Chris Johns
Partygate has consumed the British media and, for once, the British public. Opinion polls confirm that the electorate doesn’t believe Johnson, doesn’t think he has apologised, don’t know what he thinks he has apologised for and want him to resign.
Johnson and his acolytes (most of the parliamentary Tory party) are betting that public opinion is fickle and will change for the better. The passage of time will work its cynical magic and ‘events’ will come along to dull the collective memory. The Tories aren’t worried about Labour’s lead in the polls - something else they think won’t last - and that the MPs who have publicly called for Johnson’s removal are part of a BBC-lead, metropolitan elite dominated, Remainer plot. That the ex-Brexit secretary, David Davis, is part of that plot is revealing of fantasy thinking.
More thoughtful Tories accept that if Johnson is to go it will be at a time of their - not the media’s - choosing when an appropriate candidate for PM has loomed into view. Less thoughtful Tories, but ones who nevertheless recognise the scale of the damage caused by Partygate, are trying to deflect blame on to Johnson’s wife. They mutter about Johnson’s ‘weakness’ in not clearing the room full of ‘prosecco drinking friends of Carrie’ but absolve him of any deeper culpability. Where politics ends and misogyny starts is an open question.
A handful of Conservative MPs have asked Johnson to resign. Those who defend Johnson now stand accused of normalising lying to Parliament and condoning behaviour that is subject to criminal investigation by the Metropolitan police.
Johnson’s attack dogs have put the frighteners on MPs about the ‘necessity’ of an immediate general election should they depose the prime minister. Jacob Rees-Mogg, in the rottweiler vanguard, says that the UK now has more of a ‘President’ than a prime minister. This unannounced, rather large, constitutional change is, of course, utterly bogus, as is its corollary that an election has to follow the deposing of the sitting tenant of number 10.
The presidential analogy is interesting. It could almost be a Freudian slip. Lots of parallels can and have been drawn between the Republican party in the US - its steady working through Dante’s circles of hell - and the Tories; between Johnson and Trump.
In the House of Commons Johnson tried to imply that Keir Starmer was linked to a decision not to prosecute Jimmy Savile for his crimes against children. Here is the exact quote:
"[Starmer] spent most of his time [as DPP] prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile".
Fact checkers have found no evidence for Johnson’s claims. Nevertheless, he and his shock troops have doubled down on them when invited to retract.
BBC Reality Check has examined Boris Johnson's claim that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions (DPP) and has found no evidence that Sir Keir was involved at any point in the decision not to charge Savile.
The Labour leader called Mr Johnson's comments a "ridiculous slur" and they have been criticised by the Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
Boris Johnson "stands by" his comments, according to the prime minister's official spokesperson, who declined to repeat them.
The dark corners of the internet are filled with right-wing conspiracy theorists, often promoting the most sinister and vile ideas. Trump supporting Q-Anon, Proud Boys and loads of other like-minded groups regularly scare us witless, not least on January 6th last year. We comfort ourselves with the thoughts that they are still a minority, even amongst Trump voters. Talk of a US civil war is overblown but we understand why some people think one may have started.
We also draw comfort from the belief that whatever is happening in the US, ‘couldn’t happen over here’.
Yet the tactics adopted by Johnson have more than a Trumpian whiff to me. That Savile slur is the latest step along Dante’s path. Q-Anon-style conspiracists have long polluted political discourse with that link between Starmer and Savile. And here we have a British Prime Minister Echoing conspiracy trash talk in Parliament. Truly, we are descending into hell.
The UK’s paper of record put it well:
Worth a read https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/after-cryptos-cold-winter-expect-springtime-for-web-30/2022/02/06/ff968b56-872b-11ec-951c-1e0cc3723e53_story.html
They credit Johnson with the election victory when the real reason was that Corbyn was the alternative. Johnson is a populist but the ice is thin and he will continue to stumble, the Brexit deal is basically rubbish and has no place in a modern trading country. The poor in the UK are cynically targeted for cuts both in services and direct payments. Statistics are thrown about as fact when knowingly wrong eg fastest growing economy when it’s only rebounding from the worst decline in the western world. Of the employment numbers you just have to look at the food banks to see that so so many are working poor. Students are saddled with huge debt after 3rd level, in most cases never to get out from under it. Having Jacob Rees Mogg as leader of the house is a Marie Antoinette moment of epic proportions, rubbing peoples noses in it. Witness his manner and pointing at Stamer when Johnson disgustingly slurred him this week with Jimmy Saville. The Tories must go and go for good.