Quote of the day 13th June 2022

"Nothing places Johnson more squarely in the Conservative tradition than the allegation that he has subverted his party’s true principles."

(Robert Saunders, Reader in Modern British History at Queen Mary University of London, from an article on Renewal called ‘Let Them Eat Cake’: Conservatism in the age of Boris Johnson."

The Conservative party re-invents itself every few years to reflect the changing challenges in British politics and, as Saunders accurately points out, successive leaders of the party have been accused every few years of betraying the principles of a previous generation of Tories.

Since Brexit Boris Johnson has been transformed from a "Heineken" politician to a "marmite" one who some people love and others hate, and in most cases far too much to be able to think about him rationally or write about him dispassionately. Robert Saunders' article describing Boris Johnson's leadership of the Conservative party in a historical context is one of the very few pieces about him which manages to demonstrate original thought and avoids slipping into childish and oversimplified caricatures.

I strongly recommend this article which you can read here.)

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