Meeting held on Monday 17th January 2022
Nine people were present. Apologies were received from three. There was no face to face meeting due to Covid risks.
We discussed the recent slide in support for the PM following reports of parties at Downing St during Covid lock-down and the strong possibility that Johnston would (be forced to) resign. Would we welcome his resignation or would it be better for him to stay in office?
The advantages of him staying in office were that he would continue to bring down the Tory party and that he would be a liability which Labour could exploit at the next General Election; and that an alternative (Truss or Sunak) could be worse in many respects and more effective in bringing forward right wing policies. The advantages of him leaving office was that his particularly corrupt style of leadership would not come to be normalised. No-one would welcome taking on the role of PM when enormous economic problems are bound to arise very soon (inflation, lower standards of living, energy price rises, etc). As a consequence of Johnston’s populism there are no prominent ‘centrist’ Tories.
In the attempt to distract people from the present situation and to appease the Tory back-benches – and the wider public – the Tories have put forward a range of policies regarding immigration, policing and BBC which have not been thought through and are little more than slogans. Similarly, the key Tory policy of ‘levelling up’ has no substance: no measures to identify when the policy has been achieved or objectives for its achievement. There appears to be very little talent in the cabinet (which is not surprising since the main quality upon which they have been selected is their obedience to Johnston).
While the political agenda during 2021 has been dominated by Covid, little attention has been paid to other policy areas. Even Brexit – with it slogan of ‘sovereignty’ – is still in a mess in N Ireland. If ‘levelling up’ is really to amount to anything it will demand much more than the government merely handing out little treats of a few millions to favoured Tory MPs from the ‘red wall’ seats. Solving the problems of Rotherham, Mansfield (and so on) will require detailed planning and funding over time, which the government does not appear to have the interest or ability to do.
We thought that the image of the Queen mourning the loss of her husband, next to a picture of Downing St partying, was more powerful as an influence on public opinion than any policy announcements or outcome.
Arrangements for our next meeting on 21st February will be decided nearer the time.