No.161 - Normality by Christmas? Where Have we Heard that One Before?
Dear James,
Boris told us last week that there is a prospect of a “significant return to normality” by Christmas. Oh boy! Where does this man live? From the climate crisis, to the pandemic, to the massive clash of values currently erupting between the West and China, the world has not been in such geo-political confusion since the Second World War. Christmas? Normal service will not be resumed for many years to come.
Yet Booster Boris continues to live in the world of 2016. The poor man clearly only feels safe when, free from questions, he is in his ‘Chairman of the Board’ mode, making ‘prime ministerial announcements’ but even then his pleading confidence is superficial. Every day I imagine him returning, down crested, to Mr Cummings for – choose your own metaphor - a refueling of chutzpah or a recharging of failing batteries or a blast of Gestalt therapy to reinvigorate the dark revolutionary background to the Cummings agenda. But even with this, back on the front line, Boris is revealed in all his weakness, unable to handle straightforward questions and reduced to schoolboy mockery when confronted by the penetrating intelligence of Kier Starmer. Boris is the arch blusterer who covers his weakness with his pretense of strength. Remember the twenty one able ministers sacked last autumn? That was the ‘smack of firm government’. And last week Julian Lewis lost the Conservative whip, for replacing ‘Failing Grayling’ as Boris’s ‘shoe-in’ on the Intelligence and Security Committee. That, of course, was ‘a courageous act of true leadership’. In reality both were acts of petulance by a leader who demands love, loyalty and sycophancy and who will simply destroy those who refuse his blandishments. His thin skin and petty revenges sum up the Gang of Three. We are being run by a Leninist cell in Downing Street seeking their desperate need of release from their own Europhobia supported by a hollowed out cabinet of yes men and women. That is no way to run a mature democracy. Our country is in a mess, James.
But while Cummings, Johnson and Gove plot and scheme, the sane world fights back. Last Friday the chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty and the chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, opposing Boris’s Xmas optimism, reiterated to the House of Lords, the need to maintain social distancing “for a long period of time”. “There is a very significant chance that it [coronavirus] comes back in force,” added Vallance. The divide between reality and Boris’s blind optimism was revealed at the heart of government. The scientists are separating themselves from the politicians ahead of the blame game to come. They’ve got the message at last.
Today we shall see the Russia Report, delayed for a year by Boris, in an attempt to hide another aspect of reality i.e how Putin helped the Tories to win elections. Everywhere across Whitehall sacked senior civil servants, defenestrated Ministers and sidelined scientific advisers are watching, all victims of the insecurity of Boris’s parliament-proof, arch-narcissism and his ‘people-proof’ chief adviser, Cummings. There is no doubt that our system of government, including the civil service, needs reforming but that should not be left to a small cabal of unelected advisers advising a vain and essentially empty headed Prime Minister himself elected with the help of Russian money, a disastrous leader of the Opposition and a voting system no longer fit for purpose. This is no way to run a country. Politics is letting us down. It has been letting us down since before 2008.
Britain or rather England, (oh, to have a leader like Nicola Sturgeon!), at a turning point in world history, is about to throw itself overboard into the churning waters between the major world power blocks. The sullen vanity of Boris or the ruthless certainty of a self proclaimed genius, create a torrid mix of danger for our nation. The good news is that Mr Raab yesterday stood up for our foundational values and suspended our extradition Treaty with Hong Kong. However, that brings a new level of reality to confront Boris. China is now hostile, America is in turmoil and we are abandoning the largest single market in the world. How does Boris plan to save our nation now? For any sane government, the only way to resolves such a crisis is to extend the EU transition period or to abandon this fanatical Brexit ideology altogether but since neither of these is likely, the nation will have to grit its teeth and endure the eye of the coming storm. Only when it is past and Boris is history, shall we, at last, have a chance to pick up the pieces and undertake the great, root to branch transformation needed for our own democracy.
So forget Boris’s claims of normality by Christmas, James. The last time that phrase was heard was in September 1914 and we know how long that crisis lasted. Normality will only return once we find the antidote to the poison injected into our system by the Cummings and Johnson experiment and move on to the grand transformation. That will be a day of genuine celebration and rejuvenation for our great nation James. That will be a day worth fighting for.
In the meantime, James, have a happy (future) Christmas!
Kind regards,
BH – Your Concerned Constituent