Fifteen Theses On The Clownfall

The class dynamics of Boris Johnson’s rise and overthrow

We’re about to face several weeks of a Conservative leadership battle, where the politics of substance will be obscuered by a debate about the alleged “qualities” of Tory leadership candidates.

But what are the real stakes? What are the class dynamics behind the Johnson project and how do they limit the options of the contenders. Here’s fifteen thoughts about what’s really at stake…

1. Boris Johnson’s premiership was the product of a factional split within the British business elite. In the name of faster deregulation, reduced labour standards and an orientation to global rather than European trade/investment flows, this “fraction of capital” sought a hard break with the EU, and — strategically — the breakup of the EU. Elsewhere I have labelled this “Thatcherism in One Country”.
2. In pursuit of this project its designers enlisted Russian support, and actively encouraged powerful foreign oligarchic elites (Saudi, UAE, Sri Lanka, Russia) in the project of transforming Britain into a friendly environment for kleptocrats and tax evaders. In this sense Johnson/Hard Brexit was the creature of both a fraction of British capital (centred on investment managers, private equity and property speculation) and of oligarchic global capital.