Newly elected UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson eliminated half of Theresa May’s Cabinet members during his first day on the job. That overhaul comes as Johnson presents a unique vision of economic liberty at home and independence from the European Union, writes Rev. Richard Turnbull in a new essay posted at the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website.
Rev. Turnbull notes Johnson’s consistent commitment to economic liberty, a view that has not been so strongly embraced since the time of Margaret Thatcher.
After Turnbull – who is ordained in the Church of England as well as being the director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics in Oxford – analyzes Johnson’s appointments and commitments, he writes:
I am an old-fashioned social conservative and economic neo-liberal. Boris and the majority of his government is socially liberal, as well as economically classically liberal. Those of us on the traditional Right will welcome the conservative appointments of Priti Patel to the Home Department and Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary, as well as Rees-Mogg and some others. Those whose views are informed by faith are likely to be disappointed in some aspects of Boris’ government’s social legislation, and we may even find on the economic side a lack of control over government spending.
Nonetheless, I sense a moment has come. I sense resolve on the part of Prime Minister and government for the first time in years. I sense he wants to take on new opportunities and new horizons for the UK.
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