Is he Misstra Know It All?

Boris Johnson's anointment as Tory party leader being imminent we may find out before too long now whether the man really has a plan for Brexit. I'm not holding my breath. Indeed I'm reminded of Stevie Wonder's song He's Misstra Know-It-All:

He's a man / with a plan / Got a counterfeit dollar in his hand / He's Misstra Know-It-All
Playin' hard / Talkin' fast / Makin' sure that he won't be the last / He's ....
Makes a deal / With a smile / Knowin' all the time that his lie's a mile /  He's ....
Must be seen / There's no doubt / He's the coolest one with the biggest mouth /  He's ....
If he shakes / On a bet / He's the kind of dude that won't pay his debt / He's ....
Take my word / Be aware / Of a man that just don't give a care, no / He's ....
Give a hand to the man / You know damn well he's got the super plan / He's ....
If we had less of him / Don't you know we'd have a better land / He's ....
Check his sound out / He'll tell it all / Hey you talk too much, you worry me to death /
He's Misstra Know-It-All

I don't doubt that Boris Johnson is highly intelligent. Whether he would qualify as a member of Mensa, i.e. in the top 2% of the population on IQ, I don't know but I presume he would. Indeed his mannerisms remind me very much of a boss of mine who had an IQ of over 160 - and was a bully. But even if Boris is that bright that doesn't necessarily make him clever or wise, of course.

The Conservative leadership hustings have naturally created a dynamic in which the two runners appeal to their electorate but it's led to some remarkably un-Conservative pledges, particularly on public spending. I am worried that no party is currently standing for financial prudence and the free market. **** business, one might say, which in due course means we are generally all worse off.

Actually, given that both Ed Davey and Jo Swinson do espouse the free market I am finding that, apart from their slavish see-no-evil devotion to the EU, they are potentially the most attractive option at the moment. If they would say that the EU is better than the alternative but is pretty awful and needs major and urgent reform there wouldn't be much that I could disagree with at the moment, though I suspect they are hopelessly unrealistic on climate change in terms of practicable actions.

I am left feeling that the Tory process has been too public. I know some people just don't accept that it's up to the Tory membership to pick "the next prime minister" as the BBC seem fond of saying and there have been the usual calls for a general election on account of the change of leadership. Boris Johnson has been reminded of the fact that he called for one when Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair. Hmmm, not that clever then, given Boris's long held ambition to be PM and the fact that, in the time I can remember, more people have taken over as PM during a Parliament than as the result of a general election (Douglas Home, Callaghan, Major, Brown, May and soon Johnson v Wilson, Heath, Thatcher, Blair and Cameron). That's the way our constitution works. The PM is not a directly elected president. Some folk have a problem with that, but I don't. I think it's better that the people who know the candidates decide and then we get a chance to keep them or ditch them once we see whether they know what they are doing. But the systems that the two big parties have gone for, with their membership having the final say, means that the choice is not made by people who know the candidates well. They are strange hybrid systems which I don't think are serving us well. After all, if Corbyn and Johnson are the answers, what on earth was the question?

So does Boris have a plan beyond getting into number 10? I expect you can tell that I doubt it. And even if he does there is very little time before a deadline that he's made clear he doesn't want to flex. And even while hinting that he'll walk away into a no-deal Brexit, he's also said it's a "million to one chance". Great negotiating skills, Boris - telling the other side that you don't really mean it isn't much better than saying no deal is not an option. There is no reason for the EU to move now. The time to walk out and threaten no deal was right at the start, when we gave way on the sequencing point in the negotiations, giving away our best card early. Is it a credible card now? It's going to be an interesting few weeks up to 31 October........