No.183 - Reset? Boris Declares Bullying is Fine and Slams the Scots.

Dear James, 

Oh dear. What a mess! In the week that the Covid-19 death count rose above 50,000 people, Downing Street went mad. Actually it has been mad from the start of this administration. Last week, in an attempt to reset things, two key sociopaths were ejected and your Party breathed a sigh of relief. They claimed and expected Boris to return to ‘normality’.  Some hope! Yesterday Boris told his MPs to ‘form a square’ around the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to protect her (and him!) against the official government report that confirmed that she had bullied senior Whitehall civil servants. Alex Allan, the PM’s independent adviser on the ‘Ministerial Code’ and author of the report, promptly resigned. 

Boris had tried to bend Sir Alex to his will to make the report more palatable but, unable to break Sir Alex's principles, had to publish it and overrule his adviser. Just as, last year, he tried to overrule the law and prorogue parliament, or more recently announced that he was willing to break the law with regard to the Internal Market Bill. Boris has few principles so thank goodness we still have a supreme court, a parliament and an honourable civil service who stand up for what is right and resign when principles are broken. Without them our nation would be well on the way to becoming a banana republic. 

You can’t change Boris. I am surprised that our ‘classicist PM’ did not resort to the Latin for his defensive ‘square’. For those of a classical disposition, the Romans called it a ‘testudo’ or tortoise, a system whereby their soldiers formed a defensive block, shields above them, shields at the sides, and shields in the rear. It seems an appropriate metaphor for Boris’s approach to governing. 

After the sacking of Cummings and Cain last week, this was supposed to be ‘Reset Week’. We were going to get back ‘the old Boris’. Unfortunately, the old Boris is exactly the same as the new Boris. He cannot change. In 2019, he had passionately stated that ‘There must be no bullying and no harassment’ in government. The Ministerial Code is a set of rules that define the ‘public standards’ expected of all Ministers and Mrs Patel has a history of shouting and swearing at public officials. In February, one of these, Sir Philip Rutnam resigned and is taking Mrs Patel to court for wrongful dismissal. Yesterday Priti came out and made a heartfelt apology followed soon after by a cohort of loyal Tory MPs in their testudo formations. The arrows however have rained down upon their shields. The Civil Service union has been scathing. The Labour Party called for an independent investigation. The public looks on in consternation. 

Today, Boris’s political capital is pulverised. Not only did we have the Priti Patel scandal, we also had Boris’s outburst on Scottish devolution. Speaking to 67 northern MPs. he stated, ‘Devolution has been a disaster for Scotland’. ‘It was Tony Blair’s biggest mistake’. When the backlash hit him, he had the nerve to say that he was not talking about devolution, only about the way that the SNP had exploited it to the nationalists’ advantage. Boris creates negative headlines without even thinking. Doesn’t he understand how the Scots see him and his endless waffle. Nicola Sturgeon is a beacon of common sense and clarity compared with Boris’s blather. 

The government shudders on undaunted. Give them a crisis and they will say, ‘What crisis’? Give them a cock-up and they will say, ’What cock up’? Give them a Ministerial gaffe worthy in the old days of a resignation, and they will say,’ The Minister has been working under very difficult circumstance’ and no matter what the evidence, will remain in post. Think Williamson and the ‘A level algorithm’, think Jenrick and the East London building bung. But if you want the biggest blatherer of all you need think no further than Boris Johnson himself. 

Across the pond Donald Trump is playing out his own US version of his ‘last days in the bunker’. The last guy who did this thought he could have fresh restart even as the bombs were falling around him. Misguided, blind, unable to deal with reality, it is the destiny of all narcissists. With Boris, James, surely it’s only a matter of time?

Kind regards, 

BH – Your Concerned Constituent