Boris Is Boris, Indeed

The fact that Boris Johnson is still in post proves, as if proof were needed, that Theresa May is the most inconsequential Prime Minister in the history of the office. Everything that Johnson has ever been given, he has been given "for a laugh" by people who ought to have known better, including Mrs May.

He was made Editor of The Spectator for a laugh. He was made an MP the first time for a laugh. He was made Mayor of London for a laugh. He was made an MP the second time for a laugh. He has been made Foreign Secretary for a laugh. He now expects to be made Prime Minister for a laugh. But many of us never did see the joke, and the halving of his majority this year indicates that it is becoming tiresome to more and more people.

In any case, the Boris Blueprint for Brexit bears no resemblance to the will of the areas that voted Leave, most of which went on to re-elect the Labour MPs that they had already had, but often with hugely increased majorities under the Leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. The referendum result was the long-delayed Labour victory of 1983, and the revenge of the areas that had been devastated by everything in the intervening 33 years.

2017 was not "the Brexit Election". The issue was hardly raised, and both main parties had the same policy on it, anyway. For all the bluster from certain quarters, they still do. The difference is that, having both wanted to leave the Single Market and the Customs Union, they both now want to stay in those things "for a transitional period". "Transition" to what, exactly? Were this not the case, then Johnson would not have felt moved to make his latest intervention.

The clear majority view in Scotland is to remain both in the United Kingdom and in the European Union. Yet the Liberal Democrats, who alone have that policy, won only four seats out of 59, the same number that they would have won under Proportional Representation. They came second in only one more. The clear majority view in Northern Ireland is to remain both in the United Kingdom and in the European Union. That is the position of precisely one MP out of Northern Ireland's 18, the Independent Sylvia Hermon.

What was then still the Hard Brexit Conservative Party held on in the Remain heartlands of the South outside London, and it made significant gains in the Remain heartlands of Scotland. Meanwhile, what was then still the Hard Brexit Labour Party stormed home in London, as well as in Liverpool and Manchester, which also voted Remain. It, too, made notable progress in Scotland. If General Elections since 1983 had been about the EU, then there would never have been a referendum.

Slowly, but surely, we are edging towards another one. The two options will be the Brexit deal agreed with the EU, and staying in it after all. But the scheme set out by the Foreign Secretary would not only be suicidal if presented to the electorate at a General Election. It is also as far removed as it is possible to be from the interests, opinions and aspirations of the areas that decided the result of the first referendum.