“Weak and Wobbly Will”: Holding No Punches, The Leader of the Opposition Talks to the Guardian

jgm0228 writes for The Guardian.

Send in the clowns. One would think that was simply a novel song, but apparently its instruction rings through the halls of Westminster. The Sunrise government after a relatively short stint in power has a new Prime Minister. Taking the mantle from an over stressed Secretary Salami, WillShakespeare99 faces what will be sure to be an eventful tenure. But far less covered is the person who persisted through the Salami Ministry and continues at the dispatch box into Will’s tenure. And it’s not a member of her Majesty’s Government.

Eelsemaj99 has been busy. The Leader of the Opposition throughout both Sunrise PM’s tenure has never been short on words or hesitant to criticize. Their most recent full speech to the commons was a blistering attack on the notion of a national culture day, an issue their opposition team has been swift to condemn Sunrise for. Government ministers don’t remain safe either, with the Business Minister being admonished for “fobbing her share of the responsibility off on a other department.”

Despite all of this, Opposition members are so much more than just counterparts of the government on the other benches. Eesemaj99 had much to say on the Salami and Will Ministries, but provided sharp takes on a variety of other topics from their background to the upcoming devolved elections. Feeling a little bit queasy from the trip, eels invited myself around to his flat in Belfast, that he has had as his primary residence since he was First Minister. The Conservative Leader sits relaxed at his slightly too cluttered desk, and gestures for me to take a seat. After some small talk, he says in his broad Northern Irish accent “Well, shall we get into it?”

Thank you for inviting me. Its always good to get views from opposition figures. Would you like to talk about your career path?

“Well I was invited to the Lords several months ago, and I am flattered that the Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair invited me, but I have since returned to the Commons, when I became Conservative Deputy Leader and have sat representing my home, now having won 4 Parliamentary elections in this seat. I do intend to return to the Lords at some point.”

What made you feel like the time was to return to the commons?

“I made my return to politics in December as I was elected Deputy Leader. There was a by-election going here (Northern Ireland) due to the collapse of the NUP, so it was the obvious time.”

In your tenure as leader of the opposition, you appear to have already out lasted one Labour Prime Minister. We saw WillShakespeare99 accept a mandate from her majesty to enter number 10. What reflections broadly do you have of Secretary Salami’s tenure and what do you feel may change, or indeed stay the same, about WillShakespeare’s.

“First I’d like to pay testament to Salami as Prime Minister. He led a disastrous and ineffective Government, but as someone who has been Prime Minister I can empathise with him. It’s hard to keep the will sometimes to stay in the top job, and I wish him well in the future. As to Will, he’s a tested leader, I enjoyed sparring with him over the dispatch box when we were in the opposite positions to now, but I can’t help but feel he’s served his time. Does he still take politics seriously? His time in the Monster Raving Loony Party suggests not. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I believe his heart’s not in it. It’s a very hard task to fix the broken Government that Sunrise has proven to be, and honestly I think it’s time we had a Conservative Government with a proven record of success, rather than a return to weak and wobbly Will.”

You mention you “think its time”. I cant help but notice that’s some fairly active tone. Will we be seeing a vote of no confidence in Will in his early tenure as prime minister?

“Many options are open to us including a Vote of no Confidence and calling for an early election. I’ll just say that for the election when it comes, we now have proof that everything we said last election about a Labour Government is true. They are weak, internally fractured, controlled by the Classical Liberals and too inexperienced, let’s get the experts in.”

“I think it’s time we had a Conservative Government with a proven record of success, rather than a return to weak and wobbly Will.” On the new Prime Minister, WilShakespeare

Lets get to the classical liberals. Northern Ireland has relatively few Westminster constituencies as a percentage yet you have managed to become the leader of the opposition. I think this achievement of yours is a microcosm of the focus northern irish politics has on our politics, particularly in recent days. The most recent development, taking place almost right before this interview, is a formal statement from the DPM and the Foreign Secretary including a portion on NI, would you like to comment on their NI portion and the crisis between Westminster and Ni that took place last week?

