What Do You Think Today?

[Avatar]

Well, with a bit of luck, the next thing to come along will be another balls-up by him...

--A

[peter]

I have not the slightest doubt that the rest of Johnson's tenure as PM will be as wretched as it has been up until now Av. The history of his premiership has been one of lurching from one disaster, one scandal, to the next.

We've hade more 'gates' than the Horse of the Year Show. Party gate, wallpaper gate, Owen Paterson affair, ppe gate, barnard castle, Johnson on holiday instead of attending to the arrival of Covid, shagging that blond bird on his sofa while his wife was off having cancer treatment gate, illegal prorogation of Parliament gate - yes, attempting to shut down Parliament because he didn't like it..... I'd forgotten that one. The "let the bodies pile high in their thousands" gate. And this is not even to mention the stuff his Ministers have been up to and that he has ignored, Patel's bullying, Hancock's corruption, Raab's incompetence.......

The list goes on.

Boris the clown. Boris the loveable buffoon. Boris the 'charachter'. "I know he's a bad lot, but I just like him", or so it goes from the silly old lady stopped in the street. We've all heard it.

But none of it is real. The 'Boris' character is a sham - a creation - it doesn't exist. Do you know that Boris isn't even his real name. Sure it is his second name (the full mouthful being Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson). But it's not the one used by his friends and family. It's just a homely sounding sobriquet for the buffoonish creation that he has cobbled up as his 'public act'. I saw an interesting video in which the makers claimed that it was the BBC, and specifically the Have I Got News for You show that gave him the stage on which to hone his creation.

He did eleven shows as either panel member or host presenter of the show, during which he created the character of the bumbling buffoon, the intellectual eccentric with the twinkle in his eye. With the skill of an Olivier or a Gielgud, he fashioned a lovable rogue character for presentation to the public while on the inside carefully concealed under the cloak of bonhomie, lay the true Richard the Third of his real nature. Remember that picture of him hanging on the zip-wire waving the flags: perhaps that one went a bit far - a momentary slip-over into the ham - but it was all part of the same calculated act. Sunday Mail journalist Peter Hitchens refuses to call him Boris and gets annoyed when other people do so. "By calling him Boris you are playing into his playbook", he says. "It takes the edge off who and what he is. Plays into this cuddly impression of a character that is anything but."

Well from this morning's press our Richard the Third has got the stage all to himself. He must be very pleased with himself this Sunday morning as he scans the papers. Barely a mention of partygate and the Gray report. The media have lost interest already - they know that the show is over and have turned to newer, more interesting fare. Evidence that the tory wobblers are moving back onside as the storm clouds recede. Okay guys, end of show, curtains down, nothing to see here. It's a wrap.

[peter]

I just sat and watched the Sunday morning news reviews on the BBC and Sky and it goes without saying that the main story of the week received barely a mention.

Instead we were treated to an almost wall to wall covering of the impending financial crisis that is going to blow us all into the middle of the last century, delivered in a doom-and-gloom monotone almost calculated to have you reaching for the noose.

This crisis, we were told, was in the main due to the pandemic (with a dusting of brexit in our particular case) and was to all intents and purposes a world wide phenomenon.

Let's be clear - this huge jolt to the world economy (and how ever many millions die the world over because of it) is not because of the pandemic - it is because of our disproportionate response to it. That miserable virus could not have killed a fraction of the numbers who will die as a result of health care cuts, aid budget slashing, increased poverty, wealthy countries turning their backs on the poor, that this savaging of our economies will unleash. What will be felt in every pocket in every family of this country will be writ large in the numbers of the dead recorded (or not) across the world.

And those of us who said that this 'readjustment' must inevitably come, as surely as night follows day - well we were the doom-mongers then . "How do you know that these things are going to happen!", I was asked. Well here they are, right on time as predicted. How could they fucking not happen would have been the sensible question.

But anyway, after an hour or so of being told that my fuel bills were going sky high, I would be able to heat myself up or eat, but not both, I would likely be unable to pay my council tax (somebody has to keep the public sector workers on their fifty K a year), the two presenters on the BBC news decided to lighten the tone to finish on. They told us for two minutes about some prick who was going to play his piano under water or something , and then with their cheesy Tony Blair smiles completely intact, told us to "Enjoy the rest of your weekend."

[Avatar]

Perhaps what you need is to stop watching the news.

--A

[peter]

Just a couple of details to add to what we already know about the shit-show being run by Johnson and Squeeze. On the night of Dominic Cummings departure from Downing Street, Carrie Johnson held an ABBA party in the flat above Number 10. No worries though, the met will no doubt draw a line through this event as being appropriate to share with the public in the forthcoming report.

