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16th February 2018
02:48pm GMT
The speech contained nothing new. On the contrary, this was classic Johnson, ploughing the same furrow he has for the best part of thirty years. The only difference now is that everyone else in the room has moved on. The act has become stale, and for all his usual bluster, he has nothing else up his sleeve.
An intelligent man, for so long now has he played the lovable buffoon that he seems to have forgotten how to be anything else. At a time when the country is crying out for politicians with gravitas, someone level-headed to steer the ship through choppy Brexit waters, in Johnson we find ourselves stuck with David Brent butchering a Two Ronnies gag.
If the pretext of the Valentine’s Day speech was about making a positive case for Brexit, then the subtext was once again all about Boris Johnson. It was his vision for Brexit. A time to unite around a common cause – the best Brexit for all of us, regardless of whether we want it or not.
For all his talk of unity, the headlines afterwards inevitably focused on his refusal to say that he wouldn’t resign from the cabinet and launch his own leadership bid if Theresa May didn’t deliver his own vision of Brexit.
Some would suggest that even the timing of the speech was an attempt to undermine May’s authority, coming as it did just days after she announced her own ‘road to Brexit’ speeches.
There are positives to take, of course. Now that the cabinet are finally setting out their Brexit visions, we can finally trigger Article 50.
With Ukip’s finances (allegedly) looking remarkably similar to their number of MPs in parliament, the outlook is bleak. The current beleaguered leader, Henry Bolton, does not take a salary and insiders have suggested the party would struggle to finance another leadership election.
Perhaps it is time for Ukip to turn once again to Nigel Farage, a man who claims to be skint but would will enjoy a handsome MEP’s pension long after we leave the EU, along with his LBC salary.
It all could have worked out differently, of course. The judge in the Collins case revealed that a settlement could have been made out of court, but that Ukip had deliberately blocked any settlement before the 2015 election because they believed it would win them votes. The total number of parliamentary seats they won in that election? Zero.
Giving his reasons for being against a 'soft Brexit' or 'EU-lite', Lord Jones explained that the British people voted to get back control from those he described as 'unelected and unaccountable'. Hear, hear.
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