Opposing Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson's government appears to be in meltdown. By the time I've written this, he may even have said he's standing down. On the other hand, he may survive. Who knows? The thing is that, stay or go, little of it will have been down to Labour having presented a better, or even credible, opposition to him, and one of the most reactionary Tory Parties there has been in a century.

For months, all of the opposition to Johnson and his government has been apolitical. It focused on various forms of sleaze and tittle-tattle, including all the nonsense about whether he committed the mortal sin of attending “parties” held in his home in Downing Street, and the wallpaper on the walls. The media of course, love all of those stories that people get wound up about, as expressed in their comments in the lower reaches of the tabloids, and internet discussions. The media love easy stories that focus on individuals and celebrities that centre on such tittle-tattle and do not require them to engage in any serious political analysis and journalism. They like to fan the flames of all of that enraged indignity poured out in the below the line comments, and turn them into what Dave Gorman termed a “Found Poem”.

Labour also loves such opposition, because, given that its politics are now indistinguishable from those of the Tories, its in no real position to oppose from the standpoint of political principle, and must too find its points of support on the shaky ground of moral outrage, and managerial competence. When challenged on that being the basis upon which they are criticising Johnson and the Tories, both the media and Labour say, its not about those particular issues, but about Boris Johnson's competence, and his judgement.

Well, I for one, am glad that Boris Johnson is incompetent and has poor judgement. If I am in a battle, the last thing I want is for the general on the other side of the battlefield to be competent and to have good judgement! I would be praying that they had neither. And, how lucky is it for Labour that Johnson is incompetent and has such poor judgement, because if, he was competent and had good judgement, how much worse would Starmer appear, and how much further behind would Labour have been in the polls over the last two and a half years? Even for their own narrow political interests, in hoping to become the next government – God help us – they ought to be over the moon that Johnson is such an oaf!

But, who needed to be told that Johnson was such an oaf – well, obviously, besides all of those petit-bourgeois who voted for him in the hope of “Getting Brexit Done”. It was obvious to anyone that pays even the slightest attention to politics, or who had just watched “Have I Got news For You?” that Johnson is an oaf. But, worse than that, the fact that he is an oaf should make no difference to Labour. All that you need to know is that he's a Tory. Whether he's an oafish Tory, an incompetent Tory or not, is irrelevant. All that should matter for a social-democrat, let alone a socialist is that he's a Tory. Indeed, for a social-democrat or a socialist, if he was an effective Tory that would be even worse.

But, for Starmer and his Blue Labour, its not the fact that Johnson is a Tory that matters. That's because they have adopted the reactionary, protectionist and nationalist ideology of Toryism themselves, now even abandoning the conservative social-democracy/neoliberalism that has characterised them in the past. Gone is the support for internationalism and the EU, as Starmer has adopted Johnson's reactionary Brexit agenda, and fully embraced jingoism, as he wraps himself in the butcher's apron, in search of reactionary petty-bourgeois votes.

For Starmer and Blue Labour, Johnson is not a general in the opposing army. They see themselves as being on the same side, only opposing Johnson because of him being a poor general. To use a football analogy, for Starmer and co., its like they are all players on the same national side, but that they are sitting on the bench, waiting for their chance to come on to play the role of super sub, and save the team from defeat, and so are repeatedly complaining to the coach about the poor performance of their team mates on the pitch.

It could be, of course, that there is something about being a Tory that makes them more susceptible to the kind of sleaze that Johnson's government is now being dragged by. Maybe its a consequence of that Public School education, and, of course, the fact that they are connected by a thousand golden strings to the rich and powerful. But, then the same can be said about much of the PLP. Blair's government took the odd million from the likes of Bernie Ecclestone, who says he would "take a bullet for Putin", and Blair's Labour was embroiled in the cash for peerages scandal. It was happy to hob-nob with Murdoch and his cronies, and to take holidays on the super yachts of billionaires. It was only an extension of the role of people like Robert Maxwell, who as well as being a multimillionaire, right-wing media tycoon, was also a Labour MP, and whose daughter Ghislane, has just been sentenced to years in jail, in the US. Labour is in a poor position to trade moral outrage stories with the Tories.

And, whilst Johnson and the Tories have openly taken money from Russian billionaires, as well as money being fed into its Brexit campaign, over the years, Labour politicians, and right-wing groups in the party have taken money from outside too. The most notable, as shown by the Al Jazeera expose, is the money that the Israeli state has channelled into the Labour Party to promote the interests of Zionism, and the links of members of Labour with BICOM.

But the CIA fairly openly channels money into right-wing groups operating inside and on the fringes of Labour too, just as it does in other countries. In the past, the links of various high-ranking Labour politicians with the Atlantic Council. All of that is in addition to the role of the British state and its secret police agencies, in the Labour Party, and labour movement.

Its not just that spycops have infiltrated various left-wing and protest groups, but that they have had directly on their pay-roll as many as 200 trade union leaders, at a time, and a strong presence in the Labour Party, from where to spy, manipulate, undermine and provoke toachieve their ends.

But, if anyone doubts these outside influences, its only necessary to look at the actual behaviour of Labour, both in and out of government, to see that it acts in the interests of the ruling class far more than it does the workers that look to it to perform that role, and who provide it with its footsoldiers and voting fodder.

So, if Johnson stays or goes, makes little difference to social-democrats let alone socialists. If he stays, he will, at least, be largely crippled in pushing through his reactionary policies, whereas if he goes, he will just be replaced by a clone, be it one from within the Tory party, or another off the substitutes bench of Blue Labour.