Photo by Zachary Kadolph on Unsplash
The first three initials of Boris Alexander De pfeffel Johnson badged him as BAD at birth, but few could have imagined the damage he would inflict on the country as a whole and on trust in politicians in particular.
His sudden resignation as an MP was triggered by receipt of the report from the Privileges Committee, which presumably condemned him for misleading the House of Commons about breaking the law on parties during Covid when he was carousing with his cronies in Chequers as well as Downing Street. As always with Boris it would be other people who should be blamed for his own failures. The Committee was obviously biased, and it was all a plot to get rid of him.
In his self-justifying rant of a resignation letter he had the gall to attack Rishi Sunak for failing to deliver on Boris’s election promises such as cutting taxes, delivering Brexit benefits and securing trade deals with the USA. Like his pledges of “40 new hospitals” they were all Boris’s personal fantasies and he had no plans to deliver any of them either.
His belief in being personally blameless became contagious among his senior acolytes: Dominic Raab left office because of bullying but claimed he was merely trying to enforce high standards upon the Civil Service, and Liz Truss when she resigned as Prime Minister insisted that her diagnosis for the country was correct and it was clearly the country’s fault that it failed to realise it.
It seems a long time ago since Michael Howard was anointed Leader of the Conservative party and espoused a very different vision of what it meant to be a Conservative and what were the responsibilities of a potential Prime Minister. He claimed perceptively that the heart of the word ‘Conservative’ contained the verb to ‘serve’: the motto of the Prince of Wales, “Ich Dien”, enshrines the same noble ideal. To be a Member of Parliament is a privilege and not a perk, and service should at the core of their philosophy. With Boris at the helm, the order of the day has always been self-service.
Before he left, he announced a Resignation Honours List which compounded his disgrace. His personal hairdresser as well as his wife’s dog-walker were both included in recognition of their vital public service. Sir William Cash was given the rare award of Companion of Honour alongside his earlier knighthood: Cash regarded this as a tribute to the British people for voting to end the “undemocratic” dictats from Brussels, despite so many other European democracies queuing to sign up for EU membership.
Former Brexit Opportunities Minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, having found no such opportunities because there were none to be found, was newly knighted. And of course his soul-mate Priti Patel was made a Dame, and several colleagues indicted for Covid law-breaking were naturally also honoured.
The one surprise from the list of new peers was the omission of former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries. Nobody was more surprised than she was, given her self-professed “record of achievement”: indeed her lack of any such achievement should indeed have made her supremely well-qualified.
Meanwhile the current Prime Minister has chosen to remain silent. He will have known in advance about the report from the Privileges Committee with its imminent Partygate revelations. He will have known in advance the proposed Resignation Honours List, which still sailed through unchallenged. He continues to retain as Home Secretary the extreme Right-Winger Suella Braverman, who had earlier been forced to resign because of her own misdemeanours, because he dares not upset the dwindling members of the European Research Group. Similarly he is timidly allowing the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland to paralyse Stormont by its ongoing refusal to join the power-sharing executive.
Rishi Sunak should remember that he is the Prime Minister. He has the power as well as the duty to take decisions for the good of the country. At present he has chosen other priorities.
It is 160 years since Abraham Lincoln gave the famous Gettysburg address, ending with the dedication that “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” While the UK Government has set up a full Public Inquiry into its handling of the Covid pandemic – which may well highlight major avoidable failings – it is currently refusing to make available all the information requested by the Judge in order to protect the confidentiality of Government Ministers. It would appear that the UK Government no longer regards itself as responsible to the people: the interest of Ministers must come first.
It is not enough for Boris to disappear into the wilderness. So should Resignation Honours Lists. So should this discredited Government. An early General Election is increasingly vital to clear the air – and clear out the cronies.
