David, Helen and Chris Brooke have one more go at making sense of the tangled web&nbsp;that is British politics.&nbsp;Can&nbsp;Johnson really&nbsp;survive, and even if he does, can his brand ever recover?&nbsp;Is this a scandal, is it a crisis, or is it something else entirely?&nbsp;Does history offer any guide to what comes next?&nbsp;Plus&nbsp;we explore what&nbsp;might be the&nbsp;really big lessons from the last two years of Covid-dominated politics.Talking Points:&nbsp;It’s obvious why Boris is a problem, but it’s not clear who would replace him.<ul><li>There will probably need to be a decisive marker, either the May local elections or the police report could be it.</li><li>The strategic question for the Conservative party is, can it win enough seats to form a stable majority government?</li></ul>Boris won’t go voluntarily. But can he survive?<ul><li>Newer MPs are not loyal to Johnson, but older ones are more wary of defenestrating a leader who won big majorities.</li><li>A lot of people have left number 10. It will be hard for him to govern.</li></ul>In 2015, Ed Miliband was leading in the headline polls. But there were signs of weakness.<ul><li>Labour wasn’t winning local elections. And Cameron was polling better on two key questions: leadership and the economy.</li><li>Labour has now moved ahead on both.&nbsp;</li><li>It would still be hard for Labour to win an overall majority, but defeat in local elections might spook the Conservatives.</li></ul>The politics of scandal are different from the politics of crisis.<ul><li>Scandals change how politics are conducted, but they don’t usually trash the party’s reputation.</li><li>Helen thinks that it is a politics of chaos.</li></ul>This particular scandal is bound up in Johnson’s appeal.&nbsp;<ul><li>On most issues, the outrage of the other side works for Johnson.</li><li>Outrage about the parties is different: Johnson was a hypocrite.</li><li>He has trashed his own brand this time, but he still doesn’t think the game is over.</li></ul>Were the pandemic years a dress rehearsal for the politics of climate change?<ul><li>To reach net zero, governments will need to ask people to make sacrifices. Will future politics be a politics of limits?</li><li>The pandemic has also deepened generational divides.&nbsp;</li></ul>Mentioned in this Episode:&nbsp;<ul><li><a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Recent polling data</a></li></ul>Further Learning:&nbsp;<ul><li><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-hypocrisy-undid-boris-johnson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Isaac Chotiner asks David about hypocrisy and Partygate&nbsp;</a></li><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/26/rachel-reeves-labour-strongest-position-in-10-years" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Labour optimism</a></li><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/14/intoxicating-insidery-and-infuriating-everything-i-learned-about-dominic-cummings-from-his-10-a-month-blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David on Dominic Cummings’ blog</a></li><li><a href="https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/whoisborisjohnson-" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From the archive… Who is Boris Johnson?</a></li></ul>And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: <a href="http://lrb.co.uk/talking" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lrb.co.uk/talking</a><hr> See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="https://plus.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics">https://plus.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics</a>.

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The Meaning of Boris Johnson

TALKING POLITICS