"Standing Outside the Tent......."

LBJ -You might not have liked his policies, he
didn't succeed with everything, he made enemies -
but you took notice of him!

American President Lyndon Johnson was never a politician to mince his words. He had spent a life time in the rough and tumble politics of his country and this experience, together with his southern states credentials, encouraged John Kennedy in 1960 to select him as his running mate and Vice-President when Kennedy ran for the Presidency. Kennedy had the ideas, the vision and the words but Johnson had the muscle and was not afraid to use it. Kennedy knew that there were many challenges to face:  issues of human rights and segregation in the southern states, a worsening situation in south-east Asia sucking American into a Vietnam war, the developing cold war with the Soviet Union and the advent of the sixties creating a new dynamic in the world order. America was at a crossroads and JFK needed someone with know-how and political muscle who would ensure that his message got through. No one suspected that this otherwise little known (at least outside the USA) politician would become President but the Kennedy assassination changed all that. Suddenly in late 1963 Johnson found himself in charge – at critical time in American history and with a Presidential election looming. LBJ, as he was known, found himself not only in the White House but having to try to fulfil Kennedy’s legacy. Johnson’s Presidency still splits historians; he certainly had his problems and failures - most notably the escalation of the Vietnam War - but as one looks back he increasingly looks like a man who met his problems face to face and used his vast political skill and muscle to get what he wanted; and as I say, he wasn’t one to mince his words. One might not have always agreed with him but the simplicity and force of his argument when added to his sheer bloody-mindedness, unwillingness to suffer fools or opposition and his willingness to do whatever was necessary to ensure that other politicians got the message and voted as he wanted them to cannot be denied.

Meanwhile in the UK this is how we make great
national decisions 

I have been  reminded of Johnson while reading and watching the debate that has taken over  the UK in relation to our membership of the European Union and which will lead to a referendum in June. Prime Minister David Cameron has, he tells us, negotiated a better deal for the UK which will recognise that we are a special case and ensure that we retain more of our democratic “rights” rather than having these usurped by “faceless bureaucrats” in Brussels. Cameron feels that this new deal is a good reason for us, as a nation, to stay in the EU. However, others feel differently and senior members of his government are advocating that we reject the proposals and vote in the referendum to leave the EU. Last Sunday, the media worked itself up into a frenzy awaiting the announcement by Tory MP and London Mayor Boris Johnson as to his views on the matter. It was no surprise when he sided with the “outers” and opposed Cameron. So, like the nation as a whole, the government is split. As I listened and read of this I was reminded of that other Johnson – LBJ, the American president; I suspect he would have had little truck with Boris, the buffoonish Mayor of London and wannabe Prime Minster. Lyndon Johnson, in his characteristically straightforward style said of his nemesis J Edgar Hoover:  “It's  better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than standing outside the tent pissing in.”  LBJ, like mafia leader Don Corleone in the film “The Godfather”, made Hoover an “offer he could not refuse” to ensure his obedience and so that he was kept “inside the tent” and he would certainly  do the same with Boris Johnson if he was faced with the situation that Cameron faces today. Like Hoover, the Mayor of London is an unpleasant character but he is not in the same league as was Hoover and  I have this delightful  mental picture of LBJ looming over Boris and quietly saying “Do yourself a favour  punk and get back on the team ”........and Boris the Buffoon would scurry from the room gibbering, promising obedience! Like LBJ’s 1963 America we, as a nation, are at a crossroads in relation to the EU and just as LBJ could not risk failure so too must Cameron. It is in the UK’s interests that Cameron ruthlessly takes hold of his unruly mob of Tory ministers and MPs as LBJ would do. Instead, however, he has openly given them permission to campaign as individuals rather than present a united front advocating agreed government policy. Thus, we have senior members of the government taking a different stance to that the PM – not only a nonsense on such an important matter but also an unedifying spectacle for observers both within and without the UK. No wonder the electorate is confused and hold politicians in such low esteem when they cannot even agree amongst themselves on matters of national importance. No wonder European countries look at us and shake their heads in amazement when they see half of Cameron’s senior ministers and MPs “standing outside the tent pissing in”.

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Ian Duncan Smith - three of the
dissenters - or to use ther Garden of Eden analagy the snakes in the grass.

