{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/9a03fe9e-1ff0-4dcc-b3f6-50bd1f016ea4/62042a199261ca0012ea6bc2?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"The Meaning of Boris Johnson","description":"<p>David, Helen and Chris Brooke have one more go at making sense of the tangled web&nbsp;that is British politics.&nbsp;Can&nbsp;Johnson really&nbsp;survive, and even if he does, can his brand ever recover?&nbsp;Is this a scandal, is it a crisis, or is it something else entirely?&nbsp;Does history offer any guide to what comes next?&nbsp;Plus&nbsp;we explore what&nbsp;might be the&nbsp;really big lessons from the last two years of Covid-dominated politics.</p><p><br></p><p>Talking Points:&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>It’s obvious why Boris is a problem, but it’s not clear who would replace him.</p><ul><li>There will probably need to be a decisive marker, either the May local elections or the police report could be it.</li><li>The strategic question for the Conservative party is, can it win enough seats to form a stable majority government?</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Boris won’t go voluntarily. But can he survive?</p><ul><li>Newer MPs are not loyal to Johnson, but older ones are more wary of defenestrating a leader who won big majorities.</li><li>A lot of people have left number 10. It will be hard for him to govern.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>In 2015, Ed Miliband was leading in the headline polls. But there were signs of weakness.</p><ul><li>Labour wasn’t winning local elections. And Cameron was polling better on two key questions: leadership and the economy.</li><li>Labour has now moved ahead on both.&nbsp;</li><li>It would still be hard for Labour to win an overall majority, but defeat in local elections might spook the Conservatives.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>The politics of scandal are different from the politics of crisis.</p><ul><li>Scandals change how politics are conducted, but they don’t usually trash the party’s reputation.</li><li>Helen thinks that it is a politics of chaos.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>This particular scandal is bound up in Johnson’s appeal.&nbsp;</p><ul><li>On most issues, the outrage of the other side works for Johnson.</li><li>Outrage about the parties is different: Johnson was a hypocrite.</li><li>He has trashed his own brand this time, but he still doesn’t think the game is over.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Were the pandemic years a dress rehearsal for the politics of climate change?</p><ul><li>To reach net zero, governments will need to ask people to make sacrifices. Will future politics be a politics of limits?</li><li>The pandemic has also deepened generational divides.&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Mentioned in this Episode:&nbsp;</p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Recent polling data</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p>Further Learning:&nbsp;</p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-hypocrisy-undid-boris-johnson\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Isaac Chotiner asks David about hypocrisy and Partygate&nbsp;</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/26/rachel-reeves-labour-strongest-position-in-10-years\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Labour optimism</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/14/intoxicating-insidery-and-infuriating-everything-i-learned-about-dominic-cummings-from-his-10-a-month-blog\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">David on Dominic Cummings’ blog</a></li><li><a href=\"https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/whoisborisjohnson-\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">From the archive… Who is Boris Johnson?</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: </strong><a href=\"http://lrb.co.uk/talking\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>lrb.co.uk/talking</strong></a></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"David Runciman and Catherine Carr"}