The Anybody Elses

[poliphilo]

It appears there's been a battle at the top of the British government. We, the people, have only found out about it after it's been lost and won. The combatants weren't elected politicians, but a faction headed by the PM's chief adviser and a faction headed by his fiancee. The fiancee's party seems to have won. What does any of this have to do with democracy? Not a lot, so far as I can see. What does it have in common with the carryings on of a Tudor or Bourbon court? Quite a lot, I think. The favourite pulls one way, the queen or mistress pulls the other; between the two of them the king is bewildered and befuddled.

When you elect a government in a modern so-called democracy you are in fact electing a monarch and their court. The court will consist of elected officials- who are answerable for their actions, unelected officials who are less so, obscenely wealthy godfathers and godmothers who need to be heeded and appeased or else- and a mixed bag of family members, cronies, lovers, flatterers, creeps, gophers and people who know where the bodies are buried- almost all of them hungry for power. A strong monarch may be able to keep this circus in some sort of order; a weak one- which is what Boris Johnson appears to be- will be pulled every which-a-way.

Come election time all the court wants you to see is the smiley face of the monarch- and the less you see of anybody else the better. But once the votes are in it may well be the anybody else's who get to run the show.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I well understand the concept of 'the King's ill advisers' and I think Bojo has more then enough of them.

[poliphilo]

And he's peculiarly vulnerable to them, having no political principles or ideas of his own.