“I’ll say first that Prime Ministers can come from anywhere in the UK, it’s nothing really that shocking that one would eventually come from Northern Ireland. That said, I agree that my home has been in the news a lot for the wrong reasons, the Classical Liberals came in with strong ideas and no clue about our unique politics. I am of course glad that the Deputy Prime Minister is apologising to his party’s conduct towards the Executive and Northern Ireland more generally, I am glad that the Clibs are finally moving on from their insensitive campaigning and apologising for their incompetent governance, and I’m glad that they’re finally promising to have constructive meetings with the Executive. But I still say it shouldn’t have come this far and I’m a long way off trusting them again. The fact that the then Deputy Prime Minister felt he could waltz in as the “Last Unionist Standing” then feel like he could ride roughshod over unionist priorities and insult Executive members in Cabinet is a sign of the deep hole that needs to be fixed. The fact that a Classical Liberal ignored the Executive and proposed to nationalise Harland and Wolff after the Assembly had voted to reject that proposal by a wide margin is a sign, the fact that the new Deputy Prime Minister indicated that he doesn’t care about NI is another sign, the fact that the Classical Liberals are only apologising after losing a leader, having the First Minister leave the Classical Liberals, having already insulted the Executive so many times is very concerning, and I don’t think I will be able to trust the party to be competent for a little while.”

You are of course a politician. One notices talking points. And one recurring point im noticing in our conversation so far is competence. Stability. You dont think the incumbent government has it. I think one of the key sticking points that has developed over this term is the clash between the Sunrise + progressive minor party controlled Commons and the more opposition heavy House of Lords, who have forced the commons to reconsider a variety of bills it has passed. You uniquely have robust experience in both Houses. Why do you think the lords have seemed so remiss to support some recent government legislation, how much do you feel they can and or should obstruct from the governments agenda, and what do you think Sunrise could do to change this imbalance?

“I think it’s the Upper House’s right to scrutinise legislation, and I refer you to multiple speeches I’ve made in the House about the worth of the Lords as a House of improvement, comments I have made both as Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition. I think it is also the Conservative Party’s perfect right to try and improve bills, and to vote against them if we don’t like them. The Commons is superior as proved by the Parliament Acts, and the Commons can force a bill through if passed in the same form twice. About the composition of the House, I think it’s well and good for peers that are entitled to sit to take their places, and the Prime Minister has a right to nominate Peers to the House, like I did as PM.”

Abrupt change of topic but I’m trying dig deep into this stability narrative you often seem to emphasize. Recently in Syria we have seen the trump administration begin a pullout of the Rojavan border. Then, minutes from the now DPM’s meeting with trump indicated Trump would maintain troops and support a transition to a coalition of British troops. Now, the SDF has partnered with Assad, a man who has always been staunchly opposed to their political project, to restore their borders. Domestically, we have seen the Conservative party, a party previously supportive of intervention in Syria, criticize the governments attempts to hash out a coalition. Dueling and contradictory legal advice has been given by the AG and their Shadow counterpart. Help the public make sense of this. Where do you stand in Syria, how has the government handled this up until now, and what actions do you think the government should take now?

“I think the government is all too quick to accelerate, where other options have not been tried. The Attorney General’s advice was brief and in the Conservatives’ opinion, wrong. It is illegal to escalate the tensions, especially when diplomacy has not been tried. Tommy has always been a warmonger, and I think it’s leading him to make careless decisions, such as not consulting the UN or NATO.”

Could you elaborate on your claim to him being a warmonger?

“I remember while I was Prime Minister, he was backing military action in Iran too, and may I say he botched that when he became Foreign Secretary, a Conservative Foreign Secretary would not have let Iran keep the ship when the men came back.”

“Tommy has always been a warmonger.” On the Deputy Prime Minister, tommy1boy

Im noticing lots of focus on the classical liberals. Why do you think they have undue control over Sunrise, something you claimed earlier? Additionally, it should be noted your party forms the current government of Scotland, and I would assume would want to face re-election. Do you think these Westminster level tensions will degrade your cooperation on the regional level?

“I think it’s because of a weak and fractured Labour Party and an absent Prime Minister. The Clibs have always been a domineering force: they basically controlled the Liberal Government and decided when it ended, they have taken all the big decisions and the posts in this Government, they dragged the Lib Dems in against their will, they are a party who knows how to boss people about. In answer to your second question, we entered into Government in Scotland to provide the first Unionist Government since 2017, and I’m rather disappointed that Duncs11 hasn’t done more with the Government we gave him. I won’t rule out working with him again, but I’d expected more.”

Oh that is most interesting. Last holyrood election the parties that eventually formed government competed with each other in constituencies. With this disappointment you have with Duncs. is it safe to say there will be no pacts this election?

“As always, we’re happy to talk to any party about endorsements, if they come to us.”

And have any parties come to you?

“None so far.”

Looking further past Holyrood, we see elections in Wales and NI coming up. How do you feel the devolved administrations there have done so far and what are you looking forward to for the future with their mandates soon to be renewed?

