Delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher (Beyond Satire)
Lecture to the Centre for Policy Studies last night, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was
apparently positioning himself to replace David Cameron as Tory leader, playing
to the neglected right wing of the party as he mocked the 16% "of our
species" with an IQ below 85, and called for more to be done to help that
needy 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130. [1]
"Inequality is essential for
the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a
valuable spur to economic activity." Said Boris.
"The harder you shake the pack the easier it will be
for some cornflakes to get to the top." Said Boris.
Memorable and worrying sound bites - but what do they
actually mean ?
A high IQ score is synonymous with a desire for material
wealth ?
The larger the gap between rich and poor, the greater the
chance of sustainable economic growth ?
Most of the Royal
family will have their state benefits withdrawn because they’re too thick ?
Johnson’s bravura performances frequently seem to involve
a lot of smoke & mirrors to conceal his vicious and ruthless ambition, so
it’s probably not worth too much effort in trying to unpick the detail of this latest
display of lamp-post pissing.
What does seem clear though is that, between the Tories
and UKIP, a major tranche of the Westminster political establishment is returning
unashamedly to the right, which at least should reduce the disingenuous waffle
that has prevailed from both sides of the arena over the last few years and,
hopefully, make any up-coming referendum and election campaigns much more
transparent. An interesting couple of years lie ahead.....
[1]
From the context of Johnson’s speech it’s difficult to know whether he is
referring here to the human species as a whole or specifically to ex-members of the
Bullingdon Club.
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