Boris Johnson and the Upside Down

[I’m not the first to compare politics to the Upside Down of Stranger Things fame* and I might not be the last.]

In the popular Netflix series, character Mike compares the Upside Down to the Vale of Shadows in Dungeons and Dragons. He refers to it as “a dimension that is a dark reflection, or echo, of our world. It is a place of decay and death…a place of monsters.”

Imagine a world above ground which has a shadowy, sinister dimension below ground. One world is light and benevolent, the other is dark and malevolent. There is a gate, or portal, which allows movement between the dimensions, but it is elusive and when you pass through you might not get back.

Metaphorically, one component of this parallel dimension is Boris Johnson’s personality. According to Ipsos, 51% of the public think that he has a lot of personality — double Keir Starmer’s 23% — but in the public’s eyes this is the lowest-ranked attribute of eleven for being a good Prime Minister.

On the upside, he has been able to connect with parts of the electorate Conservatives haven’t reached for a long time and has constructed broad narratives, painting adroitly in primary colours. But this can come across as shallow storytelling and, without delivery and follow-through, leaves him vulnerable.

He has apparently been a populist, able to pick up ‘dog whistle’ causes and run with them, defying convention and the laws of political gravity. This anti-elitism was initially appealing during the Project Fear period and the ‘people’s Government’ rang true. But his initial popularity has been over-stated — perhaps creating the impression of an even steeper descent — and his rating on honesty is now pitiful, tainted by Partygate. Only 16% rate him positively on this, judged by the public as the second most important attribute.

In one dimension, Brexit had made Johnson (and some would say he was made for it), but it also undermines him on the flipside. While others prevaricated, he pushed to ‘get Brexit done’. But it has brought extreme difficulty to his premiership in the form of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a significant brake on trade and increased prices. Brexit was so totemic, it became his raison d’etre. If he says it is fully ‘done’, what comes next? If it is not done, why not?

Other events and challenges have been similarly double-edged. The pandemic hampered the ability of the Johnson Government to get things done for a period which started soon after its first 100 days in power; a large majority would otherwise have been used to power delivery. However, Covid prompted the furlough scheme and the vaccination programme — both seen in a very positive light by the public. There is a flipside here too; this muscular state intervention has raised expectations.

The public clamour for more to be done in response to the cost of living crisis, will grow during the next few months but doing more costs money and the Conservatives seem hamstrung between being a party of high tax and one of low tax, scuttling between pursuing a high wage economy or dampening down wage expectations to prevent a downward spiral.

Stranger Things is set in the 1980s and during that period Mrs Thatcher’s obstinacy — “the lady is not for turning” — meant she got things done, but the downside was that she came across as intransigent and insensitive. More recently, Gordon Brown’s intellect and attention to detail met a huge challenge in the shape of the financial crisis of 2007–8 but did not do him many favours electorally in the face of a simple but effective narrative that Labour was culpable.

In Stranger Things, El (Eleven) regained her superpowers by re-training and spending hours in a sensory deprivation tank, aided in the fight against demons by a team of talented and tenacious teens. These options aren’t available to the Prime Minister, but whatever happens on Thursday, he must somehow find a portal and get back above ground and away from the demons.

It is possible to turn things around in politics. Stranger things have happened.

* Bagehot, The Economist, ‘British politics goes into the upside down’, 5 September 2019