Brexit seems to be one of those long Broadway plays
that the Brits like, with pointless intrigues, family feuds and an ending that
could be predicted at the beginning. A confined theatre is a British temple,
Brexit is now being played in the boundaries of Britain with the whole world as
spectator and Europe in the demonic role.
A new twist has been introduced to what was becoming the Brexit writer’s
block. It has been spiced up with an unexpected Eastern flavour, the Boris
touch, with the ending become ever more exciting, dramatic and cliff hanger. Boris
has brought a new dimension into British politics, so far missing.
The West and particularly the English, like to be seen
to be playing fair by the rules. Rule of law is the official religion of the
United Kingdom. Like all religions, it is a fairy tale idealism which works for
most things with some degree of hypocrisy but gets stuck when real life gets
tough. When the ‘rule of law’ is not working for the English or comes to a dead
end, the English scuttle around to find a loophole in the small print, divide
the opposition, and transfer the blame. Usually it moves on with a deviant combination
of creative energising of the almost hidden small print, confounding the
opposition and aided by the lack of a constitution which enables flexibility in
interpretation of ‘convention’. The history of the Empire is full of this
tactic.
Unfortunately for the English, the Europeans are also immersed
in this skewed game of rule of law and are familiar with the British tactic. Hence
attempts at dividing the EU, at making the Europeans the scapegoat for refusing
to accept a ‘messy and fantasy solution’, and failing to treat the Brits on par
with the gods, has all failed. Remember, ‘gods’ are usually above the everyday
laws of mortals. Along comes Boris Johnson to save a play repeating scenes
under Theresa May. The public attention was waning.
Boris
has a Turkish ancestry, on the great grandfather, so a percentage of him brings
an Eastern approach now to the Brexit game. The East generally sees rule of law
as a utilitarian tool used by the politically powerful while they remain above
it. It is no wonder ‘rule of law’ does not appear to work as ‘equitably’ in
most countries east of Greece as it seems in the west. Perhaps the difference
is that in the west there is craft, pretence and play when rule of law is bent,
whereas in the East, power dispenses with the drama and gets to the desired
outcome unashamedly.
The UK has now brought in the ‘curry’ option. With the
Brexit stasis becoming deeply sclerotic as Parliament could not find any road,
lane or even a rope to pull itself through the self-imposed barriers, in came
Boris with his eastern temperament woken.
He first warned the Brits of the great Turkish migrant
invasion for which only Brexit was a defence. In April 2016, Mr
Johnson warned: “I am very pro-Turkish but what I certainly can’t imagine
is a situation in which 77 million of my fellow Turks and those of Turkish
origin can come here without any checks at all. That is mad – that won’t work.”
Now with his Turkish
roots he is Prime Minister. Talk about ironic prophecy.
He has dismissed the sacrament of every convention and
unwritten rule that has prevented the Crown to institute a proper Constitution
and which defined the mystery of Britain. He found the greatest loophole. There
is no written constitution so why not open the gaping hole that had so far been
covered with customised verbal straw, that is convention. He has driven a
bulldozer through propriety of office and government.
Extraordinarily, he
is the leader of Britain that every politician and commentator who can say so does say so without embarrassment that he
cannot be trusted! Imagine, a country being asked to live by rule of law,
have integrity but its leader unashamedly is considered a pathological liar
in office! Brexit has brought politics to this level. A new for the office
of Her Majesty’s Prime Minister.
Boris prorogued Parliament (suspended now) for long
period against convention until courts reversed it: and then against
‘traditional wisdom’ threw out the most staunch members of the Conservative
Party who were considered its pillars if not foundation, including grandees and
Churchill’s son; has says anything to anyone as they want to hear and then
denies he said it; exploited the Queen in his machinations and even called Parliament
to sit on an emergency war footing on a Saturday. The unwritten constitution
has been exposed by him as the infamous Emperor’s non-existent clothes.
Like leaders in some eastern countries, Boris is
pushing as far as is possible, breaking convention as far is possible and ignoring
etiquette as far is possible until people go to the courts to stop him. If he
carries on, sooner or later the courts will be in a knot.
Brexit has not been done yet but it has taken its
toll. It is a war come home and grown into a multidimensional civil war. It is
almost the Middle East without the violence. The different camps range from no
Brexit, to a Brexit with no Deal to a Brexit with any Deal to a Brexit with a
Deal with Customs Union with Europe (meaning obeying EU regulations) and a
Brexit with labour laws aligned with Europe and so on.
The British parliament itself is a spectacle. No party
can command complete loyalty, (except perhaps Scottish Nationalists). Parties
dominating England and Wales all have conspirators galore now.
Britain, or at least England has changed and will
change for ever after this. This is a tectonic phase in modern Britain. Calls
for a proper written constitution are growing. Some are even predicting the end
of the Monarchy on whom convention depended. Some are predicting a move away
from the simple majority democracy that UK has and some are predicting a new
phase in which smaller parties will reign, perhaps a proportional
representation model of some European countries.
The end of United Kingdom is prophesised by many a
pundit and politician now. Few think that the country can be united after three
years of bitter differences. Scotland is gearing up for another referendum.
Northern Ireland’s nationalists are muting a referendum to separate from
Britain in near future. That leaves Wales and England.
It is also interesting that this country which ran a
racist Empire once, now has its four most important positions in Government run
by children of migrant families. The PM has Turkish roots, born in New York. The
Foreign Minister is son of a Czechoslovakian Jewish father, The Home Minister
is daughter of East African Gujratis and the Chancellor is a son of Pakistani
immigrants. It shows how far Britain has come in being a real multicultural and
multiracial country. With Brexit, a new Britain is rising as Imperial Britain
is dying.
As for Brexit, Boris Johnson is likely to favour a
Brexit Deal where Northern Ireland is ditched. The majority of English see
Norther Ireland as a burden. He may even stitch up with Scottish nationalists
and offer them a referendum. He is likely to get support from some Labour MPs
so he can ignore the Northern Irish Unionists (those who want to remain within
UK, DUP) who have been a major obstacle to any agreement on Brexit.
After all this real life and often humorous grand Brexit
theatre which has made Comic halls irrelevant in London at the moment, and
which has made West End plays appear as Children’s entertainment, the end game
may still be another referendum and back into EU after a short Brexit.
But Brexit Britain will have undergone
fundamental change in these three years of internal trauma. It is already being
seen very differently by the rest of the world but will be even more after the
Boris touch at the heart of an Imperial power that made ceremony, pomp,
convention and tradition the sacred unwritten constitution of Great Britain. All
that is being blown away by Boris the Turk.
