The essential circus of party politics in the UK is never more cringe making than at party conference time. The spectacle of socially awkward, physically clumsy individuals trying to get "down with the kids" in a vain attempt to assert a non-existent popularity is always a fairly barf-making sight. Even the best political figures tend to feel uneasy about the false ballyhoo of the conference set-piece speech; I recall Paddy Ashdown coming off stage amid a minor fireworks display and muttering a gentle imprecation at the slightly surreal farce he had been forced to take part in.
Neither Theresa May nor Boris Johnson are particularly good political figures. May is an exceptionally awkward personality: "a bloody difficult woman" as other Conservatives have long noticed. Her management style is authoritarian and insecure, her personality lacks empathy and is unusually defensive under pressure. By contrast the extrovert Boris Johnson is a warmer figure, but his charm is lessened by a level of self centredness which goes well beyond the narcissistic and into a pathology. He is unprincipled and reckless in both his personal and political life. So an introvert and an extrovert collide and the Conservative party has been caught between them. The problem is that the country is also collateral damage in the fight between these two very limited personalities.
Perhaps these two believe the tinsel of the party conference reflects genuine emotions in the country at large (spoiler alert: it doesn't). But while Mr. Johnson affects to believe his own fake sub-Churchillian schtick, in fact it is the Prime Minister's fake speech that in its banality maps out the future. It will doubtless be reported as the "speech that saved the Prime Minister", but actually it does not even go part way to erasing the disgraceful "Citizen of Nowhere" speech which she made upon acceding to power. She is still mapping out a course that does not pass between the devil and deep blue sea, but aims directly at both of them. She still believes six impossible things before Brexit despite the EU negotiators retaining a clarity that has been disgracefully lacking on the UK side. He speech is as empty and vacuous as its reception is staged and fake.
The only thing that keeps this shop window of stupidity alive is the fake money that drives the modern Conservative Party. Intellectually moribund and the bear garden of deformed personalities, the Tories deserve utter ruin. Banal, empty and bereft of all energy, let the Titanic Tories go down to the punishment that their reckless immaturity richly deserves.
Neither Theresa May nor Boris Johnson are particularly good political figures. May is an exceptionally awkward personality: "a bloody difficult woman" as other Conservatives have long noticed. Her management style is authoritarian and insecure, her personality lacks empathy and is unusually defensive under pressure. By contrast the extrovert Boris Johnson is a warmer figure, but his charm is lessened by a level of self centredness which goes well beyond the narcissistic and into a pathology. He is unprincipled and reckless in both his personal and political life. So an introvert and an extrovert collide and the Conservative party has been caught between them. The problem is that the country is also collateral damage in the fight between these two very limited personalities.
Perhaps these two believe the tinsel of the party conference reflects genuine emotions in the country at large (spoiler alert: it doesn't). But while Mr. Johnson affects to believe his own fake sub-Churchillian schtick, in fact it is the Prime Minister's fake speech that in its banality maps out the future. It will doubtless be reported as the "speech that saved the Prime Minister", but actually it does not even go part way to erasing the disgraceful "Citizen of Nowhere" speech which she made upon acceding to power. She is still mapping out a course that does not pass between the devil and deep blue sea, but aims directly at both of them. She still believes six impossible things before Brexit despite the EU negotiators retaining a clarity that has been disgracefully lacking on the UK side. He speech is as empty and vacuous as its reception is staged and fake.
The only thing that keeps this shop window of stupidity alive is the fake money that drives the modern Conservative Party. Intellectually moribund and the bear garden of deformed personalities, the Tories deserve utter ruin. Banal, empty and bereft of all energy, let the Titanic Tories go down to the punishment that their reckless immaturity richly deserves.
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