February 2020. It sounds like war. The thud of the falling pound greeted the prime minister’s tub-thumping speech: it suggested his “great voyage” was destined for the rocks of the hardest of Brexits. Days after proclaiming we would leave with peace, prosperity and friendship, he set out to do battle with those he called our friends and neighbours. Now our ersatz Winston Churchill proclaims he will fight them on our fisheries, fight them on aviation, but above all fight off their filthy regulations. There will be no level playing field on his battleground. What’s he up to? This marks a sharp U-turn in political strategy. Only days ago, the message was “It’s done. We won. End of story”, as he beat his mini-gong on the stroke of 11pm on Brexit night and Dominic Cummings wept at his own success. At first the order was never to mention the Brexit word again. Get this trade stuff off the front pages and safely hidden away in business sections. Indulge the euphoria of Brexiteer cheers in Parliament Square and let them believe Brexit really is well and truly “done”. Move on instead to trumpet levelling up the north, splurging on bridges and heralding a new era where austerity is over and happy days are here again. So why ratchet up new confrontation with the European Union? Because before long he will need a great distraction from all the undelivered airy promises. He will need foreigners to blame. This sabre-rattling will have no effect on the imperturbable Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator who knows us and our boorish behaviour all too well by now. Oddly, one reason for this opening salvo is for Boris Johnson to keep his party happy, despite his unassailable majority. A grinning Nigel Farage told Andrew Marr that he was going nowhere: his Brexit party is here to stay, with a new Brexit Watch “insurance policy” ready to “ring the alarm” at any sign of Johnson backtracking. Johnson does not intend to be the fifth Tory prime minister brought down by his party’s Europhobia. That tiger he rode to power still has teeth to turn on him. I’m happy with a Brexit with No Deal if it comes to it.
Feb 2020. Boris Johnson talks on the EU
