Absolutely a Conservative, Honest! Boris Quotes Lenin to Promote Build Back Greener

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the Confederation of Business Industry (C
OWEN HUMPHREYS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson quoted communist dictator Vladimir Lenin to promote his Build Back Better green agenda in a speech delivered to business leaders on Monday.

Speaking at the Port of Tyne in South Shields at the opening session of the annual Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday morning, Mr Johnson used a quote from the former Soviet Union dictator to frame his vision for a “green industrial revolution”.

“Lenin once said that the communist revolution was Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country,” Johnson said.

“Well, I hesitate to quote Lenin at the Confederation of British Industry, but the coming industrial revolution is green power plus the electrification of the whole country,” he continued.

Mr Johnson said that his green agenda is a “moral mission”, explaining that he has become “more idealistic” as he has grown older.

“It’s a moral thing but it’s also an economic imperative. Because if this country could achieve the same kind of geographical balance and dispersion of growth and wealth that you find in most of our most successful economic comparators… then there would be absolutely no stopping us and what we would achieve,” the prime minister said.

Mr Johnson went on to claim that the global supply chain issues spurred on by government lockdowns during the Chinese coronavirus have provided an opportunity to radically transform Britain’s economy, saying “fate has handed us an opportunity”.

The British PM — who has been at the forefront of the Build Back Better movement, alongside his counterpart in America, President Joe Biden — has pledged to considerably reduce carbon emissions in Britain by the year 2050.

Analysis conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in October found that the plan would cost the country over a trillion pounds sterling in the coming three decades, with the brunt of the cost being born by the average consumer.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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