MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Sound leadership will help us prosper

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Sound leadership and high morale will help us prosper

We must acknowledge that these are worrying times. It is many years since the country has seen so many troubling events at once: a major war in Europe, a bout of high inflation, a wave of strikes and an energy crisis. The important thing is not to make our problems worse. Sound leadership, wise policy and high morale can help our ancient, stable nation overcome these problems, survive and prosper.

On this website, in one of the last articles he will write as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson tells readers of The Mail on Sunday why they should not be downhearted. It is typical of him that he should take this optimistic view even as he is compelled to leave the job he loved so much.

Yes, things will be tough, sometimes painful. But we will get through. He acknowledges the grave blow struck at our civilisation by the tyrant and pariah Vladimir Putin. He points out that the Russian invasion of Ukraine upset the recovery from the pandemic that was by then under way. But he is confident of Putin’s defeat by the courageous and dogged people of Ukraine, strongly supported by the major Western nations, including ours. And he is equally sure that the recovery will resume.

Boris Johnson speaks to the media during a visit to London Orthopaedic Centre on August 26

He is well aware of the rise in fuel costs, but he is confident that, whoever his successor is, mechanisms are in place to soften the impact on those in need. And he sets out the large programmes already under way to reduce this country’s reliance on gas.

In this he is very much in step with his likely successor, Liz Truss. In fact his Government, with its record of decisive action on the vaccine and on furlough during the coronavirus crisis, has shown in detail that it can respond with speed and skill to new developments. In the same way, it showed that it was able to take resolute and decisive action to end what seemed like the insoluble problem of Brexit, slicing through the verbiage and technicalities and fulfilling the wishes of the British people by taking the UK out of the EU.

Though it is sometimes baffling to reflect that a Prime Minister with so many successes to his credit has been forced to resign, we can at least take pleasure in the fact that the election to replace him has been orderly, civil and thorough. We can take comfort in the fact that our governing party is both experienced and successful, and that the arrival of a new leader in Downing Street will take place smoothly and efficiently.

Liz Truss at the Conservative Party leadership election hustings at the Holiday Inn Norwich

You might not think this if you listened only to the BBC and the other Left-wing media, and to the small army of wounded pundits who have been prophesying doom since Brexit and feel cheated that no such doom has yet arrived. The metropolitan chattering classes seem determined to make a drama out of a crisis, spreading despondency and fear of worse to come.

Perhaps they think that, if they promote such a state of mind, it might help the Labour Party at the next Election. Maybe so. But it will undoubtedly do damage to the country. Confidence is itself a major weapon against economic uncertainty, sustaining demand and keeping the wheels of the nation turning, and anyone with any serious concern for this country should be doing what he or she can to sustain and increase such confidence. We must not talk ourselves into a recession.

On the contrary, we should acknowledge the achievements of our outgoing, proudly boosterish Prime Minister – who has so often done so much to cheer us all up and make Britain feel good about itself.

And, as he would do, we must talk ourselves into recovery and progress towards the renewal and strengthening of enterprise, prosperity and freedom which we all desire.

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