Our very own LBJ

Ben Jennings: Guardian: 2nd September 2019

Well, that was pretty pointless, wasn't it? Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s speech in Downing Street was just like Theresa May’s much hyped announcements that turned out to be content free nothingness. Boris is an affectation, a character he plays. He’s called Al by his family and friends. But he’s no friend of mine. Actually he’s probably no friend of anyone except his ego. The USA once had a president with the surname Johnson. Lyndon Baines Johnson, known to one and all as LBJ. He was a truly awful individual too.  Now, we in the UK have our very own LBJ. Only it stands for Lying Bastard Johnson. A bit strong, perhaps, but prove me wrong.

If you had delayed having your dinner in order to hear what he was going to say, at least you can console yourself with the fact that he delivered a load of tripe for you to digest. LBJ marched out from Number 10 and told us absolutely nothing that we didn’t know already. He asserted that he was not going to let anything get in the way of the UK leaving the EU on 31st October. He insisted that there was no way that he was going to ask the EU for another extension to Article 50. He said that we didn’t want a General Election, and then he marched back in again without taking any questions.

Yet, even in that short speech he still managed to cram in a few lies. He doesn’t have a plan to get a deal. The chances of the UK getting a better Brexit deal from the EU are not increasing. They remain exactly the same as they were yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. Those who are campaigning against no-deal are not damaging his negotiating position. He doesn’t have a negotiating position other than making unrealistic demands and expecting lashings of an everlasting cherry cake. And the EU certainly doesn’t have a clearer idea of what the UK wants. And he was lying when he said that the rest of us don’t want a General Election. We do, LBJ, we do. The best part, the most honest part, of the speech was the sound of protesters outside chanting, “Stop the coup.” Not that you would see the crowds of demonstrators on the BBC News.

What he didn’t say was what he was going to do if, as seems increasingly likely, he loses the vote in the Commons tomorrow. If there is legislation passed forcing him to ask for an extension to Article 50, he can’t disobey it otherwise he’s breaking the law. That would certainly end up in the courts, and it most likely wouldn’t end well for him. So it remains highly likely that there’s going to be an early General Election. What LBJ’s speech was all about today was establishing his narrative for that election. He wants to frame it as a vote between him standing up for “the people” versus those nasty politicians who are bent on thwarting the popular will. If you define “popular” as being what you read in the Daily Express, that is. He wants to establish that it wasn’t his choice for an election, but he had no option. That’s what he was setting up today. He definitely wants an election. He just wants someone else to take the blame for it. That was his biggest lie of all. He’s not LBJ for nothing.

Everything now hinges on what happens in the Commons tomorrow. If the Government is defeated, there will almost certainly be an early General Election. We wait with bated breath.