of Ananias, the loyalty of Brutus, and as for the rest, ask Signor Marconi”.

With a suitable substitute for ‘Signor Marconi’, the parallels are striking. I suggest our new PM should borrow from these three forebears.

Like Chamberlain, he must appease his enemies, while preparing for the worst.

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Like Churchill, he must lead his country, putting it before his party.

And like Lloyd George, he must show flexibility, durability and what our German friends call realpolitik.

To achieve this, he should take courage, set out his agenda clearly, and call a general election now. If he succeeds, I believe Britain can reverse the Brexit decline, close down this endless debate and begin a march towards those sunlit uplands so beloved of Churchill.

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If he fails, Mr Johnson will find himself assuming the title of Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minster, a title previously held by George Canning at a humiliating four months.

He will deserve the humiliation, and more, for most likely he will have brought down on a hapless Britain that iron curtain of extreme socialism so manifestly desired by John McDonnell and his Corbynista comrades waiting in the wings.

Rudyard Kipling put it well in his poem The Storm Cone:

This is the midnight—let no star

Delude us—dawn is very far.

This is the tempest long foretold

Slow to make head but sure to hold.

The storm is in its infancy. Can Boris Johnson make it veer away and blow itself out? If the EU turns nasty, will he respond as so famously portrayed in David Low’s wartime cartoon ‘Very well, Alone’. We shall see. For the sake of the country, I wish him success.