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No one can say that Boris Johnson has had a good year. Few premiers in the world have had a good 2020, Jacinda Ardern being one notable exception. But 2020 was doubly difficult for Boris; he already had the Herculean task of dealing with Brexit when the pandemic took hold, and he clearly didn’t have enough wherewithal to deal with both. Indeed, the British government’s approach to the pandemic has been bumbling, which is a word often used to describe Boris. The end result has seen the country go in and out of lockdowns with no realistic end in sight.
The firmly held British belief that Britain simply cannot close its borders is a massive reason for their failure with the pandemic, but Britain clearly thinks it is either too big or too important to close its borders like other countries. No matter; this latest outbreak has solved that problem for them, at least in part, as most European countries have now closed their borders to Britain. If only COVID-ridden countries like Brazil would do the same, maybe the British would have a chance of stamping out the virus, but no luck so far.
Nevertheless, Boris has managed to pull one Christmas rabbit out of the hat. With a week to go before a ‘hard’ Brexit was inevitable, British negotiators somehow untangled the Gordian knot of pulling off a trade deal with the EU, and have now done it. Boris Johnson’s legacy will be a successful Brexit, and as Brexit destroyed his two predecessors, that is no mean feat.
By securing first the Withdrawal Agreement, and now the Brexit trade deal, Johnson has done what so many said could never be done. Many believed that he would have preferred a no-deal over the withdrawal agreement, while many said that he would prefer a no-deal over a trade deal, but he has pulled off both. The naysayers will crow; the Remainers will complain and Nicola Sturgeon is already using the deal as an excuse to go for Scottish separatism yet again, but Johnson’s success here has been remarkable and all the naysayers, Remainers and Sturgeons know it only too well. Even the leader of the opposition, Kier Starmer, has ‘begrudgingly’ agreed to support it, which is resounding support from the likes of a British Labour leader. While Britain breathes a sigh of relief and the rest of the world looks on in wonder, Britain can once again go its own way… if it ever manages to control the pandemic.
Remember that the result of the Brexit referendum, four long years ago was a surprise to almost all British MPs at the time, Boris Johnson included. No one wanted to face up to reality. David Cameron resigned almost immediately, and will go down in history as a rat deserting a refloating ship. Most of parliament didn’t want Brexit; they thought it was dangerous and positively disastrous for the British economy. Time will tell, but with Britain now able to trade with Europe and set up new trade deals with old friends and a few old foes, the economic future for Britain is bright indeed.
It took a lot to get here though, and Johnson had to clear his own party of the revolting (a double entendre is deliberate here) MPs who were determined to scuttle any exit plans. Johnson, however, was pragmatic. He recognised this was a move of people over power, and politicians can often forget, but Johnson never did, that it is the people who have the power in the end.
The Europeans had a lot at stake in these negotiations. First and foremost, they had to play a hard game with Britain because there have been rumblings from other countries about a wish to exit the EU, and they had no desire to set off a domino trail that would result in a much reduced and ineffective union. But at the same time, Europe needs British goods as much as Britain needs European ones; both parties would have lost out over a lack of a trade deal. Once the Withdrawal Agreement was signed, the trade deal was almost inevitable, as it was in the interests of Europe to secure it. The leaders of the EU may be arrogant but they are not completely stupid. Pragmatism was the winner in the end.
Just as the people in the USA voted to take back their country in 2016, the British people voted to do the same thing in the same year and have now done it. Johnson’s difficult, or possibly disastrous first year in power has just turned on a sixpence; the pandemic will (eventually) disappear, but membership of the EU is over for Britain for ever.
Never underestimate the power of the people in a democracy. For all that we believe democracy is being eroded at the hands of self-interested politicians, here is a triumph of people power, where ordinary voters actually had a say in things that affect their daily lives. The political elite in all countries, backed by a compliant media, have done everything to suppress this call from the people who want a say in the way they live, but Boris Johnson heard it, and so, on the other side of the Atlantic, did Donald Trump.
“From January 1st,” Boris Johnson told the British people, “we are outside of the customs union and outside of the single market. British laws will be made solely by the British parliament, interpreted by UK judges sitting in UK courts … For the first time since 1973, we will be an independent coastal state.”
Rule Britannia.
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