About which, I'm interested to note that numbers of news broadcasts that have mentioned it in the last day or two have conveniently forgotten to mention that it will be a neutered and wholly emasculated affair, choosing to pretend instead that its release will be causing the Government real concern. Any concerns now held by that august body will center around the political and media reaction to what should have been a total audit of the activities of our leaders during lockdown, turning out to be about as useful as the piece of toilet paper you tear off the roll - after you've used it!

This thanks to Cressida Dick who, being noted as singly the most disastrous Chief of the metropolitan police since its inception, must have been as surprised as everyone else when Johnson, against all expectations last year, instead of wishing her farewell at the end of her tenure, inexplicably extended it until 2024. One can only feel that at present he must think that his investment was a good one, though any suggestions that she has taken the actions she has in terms of the redacting of the Johnson premiership threatening report as a return favour for keeping her job, would of course be treasonable.

[peter]

(Damn - gave me a scare there! Couldn't reach the site for a couple of hours..... and today of all days! )

Well, the Gray report landed and as you will no doubt know, kicked off an almighty storm in the House - even in its completely neutered state.

In short, it listed 16 illegal gatherings, 12 of which (the most egregious breaches) it could not comment upon because of the ongoing police investigations into them. This included the one in the PM's flat to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings from Downing Street. Repeatedly questioned as to whether he attended this party, Johnson refused to answer, saying only that we must wait for the police investigation to come to its conclusions.

Johnson appeared to be haemorrhaging support from all sides, with telling interjections from Theresa May, Tory grandee Andrew Mitchell (who told him that he no longer enjoyed his support) and a particularly poignant one from a backbench MP who told how he had delivered a eulogy at his grandmother's funeral, unable to hug the few family members allowed to attend and then driven three hours back to London without so much as being able to sit down and have a cup of tea with them. Did, he asked, the Prime Minister consider him a fool?

Stamer gave probably the best performance of his leadership to date, clearly angry and disgusted with the PM's behaviour, but the undoubted laurels of the event must go to the SNP leader in the House, Ian Blackford, who came out unequivocally and said what everyone else knew to be the case. "You're a liar and have misled this House!", he stormed, and was summarily dismissed from the House for so saying. So the man who lies stays and the man who tells the truth goes - which about sums it all up.

The session was bruising and went on for two hours. The received opinion seems to be that Johnson got it all wrong. He was bullish and repentant in equal measure, but too ready to fall back on his usual question time techniques of misdirection, changing the subject and avoiding the answer. I lost count of how many times he said we would have to wait for the police investigation to come to its conclusion - first it was the Gray report, now the police investigation... it's getting boring hearing it - every time he was faced with a question he could not answer (without admitting that he had lied, or been at the parties, or both).

The post-House events of the day were no less significant. Almost immediately after the session ended, one of his cabinet members threw in the towel and resigned, and Johnson himself held a meeting with his backbench MPs in the 1922 committee rooms. He apparently wooed them with tales of how he had nearly died of Covid and promised that he was going to put things right - but the signs from this morning's press are that they are far from convinced.

The police for there part popped up and said that they have 500 pages of details to go through, and are holding upwards of 300 photos of the illegal events (no wonder Johnson didn't want the report handed over in full) which fueled yet further, demands for the full report to be released (a demand made by numerous MPs on both sides during the debate, but studiously ignored by Johnson). Finally it seems - though there remains some confusion about the matter - that Downing Street agreed to this later in the evening, but Johnson is by all accounts far from happy about it, so it remains to be seen if it will ever happen. Given the explosion that has followed even the truncated affair that we were given - and Gray herself admitted it was a pretty pale shadow of what it should have been - one can only imagine what would result from the publication of the whole thing, warts and all. There is little doubt that numbers of other front bench members would very much not want to see that report coming under the glare of full public scrutiny.

But Johnson has come through it - for the moment. It's been emotional, to say the least. He's made all kinds of pledges, promised to be a good boy, to mend his ways and reorganize the way things are done in Number 10. Out goes the wine fridge and the optics bench, in come the lines books ("I must not get pissed at work. I must not get pissed at work.") and the homework checks - in short, actually doing some work for a change.

And just so the seriousness of this situation can be appreciated, just how much it has been, is, and will continue to damage the actual vital work of Government, consider the following.

