Lord Frost has given an interview to The Mail on Sunday, the first time he’s spoken publicly since his resignation. As usual it’s full of coded language about being a "true blue" and having “free markets“ and “low taxes” - the stuff that appeals to those on the far right. What it means in reality is anyone’s guess. As far as I can see this government is as far from being conservative as any government in history. It is the most right wing and nationalist that Britain has ever had. Conservativism is about conserving things but Johnson heads an administration which is dismantling and burning everything Britain stands for.
One can barely understand what is going on inside his head. Among the more inane comments Frost makes is this:
“I saw the polling [putting Labour 16 points ahead in red wall seats] and it doesn't look good. I don't think the Red Wall is so different to the rest of the country. What people want is their own lives to get better. They want control of their lives and to be prosperous.”
I don't disagree, but everything - literally everything - Frost has done in the past two or three years has ensured people in this country will be poorer and less prosperous. It's like hearing Adolph Hitler speaking the words of Mother Theresa.
At one point he talks about the “little trough” the government is going through although it’s not clear if he means the popularity one or the economic one. Either way he’s wrong about it being little or short lived.
By erecting trade barriers between the UK and its largest overseas market he has ensured a permanent reduction in trade, GDP and tax revenues, in fact everything that constitutes prosperity for the average voter. And it will be voters in the red wall seats which are likely to be hardest hit.
Conservatives have never put ideology above all else. The whole idea of conservatism is to use whatever practical measures are available to improve the welfare and living standards of the people. They may have got it wrong sometimes but no UK government in history has ever deliberately embarked on a policy which is known to be damaging before it has even been implemented.
Bizarrely, the article says, “he is keen to clarify that [the reasons for his resignation] are political, not personal; that he considers Mr Johnson to be the right person to lead the country, but that he has the wrong policies and the wrong people around him.”
In other words Johnson has managed to get the wrong people and the wrong policies but is still the right leader. How does that work? The man is a completer buffoon and has zero idea what he's doing or why and he surrounds himself with incompetent, ideological non-entities like Frost. No wonder we're in a mess and Johnson sits at the very pinnacle.
The piece says Frost is "diplomatic and cautious, but it is clear that he has little time for policies such as the expensive 'net zero' emissions target and proposed new laws on animal sentience which disgruntled Tory backbenchers – fairly or otherwise – believe Mr Johnson adopted at least partly as a result of pressure from his wife Carrie."
"I went into government in 2019 because I thought I wanted to do something for the country, wanted to help us deliver Brexit and start to deliver the benefits of Brexit," he says.
I think it far more likely he has finally realised there are no 'benefits' of Brexit and he wanted out before it all goes seriously wrong. And note how Carrie Symonds - Mrs Johnson - is singled out. Frost is a close buddy of Dominic Cummings and there is no love lost between him and Symonds. Downing Street is truly a nest of vipers and incompetent ones at that..
His successor Liz Truss has been writing in The Sunday Telegraph and is once again talking tough about triggering article 16 of the NI protocol:
Liz Truss has said she is “willing” to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, which would suspend parts of the treaty designed to prevent a hard border with the Republic, if a deal with the EU cannot be struckhttps://t.co/gnqMTXVvoY
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) January 8, 2022
In her article she says:
"But let me be clear, I will not sign up to anything which sees the people of Northern Ireland unable to benefit from the same decisions on taxation and spending as the rest of the UK, or which still sees goods moving within our own country being subject to checks."
The new Foreign Secretary seems unaware that her boss Johnson has already signed up to checks on goods moving within our country and there is now a legally cast iron treaty between the UK and the EU which says precisely that.
What have we done to deserve all this?
