Opinion

Claire Simpson: Johnson's lust for power might just cause him to lose it

A Brexit protester in Westminster after it was announced Parliament will be suspended for five weeks. Picture by Kirsty O'Connor, Press Association
A Brexit protester in Westminster after it was announced Parliament will be suspended for five weeks. Picture by Kirsty O'Connor, Press Association A Brexit protester in Westminster after it was announced Parliament will be suspended for five weeks. Picture by Kirsty O'Connor, Press Association

THERE’S a sign in a bookshop in Cornwall which warns customers “the post-apocalyptic fiction section has been moved to current affairs”.

Certainly Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament has more than a hint of 1984.

Many were left wondering how he could suspend parliamentary business for five weeks in the run-up to a likely no-deal Brexit which economists have warned will plunge the country into recession, lead to sweeping job losses and cause a potential medicine shortage.

The answer is - because he can.

The prime minister is already facing several legal challenges to the suspension. Even former Tory Prime Minister John Major - who showed little backbone when he was in the job - says he wants to join one of the challenges. His intervention is in contrast to work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd who, weeks after she described the prorogation of Parliament as "absolutely outrageous", has become strangely silent on the issue.

Not even the most ardent Boris supporter could reasonably believe his claim that the suspension until October 14 is motivated by a desire to introduce new legislation.

The "very exciting agenda” he threatened could turn out to be as inventive as the Department of International Trade’s claim, months after the Brexit referendum, that French consumers were crying out for “high quality, innovative British jams and marmalades”.

We'll see how high that demand is come October 31. When thousands of lorries get stuck in EU customs it will surely only be because there aren't enough innovative British preserves to go around.

Under a Johnson government, plans to scrap short prison sentences will be dumped and vulnerable refugees who cross the Channel in boats will be sent back to France. So far, so poundshop Thatcher.

Johnson seems determined to pose as a decisive leader, working to enact the ‘will of the people’ - or 52 per cent of the people - by dragging us out of Europe as quickly as possible.

But his apparent decisiveness is driven by nothing more than weakness. With no parliamentary majority and under threat in the polls from the Brexit Party, he's forced the country into an insane position just to appease a narrow slice of the electorate who think Nigel Farage is a great statesman.

Reading 1984 tells us more about the state of politics today than any Johnson press conference.

In George Orwell's novel, O'Brien, an agent of the Thought Police who works in the Ministry of Truth, tells the main character Winston Smith: "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power."

In Johnson's world, replace the 'we' of the party with the 'I' of Boris. His sole interest, now he has finally climbed the greasy pole, is staying there.

The suspension of parliament will not solve the biggest political crisis in a generation. It won't help vulnerable women waiting for coercive control in relationships to finally become illegal or the survivors of institutional abuse who have been waiting for compensation payments for decades. The only people who will benefit from the suspension are the Brexiteers who want to see the UK leave the European Union at any cost, food shortages and job losses be damned.

It's telling that of the north's main parties, only the DUP backs the suspension. But then the unionist party is reviewing its confidence-and-supply deal with the British government, so its continued support may not come cheap.

In supporting the Tory government, the DUP has failed its own electorate. The party may bluster about plans to decriminalise abortion and introduce same-sex marriage. But it would rather see those changes introduced than return to power-sharing at Stormont by next month. Rather retain power at Westminster than have to share it at home.

It is the arrogance of assumed power which allows Johnson to suspend the mother of all parliaments.

But he should remember that he was not elected prime minister - only a very small group of Tories agreed his coronation. The inevitable chaos of a no-deal Brexit is sure to trigger a general election which, given Johnson's contempt for voters, could be his downfall.