In the UK we don’t wield political muscle in the same way as our American cousins. In Parliament MPs address each other as “the Honourable Member” and strict rules of protocol, based upon history are observed. I’m not against that – indeed, I think it is vital otherwise the whole thing becomes a shouting match (it still does at Question Time! – see blog for 26^th Feb 2016). But on this issue, which is critical to the future life of the nation, it is important that a spade is called a spade and that both the government and opposition act in the national good.  To have wild cards in the form of political glory hunters like Boris Johnson muddying the picture is not good.  

Now, at this point I have to declare an interest. Unlike many I am a committed Europhile so will vote with Cameron in the referendum. Having said that I am totally against the deal that Cameron has negotiated. We are a small nation that can no longer rely upon a great empire to support us; we have a common history and heritage with Europe and today’s world is a land of the big battalions – the USA, Russia, China, the Pacific rim – and our future lies in joint interests and joint action. I do not want the UK to be a European “special case” as Cameron has negotiated. I want us to be an equal and totally committed member of Europe, linked more closely, part of a United States of Europe, involved as a Euro using member not retaining the pound as our currency. What I don’t want is what we have had for the past three or so decades – certainly since the time of Thatcher, of being on the sidelines of Europe moaning and complaining rather than being committed and making our point positively and as part of the European “club”. So often I have reflected that the Germans and the French and others in mainland Europe must be heartily sick of us Brits – always negative and on the defensive, always wanting special treatment or complaining that it is “not fair”. It has made me embarrassed to be British when I have visited France or Germany or anywhere else in the EU. I know that I am out of step with the majority here – many of my desires are a complete anathema to the vast majority of the populace - so although I don’t like his watered down European deal of Cameron’s as there is no other option on the table I will take it. The alternative of leaving Europe does not bear scrutiny so far as I am concerned.

Even the  high Tory joirnal The Spectator is on the
Tory civil war bandwagon

But, as I say, not everyone is committed to the European ideal as I am. Early indications are that the electorate is divided – their views encouraged by the right wing press and by great swathes of the Tory party. So, following Cameron’s negotiations in Brussels and his “new deal” for our membership the EU the Tory Party is in turmoil and split – as it has been split so often before on Europe. Meanwhile the rest of us have to watch in exasperation and then pick up the pieces, live with the consequences of their in-house and now out-house squabbles. Cameron’s European “deal” is not, in the end, about making the EU better and our place in it more positive but rather, it is about responding to the internecine fighting and sniping within his own party and satisfying and placating his own Tory Eurosceptics. Like all such weak efforts it is likely to fail for the dissenters already smell blood; they perceive weakness in Cameron's casue giving them hope that they can win.

This is the sort of situation where President Lyndon Johnson would have cracked the whip, banged political heads together, made  offers that could not be refused, taken politicians into dark corners to ensure their obedience but not Cameron. Such are the strong opinions, prejudices and delicate balances within the Tory party and such is his own relative weakness on this issue that the best Cameron could muster in response to the Mayor of London’s  disloyal announcement last week was: “My good chum is wrong on this......” . Well, there we go then, I bet that really spooked the Boris the Buffoon and forced him to think again! This is the old boys club at work; both Cameron and Johnson were pupils together at Eton and members of the infamous Bullingdon Club for rich young men while at Oxford University and when I hear this sort of thing I wonder are we well served as a nation by having this little chummy elite group in charge of our future. Cameron, Johnson and all the rest in the Tory hierarchy all have form – they went to school together, socialise together, are members of the same London gentlemen's clubs, are often distantly related and move in the same elite business and social circles; they are all in each other’s pockets – how can you easily wield the political knife to the friend that you are having dinner with tomorrow night? How can you say what has to be said in the media and in  so doing potentially end the political career of someone who you were at school with and who you holiday with? It all makes for weak politics and that can’t be good.

