James Kirkup James Kirkup

The genius of Boris’s Brexit slogan

I can’t say I like it much, but the slogan for the Conservative Party conference in Manchester is a work of political genius: ‘Get Brexit done: invest in our NHS, schools and police’. In ten words, it offers a simplicity and clarity of intent that none of those who stand opposed to Boris Johnson have yet summoned up.

Arguably, that slogan captures something that could even be described as the missing centre-ground in British politics: socially conservative (Brexit as reassertion of the nation state and the rejection of liberal internationalism) and economically liberal (Spend! Spend! Spend on the strong state!). If – big if – the Conservatives fight a general under that banner, my money would be on them to win.

On the way to Manchester at the weekend, I spent some time with friends from far, far outside the bubble that has temporarily relocated from Westminster to Manchester for a few days. There’s no need for me to identify them further, beyond saying these are the people who told me in April 2015 that David Cameron would beat Ed Miliband (‘He seems a bit odd’), in 2016 that Britain would vote to Leave (‘There’s a lot of people up here who want rid of the lot of them’) and in 2017 that Theresa May would not capture many Labour Leavers (‘There’s never going to be much support for Tories here’).

Their verdict on current politics and in particular that Tory slogan? ‘Get Brexit done? Sounds fair enough. A lot of people want to just get on with it.’

But but but, I quibbled, it’s not that simple. First, Brexit will never be done: we will always be debating and assessing our evolving relationship with the European Union, since it will be our biggest economic and strategic interlocutor, not to mention our nearest neighbour.

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