Them’s the Breaks

Bye Bye Boris and Bye Bye Blue Street

M. R. Taulawakeiaho

IF BORIS JOHNSON EVER COMES TO AMERICAN TEA, he’d be the champion of the mechanical bull for sure; he clings on against all odds. Given his endless stumbling, it’s a wonder Johnson managed to hang on as long as he did, but, on the 7th of July, after a record number of ministers and staffers had resigned over his promotion of an MP facing sexual assult allegations, Johnson had to follow. In his own words, “them’s the breaks.” This is my final article for the Shore Weekly Record and, before we get to the thank yous and goodbyes, I thought I’d indulge myself by one last look at politics in Britain.

In the mind’s eye, Johnson is the textbook upper class, conservative politician: born into a political family with an education at Eton and Oxford that instilled him with a sense of entitlement and never taught him to brush his hair. But, the contenders to replace him appear to be nothing like him and far removed from the typical British Prime Minister. For a start, among the eight candidates who faced the first round of voting, four were women. Perhaps even more surprising is that four were people from ethnic minorities. At the time of writing, it is looking increasingly likely that England will have either a woman or member of an ethnic minority as its next Prime Minister, whether it’s Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt or Liz Truss.

That’s no small feat, especially from the party you wouldn’t normally associate with immigrants. While it may be an unwelcome surprise to those on the left, it’s a marker of how successfully diverse Britain has become. Diversity is not successful when one party has a monopoly on support from immigrants, but when the children of those immigrants can stand for either party. Diversity isn’t successful when all the ethnic politicians stand for the same thing, but when they represent the full spectrum of ideologies and abilities.

Having a leader from a diverse background doesn’t mean the Conservative Party has the full support of all minorities. In fact, many diverse candidates in the party share the typical Tory upbringing with their white counterparts and represent areas where the majority of the population is not diverse. For example, not only is Rishi Sunak, former chancellor of the exchequer and current frontrunner, the member for one of the safest Tory seats, one they have held for over 100 years, but is also a graduate of Winchester (where, I might add, he was the editor of the school paper), Oxford and Stanford and the richest MP in the House of Commons, with a 200 million pound net worth.

Clearly, a man with a wife literally richer than the queen is a far cry from struggling migrant communities. But, once upon a time, the parents and grandparents of many of today’s crop of Tory leadership hopefuls were those same hardworking migrants dreaming of giving their children and grandchildren better opportunities in a new country. If those opportunities include becoming a typical Tory Prime Minister who the nation will inevitably grow to hate for whatever political backstabbing or scandal comes next, I think there’s no better example of successful diversity.

Now, it’s goodbye time. It’s been a privilege to be able to write for the SWR  since 2018 and even more so over the last year as editor. Each committee has left a legacy and we are particularly indebted to The Shore Times committee (2020-21) for sparking a resurgence in contribution and quality that we have been lucky enough to inherit and improve on. It’s also been pleasing to see interest from so many junior contributors this year. We’ve had articles from boys in Year 11 looking to be on the next committee, a Year 7 starting to get involved in the Shore Community and everyone in between, so I think the SWR will be in strong hands for many years to come.

Thank you to the staff who are involved in the SWR process. The work of Mrs Kane, who sorts out the staff section, and Mrs Daoud in the print room are crucial in getting a complete edition to you at the gate every Friday. I’d also like to thank the only other people who I can guarantee read every article each week; Dr Mansfield and, most importantly, Editor in Chief Ms Horsley who is critical to the running of the SWR. Without Ma’am double checking my editing and providing guidance on the processes and expectations, the whole SWR process would not work nearly as well and not produce such good results for you.

The contributions of the senior committee this year cannot be understated. Despite some shocking editing jobs, I’ve enjoyed reading their articles and I hope you’ve appreciated them as much as I have. As a team, we’ve released a whopping 288 articles, 561 pages and 188,830 words (not including this edition). Special thanks to the section editors who have been crucial in getting articles in every week, supporting new contributors and have all made over twenty contributions this year. I also have to mention the work of Graphics Editor Andrew Ding and Secretary Toby Brandon-Cooper who work unbelievably hard to organise articles, collate contribution totals and format the edition. There are many wheels that make the SWR turn, but if either of those two fell off, a crash would be inevitable.

Finally, I’d like to thank the boys who pick up a copy on Friday or read it online. It’s so rewarding when you are excited to pick up a copy of our work. Allegedly, the SWR is the oldest student publication in Australia (if not the Southern Hemisphere) and that’s thanks to the continuous community engagement and contribution. We’re written by the boys for the boys and I hope we’ve been able to provide some entertainment and food for thought over the last year. The SWR has been so valued for me in improving my writing, expanding my mind and helping me build connections with boys across the school and, after five years and 75 articles, I’m going to miss writing for this publication as much as anything at Shore, but, as another retiring figure recently said,“them’s the breaks.”