So, since Cameron was unwilling or unable to wield the political knife or to beat Boris Johnson  into submission, as LBJ would have done, it was no surprise whatsoever that other dissenters have crawled out of the political woodwork to voice their disloyalty and come out directly against the government. Like hounds chasing the fox they smell blood; Cameron is on the back foot.  Cameron’s Justice Minister Michael Gove has announced that the deal done in Brussels might not even be legally binding. Then another senior figure Ian Duncan Smith announced that Cameron’s claims that his EU deal would secure our borders from potential terrorists was untrue and that it would, in fact, make it easier for extreme groups to infiltrate the country. Former Tory leader Michael Howard then weighed in to voice his disapproval of the deal and his opposition to it...........and so the list goes on.

If the dissenters have their way we will be
airbrushed out of history - a small island
adrift in a very choppy sea

It is a nonsense – so much so that the tabloid papers have said it all in their  headlines “All out civil war in the Tory party”.  So on this matter of national importance, the rest of us have to watch and wait while the oddballs, the many Colonel Blimps in the Tory party, the mindless right and the purely nutty and all the have their moment of glory, their fifteen minutes of fame. One only needs to look at the list of “outers” and it is frightening – there is a clear shortage of brain cells amongst them. Being charitable some, like Boris Johnson  are “chancers”, out for their own aggrandisement (Johnson hopes to one day be PM and sees himself in this role if the referendum votes for leaving the EU). Others, like Peter Bone or Michael Gove are people who are still living in a time warp when England ruled the waves and we still had our jolly old Empire to shore us up. And yet others, for example, Ian Duncan Smith or Michael Howard are simply one sandwich short of a picnic, intellectually challenged, dim -  poor rich boys who have got to their position in the Tory hierarchy purely and simply via the old boy network; people who would have huge difficulties in holding any sort of real job down. And, these are only the big names – beneath them there are scores of ordinary MPs and the like who have registered their dissent.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that my commitment to Europe is at the far end of the spectrum. I am well aware that many in the electorate very reasonably hold very different views to my own – and their votes may well carry the day for them in the June referendum. I won’t like that but that is the nature of democracy. But, it cannot be right that when a government decides upon a policy which, they believe, is in the national interest and they put that policy to the nation for approval via a referendum that senior members of that very government act disloyally and actively set out to confuse the electorate and scupper the government’s own plans. For the UK it is far too important a decision to be messed up; indeed Cameron himself says this – calling it “the most important decision of our generation and perhaps for the future generation”. If this is true – and I believe that it is – then it is critical that the case is presented by the government clearly and  unambiguously; not muddied by this sideshow of senior members of the government singing a different song. Other political parties (for example, UKIP  who have a perfectly legitimate anti-European standpoint) are quite free and correct in presenting the opposite view to Cameron’s and to my own. This is democracy – but to have people within the same party actively contradicting and weakening the government  on such an important issue is a nonsense – it is unacceptable.

Listen to my forked tongue.........you know it makes sense

In President Johnson’s country, the USA, I think that the indigenous Indian peoples had a very apposite description for those who act like the Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and the other Tory dissenters – people who act deceitfully, taking one position (i.e. are  government members ) but say something else (dissent from government policy).  The  Indians say that that “they speak with a forked tongue”..... they are snake-like. And, like the snake in the story of Adam and Eve, they are not to be trusted, they are devious, unreliable, dishonest, treacherous. Indeed, I’m sure that David Cameron feels that they have been treacherous – even though he might not say it. Just as the Garden of Eden’s serpent whispered things in the ear of Eve and her husband so these Tory rebels are doing the same to the electorate.  Of course, we know that it all went very badly wrong for poor Adam and Eve – and we, the nation’s voters together with David Cameron, might find that this European issue all ends in tears, too, if this Tory fiasco continues. And if it does go badly wrong David Cameron, through his lack of strong action, will bear a huge responsibility – and we as a nation, like Adam and Eve will find ourselves cast out – out of the EU; little people adrift in a sea of very large sharks.  Oh, for an LBJ to sort these dissenters out: cut them off at the knees, make them an offer they can’t refuse, take them into a dark corner and convince them of the error of their ways. If LBJ were around today I suspect he might shake his head in disbelief at the in-fighting within the Tory party. He would, I am sure, have some pithy comments about those in power at Westminster.  Maybe he would have amended another of his famous quotes to include the Tory party: “The Organization of American States Tory Party couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel”!  Absolutely – couldn’t have said it better myself.