Yesterday afternoon, as part of the initiative to restrain the activities of Russia in the Ukraine, Johnson was scheduled to have a one-to-one conversation with Vladimir Putin in respect of the ongoing crisis in the region. As a result of the House of Commons activity and Johnson's need to talk to his backbenchers, the call was cancelled, with no plans for its rescheduling, and instead Putin spoke to Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

Which just about says it all really.

[Forestal]

Yesterday afternoon, as part of the initiative to restrain the activities of Russia in the Ukraine, Johnson was scheduled to have a one-to-one conversation with Vladimir Putin in respect of the ongoing crisis in the region. As a result of the House of Commons activity and Johnson's need to talk to his backbenchers, the call was cancelled, with no plans for its rescheduling, and instead Putin spoke to Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

This point alone would have had the entire house demanding the resignation of any previous PM. His buffoonery has begun to jeopardize the UK as an international power and the safety of Europe. Boris must go, and so must anyone else involved with this affair.

[peter]

Absolutely Forestal - and everyone seems to realise it except Johnson himself.

A little detail that has come out that is illustrative of the lack of seriousness that seems to have permeated the entire Downing Street operation. On the day that Cummings was fired, Carrie and her mates were partying in the Number 10 flat to the tunes of ABBA, the song Winner Takes it All being sung with gusto, the obvious meaning being clear.

Not being funny, but this is our Prime Minister's flat, not some sorority sisters game-night free for all. It's just Johnson all over; for him it seems, the whole thing had to be done as a semi-joke.

Last Sunday (in the Times from memory) there was a front page story saying that he has had to be forbidden from taking secure documents from his red box up into his flat because he just leaves them lying around, open and visible to all and sundry, irrespective of how sensitive or secret they are meant to be. Carrie has any number of her friends in and out, many of whom are journalists, but it doesn't seem to occur to Johnson that this might be a problem.

Small stuff, I know, but I think it paints a picture of why we are in the place we are currently in.


-----------------------------------------------0-----------------------------------

My wife and I have spent the last week in self-isolation as a result of testing positive for Covid. It has not been easy because we both enjoy getting out and about, but fortunately we have had religion to sustain us through our ordeal. We have watched the entire back catalogue of Father Ted on the television and very good it has been to!

[StevieG]

What have your symptoms been like?

I've heard various first-hand reports from Covid positive people around me. My daughter's friend tested positive and had absolutely no symptoms. A co-worker of mine from a different office had it, and felt like someone was standing on their chest all day, and shuddered to think how bad it would have been if they were not vaccinated. Others have said it was like a bad cold. Another said it was the worst thing they've ever experienced.

[peter]

Pretty much like a cold with a bit of flu thrown in StevieG.

It's dragged on a bit, hit me in places where I already have some problems (joints, guts and the like), but on a scale of one to ten, I have had worse. My wife has had more of a cough than me, but didn't seem to have couple of days of real 'fluey' feeling that I had. I'm still testing positive some eight days into it, though. My appetite is okay, not a hundred percent, and my taste/sense of smell is slowly returning to normal.

I've had two (or possibly three - that's a story in itself) vaccinations. Have they helped? One can never know really. It might have prevented much worse sickness, or the Omicron variant (which presumably we have had, it being the dominant variant in the UK now) might be so far removed from Covid wild-type as to be effectively a different virus, and thereby not covered by the existing vaccine range.

Obviously, I haven't been to work or anywhere since I tested positive, but all things being equal, I should be able to return on Sunday for my first post-covid shift. As with you Stevie, I've come across people who've had it far worse than me, and others who just it just brushed by in passing. I've been somewhere in the middle.




----------------------------------0-------------------------


Three more MPs (and possibly more in private) have submitted their letters of no confidence in Johnson to the 1922 committee. It's not exactly a tsunami but the implication is that disenchantment with the leader is growing. Oddly, MPs have not liked his bullish approach in the Commons, and in particular his suggestions of drug taking on the front bench of the Opposition (and an accusation that Kier Stamer failed to prosecute Jimmy Saville - a notorious far-right anti-Labour claim) have been seen as pretty low politics. On the face of it, the Tory benches were behind their man (shouts of "More! More!" whenever he spoke), but on the further away benches the faces looked pretty glum. A vocal minority were making it sound like Johnson was riding the crest of a wave, but in reality he is by far from out of the woods. The Government are desperately trying to shift the narrative to one of plans and innovation, but with limited success; Michael Gove introduced his levelling up plans yesterday - and today they have barely a mention on the front pages. The story is all about the huge increases in energy costs about to hit consumers, and what the Chancellor intends to do about it.

