A week ago there was a discernible cigarette paper between them: Boris Johnson was the bad character with charisma, the sociopath who would do anything, say anything, lie, cheat and swerve, his roguishness and proroguing priced in with the populism. Jeremy Hunt was dull as hell but more sensible, the man who (probably) wouldn’t drive the country off the cliff in a Boris bus. The three-quarters of voters who reject a no-deal Brexit could only hope against hope that, just possibly, Hunt might defy the odds and persuade the Brexit-crazed old white men of the Tory tribe to think again. No longer. The only useful role for the inevitable loser in the Conservative leadership contest was to pull the next prime minister back into the realms of reality. But in the death throes of this contest, Hunt emerges as a swiveller too, a turncoat peddler of the same hyper-dishonesty, just as ready as his opponent to wreck the economy and people’s lives. All hail the hyperleaders – the bellicose insurgents using the web to seize control | John Harris The apparent certainty of Johnson’s victory is driving erstwhile sensibles to abandon everything they said before: Matt Hancock on the Radio 4 Today programme let go of all he stood for as candidate to clutch the Boris bandwagon. Character was supposed to be Hunt’s USP, but in the crucible of this campaign his has irredeemably collapsed. Why throw away dignity and reputation when he could have saved both in an attempt to rescue the country? Instead he backs every Johnson trope. Forget “I’m an entrepreneur”, he copies “fuck business”, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he is willing to trash family businesses “with a heavy heart” as “a necessary sacrifice”. For we voteless bystanders, it’s ours not to reason why, as both men “do or die” us into the valley of economic doom. Both spray money as if from one of Johnson’s water cannons. Hunt’s proposed £6bn to compensate farmers and fishermen for steep no-deal tariffs would improve their lot not one iota, just covering needless costs when the Brexiters promised frictionless trade. How much is £6bn? Some £4bn would repay all the cuts to schools since 2010. Replacing the 20,000 lost police officers could cost under £1bn. Or £6bn could increase social care by more than a third. Instead the money is just to stop farming and fishing collapsing, a minuscule sector compared with manufacturing and services. Compensating them would be fathomless. The two men’s glorious spending spree is an unexpected electoral gift for Labour. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reckons both men would spend roughly what Labour pledged at the last election: forget any future “magic money tree” jibes after this reckless spaffing-up-the-wall by these Tories. As the chancellor looks on aghast, the country may celebrate this bombshell end to austerity – except this is haphazard spending on electoral eye-catchers regardless of the urgent need for public-service repair. Hunt and Johnson’s tax
A week ago there was a discernible cigarette paper between them: Boris Johnson was the bad character with charisma, the sociopath who would do anything, say anything, lie, cheat and swerve, his roguishness and proroguing priced in with the populism. Jeremy Hunt was dull as hell but more sensible, the man who (probably) wouldn’t drive the country off the cliff in a Boris bus. The three-quarters of voters who reject a no-deal Brexit could only hope against hope that, just possibly, Hunt might defy the odds and persuade the Brexit-crazed old white men of the Tory tribe to think again. No longer. The only useful role for the inevitable loser in the Conservative leadership contest was to pull the next prime minister back into the realms of reality. But in the death throes of this contest, Hunt emerges as a swiveller too, a turncoat peddler of the same hyper-dishonesty, just as ready as his opponent to wreck the economy and people’s lives. All hail the hyperleaders – the bellicose insurgents using the web to seize control | John Harris The apparent certainty of Johnson’s victory is driving erstwhile sensibles to abandon everything they said before: Matt Hancock on the Radio 4 Today programme let go of all he stood for as candidate to clutch the Boris bandwagon. Character was supposed to be Hunt’s USP, but in the crucible of this campaign his has irredeemably collapsed. Why throw away dignity and reputation when he could have saved both in an attempt to rescue the country? Instead he backs every Johnson trope. Forget “I’m an entrepreneur”, he copies “fuck business”, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he is willing to trash family businesses “with a heavy heart” as “a necessary sacrifice”. For we voteless bystanders, it’s ours not to reason why, as both men “do or die” us into the valley of economic doom. Both spray money as if from one of Johnson’s water cannons. Hunt’s proposed £6bn to compensate farmers and fishermen for steep no-deal tariffs would improve their lot not one iota, just covering needless costs when the Brexiters promised frictionless trade. How much is £6bn? Some £4bn would repay all the cuts to schools since 2010. Replacing the 20,000 lost police officers could cost under £1bn. Or £6bn could increase social care by more than a third. Instead the money is just to stop farming and fishing collapsing, a minuscule sector compared with manufacturing and services. Compensating them would be fathomless. The two men’s glorious spending spree is an unexpected electoral gift for Labour. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reckons both men would spend roughly what Labour pledged at the last election: forget any future “magic money tree” jibes after this reckless spaffing-up-the-wall by these Tories. As the chancellor looks on aghast, the country may celebrate this bombshell end to austerity – except this is haphazard spending on electoral eye-catchers regardless of the urgent need for public-service repair. Hunt and Johnson’s tax
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