Thread by @Helenreflects

A few notes on the Boris Johnson acceptance speech
* Johnson mischaracterizes conservatism. He seems to have read Burke long ago. It is not the case that people have "noble instincts" (i.e., for self-preservation and for sharing) which the party shapes and balances /1

Rather, the conservative idea is that people have instincts, but also collective wisdom (customs etc.). It is the government's task to help cultivate that wisdom, not interfere too much with people's way of living. 2/

* I'm mystified by the calls before the speech to be kinder to the next prime minister (who will be a man) compared to Theresa May. I am not a fan of May, but why should party members be any less scrutinizing of Johnson's actions/decisions than they are of May's 3/

No, if anything the party members should be *more* critical/unforgiving with the next Prime Minister because he is after all a Brexiteer. Why on earth should we go soft on him? 4/

Then the mystifying acronym DUDE (I forgot what it stood for... deliver (on the referendum), unity, energy)
Seriously, "Dude?" I looked at the audience and that's overwhelmingly what you see tho, white dudes (notable exceptions: Hunt's wife, Johnson's sister), so it's fitting.

* That stuff toward the end of "if only we believe in ourselves it's going to happen" and "you don't look daunted to me" is like a misguided self-help manual writ large. You do not merely through positive thinking disentangle Brexit. 6/

They tried positive thinking these past few years (cf. Theresa May's meaningless slogans and dances, and painful optimism) - it did not work. It won't work now. 7/

* The tension he discussed between the desire for friendship and free trade and autonomy is a false dilemma - the EU already allows self-governance and nation state autonomy (more so than I personally think is useful) while also allowing for free trade and friendship. 8/

Overall I felt like this acceptance speech and the weird fragments of speeches by Churchill, Thatcher, May etc. to precede it dripping with nostalgia and very inward looking. Defeating Jeremy Corbyn seemed to be the only thing the party members were enthused about 9/

The people seated at the conference were almost all older, white, rich men (note I have nothing against older, white, rich men per se! but it would be good to have a group of people decide on the UK's future be more representative of the demographics of the UK) 10/

Finally, the totally bizarre image of "Like some slumbering giant we are going to rise and ping off the guy-ropes of self-doubt and negativity ..."
Slumbering giant doesn't fit with the idea of UK as nimble trading nation (cf. Singapore). 11/

This isn't the era anymore of states, giants or otherwise, to go it alone. Between the anvil of the EU and the hammer of Trump not much will be left of the UK's self-governance in a few years... 12/

Rather than a slumbering giant, I had to think of Tennyson's Kraken wakes poem:
"Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee.." 13/

"... Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die."
Perhaps a more apt image of a no-deal Brexit Britain? /ends