THE COUNTRY ELECTED Boris Johnson’s government with a thumping majority only 6 months ago. Why? The country wanted change. Not just the narrow change of delivering Brexit but a change to the whole direction of the country. The Westminster bubble in all its self-congratulatory and self-satisfied cliquishness was discredited and deplored. Along with that, swathes of the media and particularly the BBC, were discredited for relentlessly pushing their own agenda for reshaping the country and setting themselves up as speaking for the people when they had no justification for claiming such lofty abilities.
The strongly liberal-left political activists who have captured much of the Charitable sector, together with education and Universities, the manner in which the Courts were creating their own law to stand above Parliament, the way the Police were conducting their role, the Crime Prosecution Service bending the rules of evidence and impartiality, were all busy promoting the creation of a country that the majority of people did not accept represented their values and was considered unworthy of pursuing.
International institutions such as the UN, the state of international diplomacy, including embracing China, have all departed from what the majority would see as the essential principles that deliver real value to our global society and that lay behind their founding objectives.
Perhaps most significantly for our democracy, the people railed against the actions and attitudes of our own elected politicians and those in the House of Lords. In the name of representative democracy they distorted their responsibilities such that they believed they had a right to ride rough shod over the views of the silent majority, tell them what was good for them and pander to every pressure group that wanted to overturn traditional values and attitudes in the name of a progressive society.
The country wanted to press the reset button on politics and get back to a government that answered to the people. In Boris Johnson, the silent majority believed they had found a voice and most importantly, found someone who they perceived could deliver on reshaping and revitalising the country.
Perhaps the current unacceptable BLM demonstrations and how they have been dealt with encapsulate some of these issues. Most basic of all is the arguably racist tag line ‘Black Lives Matter’. Surely ALL lives matter? Allying the George Floyd incident to slavery is a further manipulation.
If you want to go back over the history of slavery then understand that slavery in Africa by all tribes across the whole of Africa and in conjunction with Arabs from the north was widespread for centuries before the Europeans entered the scene. Indeed African slavery in some instances provided the stock for human sacrifice. The Africans sold their fellow man or more accurately the people of tribes they had conquered. None of that is acceptable and it does not justify slavery by Africans, Europeans or anyone else. What is important is that nations learn the error of their ways and change. Slavery by Europeans finished 200 years ago. Nobody in the UK today can sensibly claim they are now touched by slave exports from Africa to the plantations in the Caribbean or Americas. WW2 was only 75 years ago and yet Europeans have put that behind them. It is history. You cannot change it but you must understand it and learn from it.
So what do the silent majority make of what has happened? The question being asked is how a country that prides itself on the rule of law, with a police force charged with upholding it for the benefit of all, has supinely allowed these violent and unacceptable demonstrations to happen? Much of the media, including the BBC and opposition MPs are distorting objective analysis of the issues in an attempt to pander to extremists and an unthinking segment of the population. Indeed, it took the people of Poole to stand up and protect Lord Baden-Powell’s statue because their elected representatives had lost their perspective. What a sorry state of affairs.
The police have thought it all too difficult and so largely let vandalism and lawlessness go unchallenged. The same was true during the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ demonstrations. It is odd how the Police get very active when it comes to speed cameras. That comparison is not lost on the country.
The above is a current and very sad episode that encapsulates aspects of our society where those we trusted in its protection have lost the plot. People expect Boris Johnson to put right. The election result delivered the agenda for Boris not just to ‘Get Brexit Done’ but to implement a root and branch reform of our institutions, policies and practice to take the country back to its core cultures and values. This is not a ‘one term’ agenda but if Boris wants a second term he had better get cracking. Get your MoJo back Boris! Tim Pope FCA is a retired risk management partner of a leading international professional services network
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