So Boris has pulled it off. How do I feel about it? To be honest I am still not really sure. I have never had any affection for the man. I don't find his jokes funny. I don't respect his blustery persona. And I certainly don't trust that he has the interests of the country at heart. The only thing I'd trust him with would be a gig as a Dulux dog lookalike.
But there are a few things that might make it less dreadful than it appears at first sight. I don't think he is a sincere Brexiter, let alone a fan of no-deal Brexit. And I think he's basically a liberal. So I don't think it is a certainty that he will deliver what his current set of supporters are expecting of him. And I don't think they will be slow to drop him if he doesn't give them what they want. And I don't think he will be quick to give them what they want. The hardcore leavers don't really do compromise. They certainly don't do solidarity. There's a line from a poem by Milton.
'Oh for a vainly fancied treasure,
Pursued beyond all measure,
And by its own excess transformed to pain.'
The ERG version of Brexit is not only vainly fancied, it doesn't even really exist. There is no meat to be had that will satisfy these wolves.
The unpatriotic no-deal traitors are scoundrels and not particularly lovable ones. Their monomania is not only damaging to the country, it is also extremely tedious and highly predictable. Boris is an entirely different class of scoundrel. He will say and do anything to further the cause of BJ.
So, what do I think will happen? I think we are due for a couple of weeks of confusion. After that, we'll see Boris shifting his position to get back to the centre. He's not going to like where he is now. At some point he'll have to call a general election. I think it will be sooner rather than later. The circus is coming to town, and every showman knows you end the show while people still want more.
To win that he will have to throw some bones to the remainers. Let's see how many.
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