This Boris Johnson's Brexit explosion piece is as brilliant as everyone is saying, but it does miss an interesting point... ft.com/content/8075e6…
Yes, the Tories, or at least the Johnson Brexiteer wing of the Tories, have changed from the party of business to 'fuck business'. But business, or at least some businesses, have changed too.
Free market extremist Tories were always happy with the 'dog eat dog', 'burn the red tape' business narrative, but for all the business community's continuing flaws that faction is under pressure like never before.
Many modern big businesses (and especially the businesses that dominate the most powerful trade bodies) welcome good regulation, regard deep decarbonisation as non-negotiable, agree with Blackrock's boss that 'purpose' is critical.
As such, they hate and understand the significance of a nationalist, pull up the drawbridge Brexit, and don't buy Johnson's global Britain BS.
The business community is deeply imperfect, full of hypocrisies, and still gets a lot of things wrong. But on big questions of climate action, regulated markets, and general social purpose they're closer to the mainstream than hard Brexiters who regard all this stuff as anathema.
So when Johnson says fuck business and Rees-Mogg and Farage cheer him on, it is not just a rejection of business complaints about Brexit. It is a rejection of a new form of business that is actually serious about trying to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.
And it is also further evidence that the hard Brexit political elite, to borrow Johnson's vernacular, has driven us into a fucking big hole and there is no clear way out.
