No.248 – A Distant Rumble of Thunder?
Dear James,
Did you hear it? It began like a distant rumble of thunder and then built up into a rolling bellow accompanied by squalls of whistles and hoots. The crowd at last Friday’s Thanksgiving Service to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was booing our Prime Minister as he entered St. Paul's cathedral with wife Carrie. Up the steps he went, still grinning, still genetically impervious to the storm breaking around his scruffy mop. It was a fifteen second example of walking the plank or rising to the guillotine. It was a reflexive, visceral condemnation of ‘The man who would be king’!
Not much to worry about, I hear you saying, James. It’s a free country where people are allowed to demonstrate to express their opinions. However, putting aside the fact that your government is currently legislating to stop unwarranted noise disturbance in demos, this event was significant. The thunder came from the gut. This was the response of people - unlike me, an unrelenting critic of Johnson and his followers - whom your party, the Tory Party, should be seeing as their main constituents. This was an establishment crowd. They’d come to show their respect to our Queen. They saw her antithesis climbing those hallowed steps and were aware of the contrast between irresponsible fakery and royal duty. They were angry. They saw their chance and they took it!
Consider the context. We are in the middle of a national celebration to thank the monarch for seventy years of selfless duty to the nation. Whether we are Republicans or Royalists, the vast majority of our people recognize the strength of character, humility and kindness the Queen has demonstrated over the years. Last year, soon after the Duke of Edinburgh died, she sat alone, separated from others by Covid restrictions, during the Duke’s own Thanksgiving ceremony in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. The image of the dignified widow, at one with herself, in deep contemplation of the meaning of life and death, is etched into everyone’s memory. She represented the best characteristics of our nation. Stoical, dutiful, unflashy, solid and dependable, she was the model of the very best of our particularly British form of decency.
At the same time, the vast majority of British people were attempting to do the same. Except, that is, for one. Boris Johnson decided to party. Having demanded that people adhere to strict Covid rules and accept massive restrictions on personal behaviours, Downing Street was converted into a ‘nightclub’. Last Friday that crowd saw the contrast between the genuine nobility of our monarch compared with the shambolic dishonesty of our Prime Minister and his followers. No wonder they groaned,
Politics everywhere is about conversations. Conversations between government and people but also much more importantly, conversations between people about government. The crowd outside St Paul’s Cathedral last Friday had long finished their conversations. The conversations had morphed into attitudes. What the nation expressed on Friday on the steps of St. Paul’s was the vocalisation of such attitudes. The political meteorology has changed and Boris Johnson’s defects are now burned into the national psyche. His one time popularity is in shreds. He is damaged goods, an electoral liability and a national embarrassment. There is no retrospective cleansing of the various stains and even if he does hang on, he will drag your party through the electoral mud to almost certain defeat. Surely James, it’s time for you to act?
So why not give yourself a break, James? The storm warnings are there. It’s time to face the reality that’s been obvious to many of us for so long. Boris was always a risk. Rather than clinging to the wreckage of Boris’s disastrous three years in office, consider the national interest rather you're your own political survival. Do your duty for the nation. Send in a letter to Sir Graham Brady. No need to worry about being seen. The letters are confidential and the ballot is secret. Be brave for once, James! Just close your eyes and do it! For the sake of the nation!
BH – Your Concerned Constituent
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