BORIS Johnson is now the most likely candidate to be the Prime Minister.

That fact is one of the oddest things I have had to come to terms with since I entered the political fray in 2015. The idea that this pompous, offensive, crass, and dangerous character could become the Prime Minister is bone chilling.

Bone chilling sounds like an extreme bit of word play, but it’s only a small exaggeration, because what is Boris Johnson as a politician really? On the surface he’s the British Donald Trump. They’ve both created a narrative that they are entertaining and straight-talking whilst unashamedly espousing lies, right-wing ideals and dog whistles to alt-right and racist people across the country. They’ve both cheated on wives and made racist statements. Boris is just a posh, English Donald Trump.

Most of all, they are both incredibly dangerous. However, the reason Boris is bone chilling is because, unlike Donald Trump, Boris Johnson is clever. His every move is calculated. Where Donald Trump is a reactionary oaf who says whatever comes to mind, Boris Johnson only plays a similar part. And his supporters have started playing from the same playbook as Donald Trump supporters. At his campaign launch this week Beth Rigby, the Sky News Political Editor, asked a very fair question about Boris Johnson’s previous racist statements. What was the Johnson supporter’s response? Booing and jeering. Very Trumpian.

He’s only one of a large mix of ridiculous, out of touch, folk who are still in the running to become the next Prime Minister. A shower of sleekit folk, who have absolutely no interest in attempting to continue Theresa May’s mission of ending the Tory reputation as the “nasty party”. Although her mission was clearly an epic failure from the start, at least she was attempting to say the right thing.

How far has our society plummeted when the people in the running to be Prime Minister don’t even pay lip service to helping the “Just About Managing” people of the world. It was simpler times when the political news of the day was that Theresa May wasn’t happy people were referring to them as JAMs.

There’s Michael Gove, who stands for absolutely nothing except making rich people richer and poor people poorer, and tries to justify it with faux passion and good oratory skills.

There’s Jeremy Hunt, who is trying to outdo Boris Johnson on the Trump scale, by claiming to be the great negotiator when, in fact, his renegotiation of the Junior Doctors contract in the English NHS was a disaster of unmitigated proportions. If you would like another parallel between Hunt and Johnson, look up Hunt’s gaffes since becoming Foreign Secretary.

There’s Sajid Javid who happily deports LGBT people to countries where their sexuality could get them executed, but of course supports the LGBT+ community...

There’s Dominic Raab who, if memory serves, helped negotiate Theresa May’s Brexit Deal, and then voted against the very deal he helped negotiate.

And then. Well. Then, there is Rory Stewart. Never, in as long as I can remember, have so many political journalist and commentators declared their love for a politician.

It’s the strangest thing I have ever seen. I don’t know if it’s his soft voice, or that delightfully dishonest moment where he pretended to be filming himself on the street, but the commentators just cannot stop themselves lining up to lament a politician being unlikely to win an election contest.

But underneath the nice videos and the seemingly reasonable things he says, he is still a staunch conservative. He is still going to continue austerity and he will still go ahead with forcing Brexit on the people of Scotland that they never voted for.

This contest, where a tiny part of the population will get to decide who the leader of the entire “United” Kingdom is, has shone a light on the kind of policies we can expect in a post-Brexit Tory run Britain. Massive tax cuts for the richest, with absolutely no mention of tax relief for the worst off, paid for by the people of Scotland.

There’s also been discussion of rolling back LGBT inclusive education in schools, talk of bringing back National Service, and talk of establishing a Department of the Union (definitely not the European Union though) that – I think – will have responsibility for distributing pro-Union propaganda in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I suppose I say all this, because I’ve had the question posed by the great philosopher, Greg Hemphill stuck in my mind all week:

You yes yet?