Comment on Freshly elected as UK’s next PM, Boris Johnson pledges full fiber broadband bonanza

Get ready for a British Trump: The UK will shortly have a new prime minister after the Conservative Party membership overwhelmingly voted to elect Boris Johnson as their new party leader, passing over his sole rival for the post, Jeremy Hunt. Johnson received 92,135 votes, a full 45,497 more than Hunt. He replaces Theresa May who announced she would step down in May after failing to achieve backing from parliament for her EU withdrawal deal — the second PM to be toppled by Brexit in just under three years. Whether Johnson can outlast even May’s brief tenure very much remains to be seen. The former journalist and ex mayor of London has made a political success story of clowning around in public and cracking often self-deprecating jokes that encourage a perception of joviality and good humor, while simultaneously pressing his personal ambition behind the scenes and ruthlessly gunning for the highest office in the land — which was his motivation for switching to back Brexit in the first place. The clown mask enables the political manoeuvering, as it were. How the usual Johnson ‘circus’ will translate into firm policy positions is something of an open question at this stage, though early indications suggest he’s intending an infrastructure spending spree — to feed the popularity contest that has, after all, swept him to power. Albeit how any such public spending bonanza will be funded is anyone’s guess at this stage.