So you have to hand it to them, their game plan worked. It was high risk and like a speeding rocket they had to shed some parts, like the M.P.’s who lost the whip. From the beginning Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnston’s aim was to get back into Downing Street with an overall majority. The true genius of their strategy was in the simplicity of their message “Get Brexit Done”. This appealed directly to all those that had voted Leave, but also to those that were simply worn down by the whole Brexit debate and wanted the damn “oven-ready” thing cooked and dispensed with. “Get Brexit Done” and then we can solve all your problems. That’s when they did something unexpected. They promised to turn on the fiscal taps and pump resources into public services. Austerity was over and now the U.K. was allowed to enjoy the fruits of a booming economy.
Then they got lucky, the Labour Party produced a manifesto that would give any self-respecting Capitalist the jumps. It was a red blooded Socialist agenda in tooth and claw and would arguably drag the British economy back to the seventies. I had people talking to me about the re-introduction of exchange controls and a run on the pound. Conservatives were arguing that a Labour government wouldn’t end with a crisis, they would start with one. With Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s approach to the economy that argument held some sway. He is, after all, a self- avowed Marxist.
In addition to this was the feeling that despite misgivings about Boris’s relationship with the truth, Corbyn represented a much more sinister problem. His failure to root out anti-Semitism in Labour’s ranks. The very idea that some Jews felt they would have to leave the UK if he got into No. 10 is disturbing to say the least. I had two friends at a high level in the British Labour Party and were they still alive they would be appalled by such a turn of events.
Then there was security. Was it safe to let a guy like Corbyn into No. 10. In my opinion quite clearly not, and the prospect of Diane Abbott as Home Secretary didn’t help. They cooked their own goose.