THE government of the venal, habitually mendacious and priapic Boris Johnson will surely come to be seen as a landmark in the degradation of the British bourgeoisie. 

That this old and cunning capitalist class, and its main political party, should come to be led by such a carnivalesque caricature is in itself a sign of crisis.  There is nothing in the circumstances that led to his fall that was not already universally understood at his elevation in 2019. 

The sober and responsible conduct of public business in the interests of the entrenched establishment was compromised the moment Britain’s Berlusconi was selected to head the Tory Party. 

The mystery lies not in his departure but in his arrival. That speaks to deep splits within the ruling class which the election for his successor aims to heal, or at least paper over. 

The weight of authority within Britain’s elite has shifted over the long decades of neoliberal hegemony towards interests that may be based in this country but have little interest in its prospects. Outward-facing money-making alone motivates them. 

This hollowed-out bourgeoisie, the unintended offspring of Thatcherism, has only the most frayed ties with the rest of society. It no longer lives in the same communities, serves in the same regiments or prays in the same pews as its forebears. 

A deracinated ruling class, it was entirely content with Britain’s membership of the European Union and its undemocratic imposition of the main rules of the market economy. Globalisation was its secular religion, neoliberalism its operating manual. 

Those sections of the elite that felt tooth-and-claw capitalism would be better served outside the EU, that Britain could be turned into a Singapore-on-the-Channel when freed from Brussels dictat, paradoxically had to fuse with the considerable conservative base of nationalist-nostalgics to secure their object. 

Only an unusual politician could serve as unguent for this bastard coalition, as Britain’s own Louis Napoleon. Et voila! Cometh the hour, cometh…Boris Johnson, an admixture of hedge fund and hayseed. 

The most obvious underpinning rationale for Johnson’s defenestration is that his purpose has now been served. 

The Corbyn threat has been eradicated, something for which Keir Starmer can claim co-credit. And the debate is no longer over Brexit, but about the purposes it should serve. 

Here Johnson stands as the second Tory leader in a row to attempt to wean the Tories, however tentatively, away from the pieties of Thatcherism — cut taxes, cut spending, deregulate — and the second to have failed. 

Like Theresa May with her rhetorical sympathy for (whites-only) one-nationism and state intervention, Johnson’s levelling-up agenda’s progress from drawing board to life was stymied by the entrenched free market assumptions of most centres of Tory Party power.   

The latter’s Brexit is about capital unbound and a state denuded of any social role but tooled up with weaponry, prisons and repressive laws. 

These divisions should not be overplayed, of course. There are no good Tories. But their differences matter. Now they are on display. 

The orthodoxies of finance capital are championed by former chancellor Rishi Sunak. He is cool on tax cuts, although famously warm on tax avoidance.  

He is sensitive to the real indices of Britain’s crisis — a rising current account deficit, chronically underperforming productivity, a plunging pound and the soaring cost of debt servicing. 

His message to his main rivals, falling over themselves to outbid each other in offering tax cuts, is — grow up. The situation first needs stabilising. 

On another flank, the social authoritarians like Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch are striving to extend the life of the 2019 Tory-voting coalition by substituting “war on woke” for “getting Brexit done” as the glue. In an economic headwind pummelling people’s living standards, that will surely prove insufficient. 

And if Gradgrind Toryism masked as continuity comedy is required, Jacob Rees-Mogg may be available. 

Whoever prevails the main lines of policy will surely subsist — reinvigorated austerity at home and full engagement in imperialist conflict abroad.  Classical liberals and culture warriors unite on this. 

The new Prime Minister will be blessed by facing insipid Labour opposition, but will also be confronted by a resurgent trade union movement, unwilling to see working people pay for the crisis. 

Cohering the elite around a clear post-Brexit perspective and selling that to sufficient voters may prove beyond any Tory’s reach. Under these circumstances, social democracy normally steps into the breach and, yes, Kier Starmer is limbering up on the subs’ bench. 

Unlike Johnson, Starmer does not dream of being “world king”. Global chief inspector perhaps. Anyway, being the “non-Johnson” is not enough any more. 

Should the bourgeoisie lay off the booze? The law of unintended consequences

For the second time in a decade, excessive alcohol consumption has set in motion great events.  

Boris Johnson’s tottering regime was given the final push when his deputy chief whip got very drunk and allegedly groped two men. Had Pincher stayed sober, then Johnson could still be carousing in Number 10. 

This recalled the exploits of Major Eric Joyce, once Labour MP for Stirling.  In 2012 he provoked a brawl in a House of Commons bar after over-indulging on a herculean scale. This fracas involved a Labour whip, several Tory politicians, a broken window and the Metropolitan Police. 

The upshot was Labour’s determination to select a new candidate for Stirling which led to a poisonous confrontation as Leader Ed Miliband sought to block Unite’s candidate for the seat. That in turn occasioned a review of union rights within Labour, including proposals for a new system for electing the party Leader. 

Which system then produced Jeremy Corbyn. No definitive conclusion should be drawn from all this, but cheers nevertheless. 

War and crisis? A bonanza for the rich

FROM the editorial in FT Wealth magazine: “It might seem logical that war in Ukraine, inflation, rising interest rates and market turmoil would make the outlook for stockpiling wealth just a little uncertain. 

“Not so, say the experts at management consultants BCG... Far from staring into an abyss, they are looking upwards and see the world’s stock of financial wealth growing steadily over the next five years.” 

Just in case you were worried.