And by family planning – I don’t mean contraception
– I mean he doesn’t seem to be able to keep track of his families – never mind
a new pathogen.
Yes – no matter how many times you pinch yourself it’s
true. The lying, cheating, racist, blithering, dithering posh twit who thinks
being PM is a part time job is de facto running the country during a global
crisis.
The Symonds’ baby was – we were told - due in "early summer”. So either the seasons have shifted (another effect of
global warming?) and April is now early summer instead of spring or shiftless
Johnson tried to fool a very gullible public – and as usual - succeeded.
Then we were told the baby was premature. But for it
to be premature enough to have not been well on the way while
scatty-about-his-brats Johnson was still married to the mother of (I dunno)
four of this known children – said woman also having treatment for cancer – the
gestation would have had to have been about three months. Glory be. A miracle.
We are used to being instructed that we mustn’t mix
the private lives of high profile people with their public duties – unless,
that is, they choose to thrust those private lives into our faces when it suits
their purposes. But from Bolsonaro to Trump it must now be clear to all that shitty
men make shit leaders. And as many have pointed out – similar behaviour from an
ordinary Joe lower down the food chain would draw derision and condemnation
from those newspapers slavishly supporting Boris Johnson.
No doubt Johnson assumed that there would be nothing
more onerous to do in 2020 than continue the Brexit wreckage and that could happily
be left to Dominic Cummings while king-of-the-world simply enjoyed the
trappings of high office. Many of his supporters were more than happy to have a
known liar, philanderer (wonderful old fashioned word – like the clearly out of
fashion notions of duty and honesty…) as leader. During the ‘quickie’ election
in December last year, I lost count of the number of guys-on-the-street who
said they’d vote for him because he was a ‘good bloke’ and a ‘bit of a laugh’.
Boris Johnson cannot, obviously, take responsibility
for the country being badly run down and unready for the pandemic. Like Trump,
he rarely takes responsibility for anything. No, that honour must go to his
whole party as they have been in charge for a decade. Johnson couldn’t even be
bothered to go to the emergency government cobra
meetings early in the year. But I suppose by then he was ‘double-familied’.
Britain, the first country to have universal
healthcare had no functioning UK-wide pandemic strategy. Trump got rid of America’s
and cancelled the contract for keeping ventilators maintained (and advised folk
to drink bleach…) BUT initially the US did have a strategic unit set up by
Obama to cope with a pandemic which has been predicted by anyone with more
than three brain cells to rub together. I even include this blog in that latter
list and I’m not in on any secret meetings with anyone.
The broadcast media continue to read out ridiculous
statements cobbled together by Matt Hancock as if they are actually true.
Occasionally there is comment from someone at the sharp end who makes it clear that
most of what is said is wishful thinking at best and bollocks at worst.
The other Dominic - Raab ( you will remember he was
Brexit secretary before resigning after admitting he didn’t understand the
importance of the Dover to Calais trade route) was First Secretary while
Johnson was making his heroic, miraculous
recovery from coronavirus. Another miracle. When Raab was asked about
the appalling failures in the care system for the elderly he stated – with a straight face – that the sector was
poorly managed and regulated (my paraphrase – he said something akin to that
but less honest). But he said it as if the failure were nothing to do with THE
GOVERNMENT. Maybe he not only doesn’t understand trade he doesn’t understand
what the word GOVERNMENT means. The clue is in the first two syllables –
GOVERN.
The whole horrible event has been a ludicrous mishmash
of catch-up, with make-do- and-mend plus make-it-up-as-you-go-along thrown in.
And if we were a third world country lacking resources or wealth or established
structures, that would be bad but understandable.
We are not
It is not
It needs to be spelled out clearly that – as I’ve
said before on this blog - the pandemic was the problem. The disaster for many
and the long-lasting dreadful effects of this, especially for those at the
bottom of the social pile, are a whole lot more to do with lack of leadership.
Finally – with regard to the weekend interview
referred to by a gushing BBC as ‘candid’ Johnson apparently – having described
his own health experience in soap opera style – declared he was now driven to
prevent others suffering. It’s a bloody shame he didn’t feel “driven” in
February or early March when it might have done some good.