Jeremy Corbyn faced criticism yesterday for failing to ask any Brexit related questions at PMQ’s today, specifically in relation to rumours that Boris Johnson intends to change the name of the Foreign Office to the British Office at the stroke of Brexit, in order to keep his party’s tenuous grip on its UKIP voters.
“I was astounded,” a leading political journalist who occasionally writes for LCD Views commented, “Mr Johnson’s plans are a huge truth bomb and give the lie to the claim by Brexiter’s that they love everyone, regardless of where they were born. It should have been tackled at PMQ’s.”
Although other Westminster bubble dwellers have suggested wryly that it’s not like Ms May would be aware of Mr Johnson’s future plans.
It is of course quite likely that all of Mr Johnson’s future plans are improvised daily, like all leading proponents of Brexit, and just aimed at a fuzzy feeling in the distance.
Educated commentators on social media seemed to approve. As soon as the rumour made headway on Twitter, it leapt to Facebook and thousands of users with Saint George flags in their profiles began shouting that it’s a British office so it should have Britain in its name. It’s only logical.
“It does make sense in a way,” our colleague smiled, “as we’ll only be talking to ourselves after March 2019 anyway, so why not change the name of the office of state to reflect the new paradigm.”
LCD Views robustly supports any tokenism playing to nationalists, although we raise concerns that the words Britain, Briton and Britishness maybe obsolete pretty soon after we make a success of Brexit.
It will probably be wise to get ahead of the curve and rename the office the English Office, or perhaps the Kingdom of Wessex Office? It depends how far back we go in the time machine of State.