As Boris Johnson amasses strength, strange things start to fall into place
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shown some phenomenal political nerve in first shutting down parliament, and then insisting on party discipline on penalty of expulsion from the wets and wobblies in his Tory Party who'd rather drag the Brexit farce out to keep Britain caged within the EU just a little longer. He's got his eyes on the prize, knowing that it's his job to ensure that Britain can leave the European Union as British voters demanded. Like President Trump, he means to keep his promises.
What's vivid now is that a whole lot of things he probably didn't expect -- and had nothing to do with -- are starting to fall into place for him from the outside.
One we know about is that Johnson's Tories have started to soar in the polls. I wrote about that a few days ago here.
But there's more, way more.
How's this for 'betcha didn't see this coming?'
The lefty Archbishop of Canterbury, who's the highest prelate in the Church of England (the head of the church is actually the queen), who of course opposed Brexit, has now had a weird change of heart. Here's the report from the U.K. Sun:
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged Remainers to “stop whingeing” and accept the result of the Brexit referendum.Most Rev Justin Welby said those who voted to stay in the EU must now “take seriously the fact that the majority voted Leave”, stating: “We may not like it, but that is democracy.”
Wow. Just wow. Can you imagine one of our Catholic archbishops saying something comparable about the voters' will on the border wall and their right to having a nation ruled by law? That's pretty much what this lefty archbishop's change of heart amounts to.
Here's another one, from the U.K. Express:
Bern is hoping to ramp up research with London as its relationship with Brussels starts to disintegrate after their failed talks to strike up a permanent economic deal. Swiss leaders don’t believe “dogmatic” eurocrats are willing budge on their final three demands, making a deal being reached this year highly unlikely. The deadlocked talks have left relationships with Brussels, who blocked EU-based investors from trading on Swiss exchanges, strained over the summer.Failure to strike a permanent treaty could also see Swiss researchers blocked from the single market.Economy minister Guy Parmelin said this could lead the country’s top scientists to turn to new markets, including Britain after Brexit.He said: “I think the EU would weaken itself, it no longer cooperated with Switzerland on research.“We are then forced to seek alternatives, perhaps along with Britain, if the EU remains dogmatic.”
So Switzerland has had it up to here with the European Union same as Britain did, and now it's making itself an ally of Britain. Britain can use these kinds of non-supplicant, totally out-of-the-blue, not even asked-for, yet totally welcome, allies against the arrogant monster in Brussels.
The forces are amassing, and if Switzerland does this very publicly, you can bet a lot of them inside the EU and unhappy are thinking about it, too.
Here's another one Boris didn't ask for, a voice of reason -- and encouragement -- from a market bigfoot:
Here's a tweet crowing about it - can't tell if it ran in a tabloid or the person was just happy about it and expressing himself:
But the content speaks for itself. Deutsche Bank represents big money and the chief economist says Brexit is foreseen as a good thing for Britain, not the screaming crash the left, the European Union, and its allied doomsayers are howling about. The headline claims that Germany and France are afraid of this (something the economist did not say) but an inference that is likely correct. This kind of talk can only serve as wind at Boris Johnson's back. The video link is here.
Which brings up a fourth thing that is probably helpful to Boris. The tabloids seem to be on his side, exuberantly reporting all of these good developments. It's not the main press, of course, but having the popular press in one's tree again amounts to an unasked-for gift.
Funny how Johnson's show of strength has this unintended consequence -- of a cascading chain reaction of 'events' (as Churchill once said) all moving to support Boris Johnson's direction.