BoJo: do or die, as long as someone else does the dying

… his ancestors had always been amongst the first to get to grips in any conflict. In every siege, every ambush, every stricken dash against fortified emplacements, some de Worde had galloped towards death or glory and sometimes both.

I mentioned only recently how much I liked Terry Pratchett, a novelist whose stature I feel is still not recognised as it deserves. One of his novels I particularly enjoyed re-reading was The Truth. Its central character is William de Worde who, though descended from a long line of aristocrats, is determined to separate himself from his lineage, insisting, for instance, on being called ‘Mr de Worde’. All the more because there are figures in his background who would always brainlessly rush to the front of any desperate charge for death or glory (or, as Pratchett points out, both) in battle.

Charge of the light brigade:
De Worde style death or glory... and mostly death

The trouble with such glorious figures is that as well as dying themselves, they often take a lot of others down with them.

That all came to mind this morning when I read the words of that fine fellow Boris Johnson, soon to be leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (less united than once it was, but still held more or less together by legal bonds that are hard to break). He declared that the said Kingdom would leave the European Union on 31 October, “do or die”.

In other words, Brexit would happen, with or without a deal agreed with the EU.

There are diehard Brexiters who, it seems, firmly believe that Britain can leave the world’s biggest trading bloc without any agreement, and suffer no ill consequences. Few with any trace of economic or political sense share that belief. Leaving such a bloc must inevitably have harmful effects on Britain.

BoJo, as many of us like to call him, whether or not we like him, is not quite as clever as he often suggests he is. His tenure as Foreign Secretary, for instance, was littered with gaffes which a brighter statesman could easily have avoided. Certainly, a more sensible one. Even so, he’s got to be smart enough to know that a no-deal Brexit will do the country untold damage.

But he probably doesn’t care. Because unlike the death or glory de Wordes, BoJo’s “do or die” embodies a strict division of labour. He sees himself handling the doing, while others see to the dying. He, and indeed his friends, will be just fine. He shares the background of entitled privilege of the de Wordes, and that will protect him against the consequences of his recklessness.

“Death or Glory”. His glory. Others’ death.

That’s not pure metaphor. Far fewer will die, of course, than will struggle through, surviving rather than living. But some will die. We’ve seen it already. The Institute for Public Policy Research has calculated that had trends from the first decade of the century continued, something like 130,000 deaths could have been avoided in Britain between 2012 and 2017. The IPPR told the fullfact website that, while all these extra deaths couldn’t simply be attributed to austerity, a combination of that sad endeavour and other poor policy choices are likely to have contributed to these preventable deaths.

That’s what nine years of Tory government have done. And BoJo is promising is something harder still.

Boris ‘Do or Die’ Johnson

He would love the opportunity of doing. But he’ll certainly leave the dying to others.

At least the de Wordes put themselves on the line alongside their followers.