I can't say I was totally shocked by Boris Johnson's resignation earlier this week; if anything, I'm just surprised it took so long. After all, as one of Brexit's chief architects (alongside Michael Gove and David Davis, forming what we might safely refer to as "a confederacy of dunces") he has spent the last few months openly criticising Theresa May's "shilly-shallying" on the whole deal.
Of course, he and, to a lesser extent, his Eurosceptic chums were only brought into the cabinet to keep them in line so they couldn't overturn May's leadership. In reality, however, they've been in a position of power over May since she took over from David Cameron, forcing her to steer the ship in the direction of their choosing or else risk a mutiny. As it stands, May's plotted the course but seems fearful of leaving the dock, so it's quite possible that old salty seadog Johnson's going to rally his shipmates behind him and have her broken body swinging from the mizzenmast before long. Arrrr, me hearties! "Oh, a life on the ocean wave is better than going to sea... etc"
[Coughs]
Actually, let's drop the maritime analogy: it isn't big or clever. The point still stands, though. Johnson's made his position pretty clear, and he hasn't even delivered his resignation speech to the House yet.
But how do we know what he’s planning?
The key to working out Johnson’s next move lies in his resignation letter, handily published in every newspaper and online media platform in the UK. In one telling passage, after prattling on about the EU's inefficiency in protecting the safety of female cyclists, BoJo makes his own tortuous analogy to the PM's attitude towards taking on Brussels:
"It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering above them."Seems pretty straightforward in its rabble-rousing, sub-Henry V rhetoric, doesn't it?
Older readers of WordJam, on the other hand, or perhaps those with a working knowledge of 20th century British political history, may experience a sense of déjà vu:
"It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only for them to find, as the first balls are being bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."
May's days are up, folks. It may take a week or a month, but Boris' endgame has come into play and all across Westminster cutlasses are being sharpened. Whatever happens now, just make sure the flag you choose to wave flies true.
