Daily Times

It’s not always easy being a woman in the suited and booted world of politics. Just asks Theresa May, she who is no grocer’s daughter. As she was delivering her keynote speech to the annual Tory party conference — Ms May found herself upstaged somewhat. And not just by her own cough. But by two gentlemen.

The first was a prankster who is known in certain circles for mocking truth to power. Simon Brodkin, dressed in the borrowed robes of his very own alter ego, approached the podium and handed the Prime Minister a fake P45 form. Which is part of the paperwork that a company provides an employee who has stopped working for it.  Then came the punch line: Brodkin, still in character, turned to none other than Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, before giving the thumbs up and telling him it was a done deal. It was a poignant skit. Given that right at the beginning of the rush for Number 10 — in the immediate aftermath of Dave throwing in the towel in favour of trawling pig manure — Boris has been itching to throw his hat into the circus ring. That he rallied around Ms May is said to be not indicative of support for the PM but, rather, a simple case of biding his time before plonking himself down in the hot seat.

BoJo didn’t vote for war on Libya. Thus he is “being attacked for the words he used about a disaster that he cautioned against by people whose moral choices helped to bring that disaster about”. Yet this isn’t as extraordinary as it seems. Not when Blair has never been held to account for Iraq. Not when May hasn’t answered for her ‘open door’ policy on Libya

And speaking of BoJo — not the clown, but Mr Foreign Secretary — he managed to unwittingly overshadow his boss. It was all rather spectacular, to be honest. Especially given that the thread weaving together May’s speech seemed to hinge overwhelmingly upon telling the British people why she was in this dirty business that some call politics. By contrast, statesman Jeremy Corbyn spent his keynote address spelling out what the Labour party was prepared to do for the citizenry. Yet it was on Libya that Boris came undone.

What happened went something like this. BoJo started talking about business opportunities in Sirte, the city where Gaddafi met his bloody end. There was nothing untoward about this given that this is what British leaders do. From Thatcher to Blair to Cameron and all those in between. None has hesitated when it comes to swooping in and profiting from their strategic humanitarian interventions.

Yet being a rather bumbling sort of chap that ought to surely make him the poster boy for the Eton Rifles, Boris proceeded to talk about how the Libyan city boasted the potential to be the next Dubai. It has everything, he said, from white sandy beaches to beautiful sea. Here is a Foreign Secretary who really earns his keep. Then came the blunder. While gloating about British businesses already scouting Sirte to transform it into some sort of tech hub — he made an offhand comment about how first they would have to clear away the dead bodies. Then before you could say Bojo’s your uncle, nearly everyone was saying the same thing: off with his head. Including those from within his own party. Though this may or may not have been a concerted move by the Remainers to seize the day and get rid of the Brexiteering Boris.

Yet this is somewhat missing the point, argues editor and commentator Brendan O’Neil. Writing in this week’s issue of British weekly magazine The Spectator, he rather superbly offers a breakdown of those parliamentarians who set Twitter alight with their calls for Boris’ head on a stick. Most, if not all, had voted to bomb Libya. Which, unfunnily enough, lead to those dead bodies cluttering up Sirte in the first place. O’Neil is rightly scathing in underscoring the biggest irony of all: “You know who didn’t vote for it? Boris. He was London mayor at the time and not in parliament. And he actually cautioned against military intervention in Libya. He told politicians to cease their military ‘sabre rattling’ over this unstable nation. So, if you can fathom it, Boris is being attacked for the words he used about a disaster he cautioned against by people whose moral choices helped to bring that disaster about. This is a truly extraordinary state of affairs.”

Except that, sadly, it isn’t all that extraordinary. Not when one thinks about it, not really. Not when one recalls how the odious Tony Blair has never been held to account for his Iraqi war of aggression. Not when one recalls Theresa May’s extremely dangerous ‘open door’ policy on Libya. Which has allowed UK-based Libyan exiles as well as British-Libyan citizens to join the 2011 uprising in that country before being allowed to return to British soil. Despite many such individuals having been the subject of terrorist control measures that the government subsequently dropped.

So, there we have it. In today’s Britain it is BoJo who is the temporary custodian of the country’s moral compass. Would you Adam and Eve it? Maybe Thatcher had a point, after all, when she tartly announced that society was dead.

The writer is the Deputy Managing Editor, Daily Times. She can be reached at mirandahusain@me.com and tweets @humeiwei

Published in Daily Times, October 7^th 2017.