I find it quite nauseous to watch the frenzied scramble of opposition politicians and the worthless breakfast TV press as they salivate at the prospect of Boris Johnson’s self created nightmare. “Why”, I hear many shout in anger, “he is guilty of lying to Parliament and the country”, they rant in disbelief. Well, my reasons are very simple; all politicians are, in the main, equally guilty of what they are levelling at Boris. Lying, whether to the House or the electorate, is pretty much a stock in trade for the majority of politicians, irrespective of their party allegiance. Sleaze can be uncovered at every turn and in every party without too much digging. Some are selling their soul to large corporates and working harder to cover their tracks than they ever do for their constituents; the only real difference between them and Boris is he is simply to incompetent to cover his tracks. A lot of his personal weakness is down to the fact that he comes from an over-privileged background, has never had to work for anything?enjoyed an education from which he clearly took very little, and believes he is above the law as the PM. He is also in a position, as an acknowledged bully, to push the many gutless members of his Government to vote for things they would have challenged, had it been Teresa May asking for their support.
Sitting across the Chamber we have Sir (for what?) Keir Stammer, who possesses zero charisma, no leadership qualities whatsoever and a total inability to focus on what really matters to the public. His claim to fame is that he was instrumental in setting up IHAT (Iraq Historical Allegations Team) which was responsible for the persecution of brave military personnel who had put their lives on the line in the service of their Queen and country, and boy did they drag our forces through the gutter in doing so. His continued attempts to bring the PM down, based on the fiddling expenses and failure to personally vet attendance at No10’s numerous Christmas parties is quite pathetic. We all agree these things are unacceptable, but are they even worthy of pursuance in the current climate. The global pandemic and the need for stronger leadership, a better, more responsive plan to deal with it, and how we best protect our national industries is surely more worthy of his time. The fact that the odious Angela Rayner is his Deputy says it all.
The need for an effective, open and truthful free press is something all of us who believe in democracy would support and wish to protect as a core requirement in any society. I would ask though, just what true accuracy and balance do the Breakfast TV vultures seek when trying to put their “breaking news” stories together. Actually, I suggest that is often the very last thing they consider. Their efforts seem more focused on stirring-up public fears, sensationalising every aspect of their often uninteresting, inaccurate reports, rather than homing in on areas of true national importance and interest. The pandemic has very clearly demonstrated how much they have contributed to the lack of clarity in messaging; ok, the messages have often been totally confused at source, but the TV presenters then add to the problem by introducing even more inaccuracies. The public are often completely hoodwinked by these equally unbalanced updates and it inevitably drives distrust, fear and unrest. An effort to report more accurately, even on mistakes made by those responsible for running the country, would benefit everybody and provide a real service to the country. It would, of course, mean that reports would be less instant in their nature, but I think most of us would take substance over speed given a choice.
Very sadly, the majority of our politicians have pretty loose morals, little interest in anything other than their own personal gain and turn to politics as a career in which they can gain success through failure. Dominic Rabb is a perfectly example; in what other walk of life does abject failure result in promotion, in his case to Deputy Prime Minister. Even more astounding is the range of senior Cabinet roles held by Gavin Williamson, it beggars belief. I must point out that this is not an anti-Conservative rant in any way, it would be equally easy to offer up names from any of the other main parties, and that’s my point. I grew up in an environment where honesty, integrity and common decency were not only expected, but demanded. The type of characters that I refer to throughout this blog would backstab almost anybody for their own gain. To me and my kind the fact that our political leadership regularly demonstrate standards and behaviours that belong in the gutter is very hard to accept. Most of us, of course, recognise that this is simple reality and not only is it anything but new, it is also highly unlikely to change anytime soon.
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