“I think that our time in Government in Wales and Northern Ireland has been broadly successful. I am proud to back our new Welsh Leader, DriftersBuddy. He’s a hard working welshman with a great team behind him, I think we have new energy in Wales. In Northern Ireland, I am proud that the exectutive has for the first time since I entered politics lasted a whole term without a collapse, it bodes well for times to come and I think we’ll do well.”

“I’m rather disappointed that Duncs11 hasn’t done more with the Government we gave him.” On the First Minister of Scotland

There will always be division I think between the government and opposition. It’s natural and healthy. But what has your party supported that the government has also supported, some form of common ground perhaps, both in the past and potentially moving forward.

I think there is some common ground between us, there always has been and always should be. I’m glad that TheChattyShow put forward his proposals on the Holocaust return of objects for instance, that was a great initiative that I am proud to have backed. We’ve also had significant common ground decrying concentration camps, which I am also proud to have backed. We backed several of the Government’s justice reforms where they made sense, things that we would have done in Government. I am also glad that we’ve worked cross party. Several initiatives jointly signed by us, the LPUK and the IPP come to mind, such as on the Culture Day, which I’m glad we got the Government to back down on. We’ve also worked successfully with the People’s Movement, notably on the developing situation in Turkey and Syria. We’re happy to work cross party on many issues, especially relating to Brexit, it’s saddening that the Government are not reaching out to us in their negotiations and as a result are capitulating to the EU, making a second Single Market when we clearly voted to leave the current one. We’re also happy to work cross party on rail privatisation, if the Classical Liberals are prepared to move at all on their proposals. We have a lot of common ground.

How do you know they are capitulating to the EU if you don’t know their proposals?

“From what the Justice Secretary has said to the House of Commons, it sounds very much as if the Government want to re-enter the Single Market by the back door from its “Negative List” proposal, trapping us to EU standards, and its Trade Facilitation Body which will act just like the Customs Union. They also wish to retain freedom of movement, a key part of the Single Market. A Conservative Government would not stand for that. We’d stand up for Britain and wish for a close relationship with our friends and allies, but to bring an end to free movement, which Britons clearly do not want, and to get a deal that allows us to set our own standards and not remain beholden to EU rules.”

And what standards would they be?

“We wish to keep standards high, and I think that many regulations are good regulations, such as those on animal safety and on chemical use, however, some are unnecessarily Bureaucratic and need to be ditched. I don’t know if the Government remembers but back in 2018 we passed a Great Repeal Act that incorporated EU law into domestic law for us to review and throw out what we didn’t like. The Conservatives will use that Act to its intended purpose, and throw out regulations we don’t like such as on fishing and on farming an on the EU’s over-intrusive standards on industry “

Would a Tory end to freedom of movement see a more or less restrictive entry system then the status quo?

“As I said we will bring an end to Free Movement. Don’t you understand what that means? Currently people from anywhere in the EU can come live or work here whenever they want without restriction. I know what you’re trying to do here. We want to be friendly to immigrants, and for it to be easy to migrate to Britain, if you have the relevant skills. But the British People do not want Free Movement, and the Conservatives will bring that to an end. Currently we have unequal migration laws, discriminating against non-Europeans just because of where you are born, and I want to fix that and make it more equal. I don’t see why if you’re from Pakistan or Australia, it should be any harder to come here than if you’re from Poland or Germany.”

I think we have covered large amounts of ground in this interview. Would you like to mention anything else that you think has some pressing importance that you anticipate will be a major political issue?

“I’ll just make one closing remark. I think that the Government need to watch out. We are in the middle of a by-election called because one of their MPs couldn’t be bothered to vote. We have had MPs break the law and the Government vote to say that’s fine. We have had a chancellor bully the cabinet and resign over it, we have had the SDP collapse. We have had the NI scandal and the Deputy Prime Minister resign, We have had the Prime Minister resign, the Conservatives have forced several other resignations. I say to the new Government leadership: be prepared. That all happened in 2 months. Don’t expect it to stop just because of new leaders. I hope the public have seen that we are the only competent choice, and I look forward to coming back to Government as soon as I can.”

Thank you! This interview was incredibly interesting and I look forward to keeping up with your developments.

“Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.”

As I left their residence and made the long trip back to the office in London to draw up this piece, I couldn’t help but think that the interview I had just conducted was one that covered so much but left so much more that could have been said. So dense have been the political developments that we lose track of the individual people who make them up, relegating them to nameless titles who parrot talking points to the press. I believe moving forward, this current crop of MP’s in Westminster are going to face a variety of challenges, and if this interview was any indication, they will face them, regardless of party, with an ever increasing sense of urgency and purpose.



