FBC Manby Bowdler’s Brexit Director, Peter Wilding, says Britain has ‘entered the endgame“ and predicts a general election before Halloween.
So what else does the EU legal expert who coined the word ‘Brexit’ and was close to the David Cameron administration ahead of the Referendum think will happen next?
What Next In Boris's Brexit Britain?
We won’t forget July 24th 2019. This is the moment of truth. Everything up to this point has been purgatory. Now it’s hell or heaven. Boris Johnson has 100 days before he finally meets his fate. The Battle for Britain is about to begin.
So, as fingernails are bitten at the now full-steam-ahead prospect of a no deal Brexit, my prediction is that the new PM will avoid the Brexit battle completely by holding a general election on October 24. In all the years I’ve watched him, I’m sure Boris would rather fight in a blaze of glory than suffer death by a thousand parliamentary cuts.
And, as of today, I believe that the election will be won by who frames it best. And, on that point, Johnson is odds on to win.
Why?
The No10 narrative: “changing the record”
The country needs a new tune. Yesterday Boris demanded a change of the record. And that’s what Johnson will do. Behold the new nationalism.
Have faith, be positive. The new leader is the happy dreamer of a Greater Britain. His speech was a 1997 Things Can Only Get Better riff. But with a big difference. Blair faced calm. Boris faces chaos.
On the steps of into Number 10 he sprayed a new magic potion over the nation. Cash and harmony will flow for all. Ministers will dump eye-catching dead-cat initiatives on a thousand tables. But the trumpian alarums of Britain First will be the tune. Borisism means that politics as a battle for your wallet or your class is over. This is a battle for your soul.
So Britain is part-gripped by wonder. Theresa May abdicated on the same day Mary Queen of Scots ceded power to her 1-year-old son, James. As the boy-king of Brexit takes over, we wait to see what nationalist picture of Britain he will paint.
Make Britain Great Again will be the summer’s tune. If he challenges Parliament on no-deal, Brussels on the backstop, or the country with a Brexit referendum, he would lose. But a general election held 100 days after Trumpifying the country against a remain Commons and traitor Tories, means Johnson faces not unity but a four-way split opposition. It is the only way out.
The Revolution
Britain is also half-full of fear. Not least because the true believers are now in power.
A no deal general election victory means they can start straight away. Shorn of rules and summits, Britain as a new model market economy will be forged through shock therapy. Out of the dark early eighties came Thatcher’s new economy. Out of Brexit will come theirs. This is the policy hidden by the new nationalism. A bonfire of bureaucracy, markets wrenched open and tariffs slashed. The people will get bread and circuses. Farming and manufacturing face the smack of firm government.
Whilst the people say “get on with it”, our businesses really have to get to grips with the Brexit reality. We at FBC Mandby Bowdler are here to help.
The Future
This is a revolution with a Cavalier general and Roundhead soldiers.
May you live in interesting times, goes the rueful Chinese warning. And the only way we can make sense of – and predict – these turbulent days is to realise that we’re living history. Brexit, like Vichy or Versailles, could become a byword for decline. Or, as Boris Johnson hopes, the trigger for a golden age.
As yet, we don’t know.
Which is why I will be working with businesses across the Midlands to help them navigate what comes next. Because this is the Brexit endgame.
On the day Boris Johnson became PM, the trial of Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari began in 1917. 100 days later she was executed. Whether the great sorcerer himself will face the same fate remains to be seen. Summer’s lease hath all too short a date and by its end – almost certainly via a general election – Britain’s businesses will be operating in another country.