Tuesday, 18 January 2022

Getting it off one’s chest

Thus to our MP:

It will not have escaped your attention that a majority stronger even than yours was overturned at a recent by-election, and of course our local experience in [our ward] is perhaps an interesting reflection on the times.  R (who is our next-door neighbour) ought to have romped home, particularly in view of the respect we all had for her late Dad [whose untimely death created the vacancy].  She told me that she had quite a tough time on the doorsteps, and remarked to me that ‘of course, Boris isn’t helping!’.  This of course was before the latest scandals.

Others will have explained better than I can the revulsion felt by so many of us at the egregious, cynical behaviour of the PM and his entourage.  This stands in stark contrast to the willing sacrifices and suffering of so many.  Johnson ought to have gone after the Cummings episode.  Since then, he has repeatedly breached the Ministerial Code, wriggling out of his responsibility with excuses that sound feebler each time.  The current attempts to draw the fire away from Johnson by means of accelerated populist policy lash-ups just serve to underline the moral bankruptcy of the PM and his entourage.  

In times past, a prime minister thus compromised would long since have had the decency to resign.  He is plainly too pusillanimous to face up to his duty sua sponte, so, in the elegant words of a fellow Scot interviewed a few days ago, he wants a kick up the arse.  This could be administered by a vote of no confidence, a visit from the men in the grey suits or a suitably damning conclusion (however improbable) following Gray’s enquiry.  Which is it going to be?  For the good of the country and its shattered international reputation, one way or another, he has to go. 

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