Boris Johnson has passed his first test as prime minister with flying colours. He has appointed the most robustly conservative (and pro-Brexit) cabinet since the Thatcher era.
Like his joyously uplifting speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street yesterday, Boris’s appointments augur extremely well not just for the delivery of Brexit by October 31 but also for Britain’s future as a thriving economy and beacon of freedom and prosperity in the years beyond.
At a stroke, the chances of Britain now falling for the alternative of an anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist, Marxist regime led by Jeremy Corbyn have been reduced to almost zero.
In financier-speak Britain has been oversold for too long. Now it is most definitely a BUY.
My favourite appointment is that of Priti Patel to Home Secretary. Patel is probably the closest thing we’ve got to being the heir to Margaret Thatcher: feisty, sparky, incredibly sound and, let’s be honest, not a little sexy.
It’s being spun as a victory for “diversity” and ethnic minorities. Yeah, right. Patel – who loathes tokenism and PC in all its manifestations – got the job because not because she’s Ugandan Asian or female but because she’s easily the best white man available. One of this government’s most pressing tasks is to reform and bolster the police and to reduce the knife crime which has grown rife, especially in Sadiq Khan’s failing London. Patel won’t take prisoners. I don’t much fancy Khan’s chances.
Dominic Raab is a great pick as Foreign Secretary. For those of us on the Brexit right, he was leadership candidate we would have most preferred to win if Boris hadn’t made the final cut. Apart from being sound — obvs — he’s famously brusque and intolerant. Well, good: having read some of those leaked memos from our ex-Washington ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, it sounds like our Foreign Office could do with a bit of a kick up the arse from Dom.
Of the big three appointments, the one that most concerns me is Sajid Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer. OK he has a City background but that proves little: how do we know he wasn’t promoted because he was just a safe pair of hands or because he pushed the right diversity button? Sure, I see that it’s good optics to have Britain’s first Muslim Chancellor (not that he’s exactly a devout Muslim) but what’s far more important – imperative, indeed – is that Britain’s economy is run by a ruthlessly pro-markets, supply-side, Laffer-curve-worshipping, cost-slashing Austrian school zealot. Is “The Saj” one of those? We’ll have to wait and see…
Almost more important than any of the above, though, is the man I mentioned yesterday: Dominic Cummings.
As a master strategist and tactician, Cummings prefers to fly below the radar, but you’ll know how he operates if you saw last years’ Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War where he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch. He doesn’t suffer fools and he makes things happen. Without him – and this is certainly not to downplay the fine work done by everyone from Nigel Farage and Dan Hannan to Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart – the Brexiteers would probably have lost the Referendum.
This cabinet is being described in some quarters as ‘Dominic Cummings’s cabinet.’ It wouldn’t at all surprise me if he were indeed the Machiavellian genius behind it all.
There’s a big clue in what is, superficially, Boris’s most surprising appointment: that of Michael Gove to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (a Cabinet-ranking, minister without portfolio role roughly equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister).
Gove, of course, was the traitor who infamously knifed Boris the last time he tried to become prime minister – in the immediate aftermath of their EU Referendum victory leading the Vote Leave campaign.
This led to the disastrous Theresa May premiership – and three painful years of Brexit not being delivered – so, in theory, Boris ought not to be a Gove fan.
But Boris is no fool. He sees that Gove – as probably the most effective minister of the last decade, especially during his stint at Education – is far too talented to be left out of any worthwhile cabinet. Also, clearly, he is capable of great magnanimity.
There’s more to it than that though. It wouldn’t remotely surprise me if Cummings had stipulated that, as part of his new job as Boris’s senior advisor, he would have to work with Michael Gove in a senior role.
This was always the plan in the aftermath of the referendum: Gove and Cummings were going to get on with the vital business of dismantling or at least defanging the Deep State which had done so much to thwart Brexit and Conservative policy generally. Boris was going to get on with the business of being Boris.
What has happened here, in other words, is that the band has reformed – and its comeback tour is going to be better ever before.
There are one or two other Easter eggs buried in this particular Cabinet which I’ll talk about later.
My immediate take though is that this Cabinet is everything any red-meat conservative and Brexiteers could possibly have hoped for.
And if you’re still in any doubt of how good it is, just sit back and enjoy the delicious taste of these salty Remainer tears…
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