I'm hoping that the drip-drip of letters will continue to be submitted over the coming days - behind the scenes in Westminster there will be furious activity and plotting, even if we the public are not party to it. Penny Mordaunt, considered a dark horse candidate for the leadership wrote to a constituent of hers that she wanted confirmation of the "integrity and competence" of Downing Street - a signal that the PM no longer has her confidence, even if she has not actually submitted her letter yet. She was she said, "shocked at the stupidity" of what has been taking place while the public were making sacrifices at the Government behest.

Johnson is still in situ, but his position is far from secure and there has to be doubt in his ability to rescue it. And as an aside he seems to be having trouble finding anyone who wants to do the new job of secretary to the PM's office. This is the new office he promised to set up to oversee the activities of Downing Street, to try to pull it all together in the wake of the party scandal - a promise received with less than enthusiasm by the backbenchers that it was supposed to impress and who's support he so desperately relies upon. Johnson had offered the job to high flying civil servant Antonia Romeo, but she turned it down, having previously it is rumoured, been vetoed for another position by Carrie Johnson last year at some point. One can hardly blame her. You'd have to be desperate indeed to want to run Johnson's office - the positioning of rainbow wall-charts and Noddy-mobiles would be a nightmare of its own!

[Avatar]

It has not been easy because we both enjoy getting out and about, but fortunately we have had religion to sustain us through our ordeal. We have watched the entire back catalogue of Father Ted on the television and very good it has been to!

You had me going for a second there. I too am a fan of good old Father Ted.

Out of interest, when I had it my symptoms were basically that of a bad flu. (The GF had it a bit worse, since she's asthmatic.) I must have had one of the early (perhaps original) variants, (got it literally days before we became eligible for a vaccine) since I did lose my sense of smell and taste completely, which was very disturbing.

I was worried it might not come back, (since for some it didn't) but luckily it did in fairly short order. (The GF has reported a loss of tolerance for bitter tastes since, but she didn't lose her smell etc. at all during the ordeal.)

--A

[peter]

Well I've always had questionable taste Av, but my smell has never bothered me.




But just to add to what I said above, two of Johnson's top Downing Street aides have jumped ship today, both citing the Jimmie Saville comments as reasons. Johnson clearly understands that he pushed it a bit too far with these remarks (made across the floor of the House); he has issued a 'clarification' today in which he says he had no intention of blaming Stamer personally for the failure to bring charges against the man - just to observe that it was on Stamer's watch (as DPP) that it happened.

Beth Rigby of Sky News said that it was difficult to know if all of these little things were signs that Johnson's game was nearly up, that it was all starting to unravel for him, but be this as it may, that Rishi Sunak failed to give him his unconditional support today when questioned, won't have made him any happier tonight. Too much more of this and we won't need to wait for the 54 letters - the momentum itself will carry him out of office.

[peter]

Two more of the Johnson top team have jumped ship, bringing the total to four. In fairness the Prime Minister managed to throw their sacking notices into their pockets as they went down the path - three of the four had been deeply implicated in the party scandal and were probably chalked up to go in the near future - but it doesn't present a good look when, like the guests in Macbeth your staff 'stand not on the order of their going - but go at once!'. In fact, they didn't even wait for the order, which gives the whole thing a bit of a chaotic appearance, but rather jumped ship before they were pushed.

The story has got significant traction in the morning press and will feature prominently in the news bulletins that people will be watching and listening to as they have their breakfast. It won't go down well with the backbenchers who Johnson is desperately trying to convince that he has 'got a grip' on the crisis and is master of the events which are occurring around him. All of these small nails - the Sunak rebuttal, the chaotic exodus of staff, the Saville comments - are adding up, pressure piling on pressure, and one wonders how long it is going to be before the damn bursts.

And all the while the PM waits for the rozzers to come knocking on the door, warrant in hand and ready to finger his greasy collar. The lunatics have indeed taken over the asylum - problem was that the 'fool for a day' event ran on for a year!

[peter]

Another hour another MP letter goes in. Michael Gove has come out with a bit more of a supportive shove for Johnson than Sunak managed - rich really when he was the one who stabbed Johnson in the back all of those years ago by saying that he was not fit to be PM (before he'd ever got the job - just when he was running for it). And Gove was his right hand man in his campaign!

He memorably changed his mind and said he was wrong on the Andrew Marr Show, when he had taken a job in the cabinet offered by Johnson.

Wonder what he thinks now? I'd love to see a journalist ask him about his mind changing on the subject.

[Fist and Faith]

I imagine you've already seen this, peter.
https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1 ... 2NzZA&s=07

[peter]

I'm a Johnathan Pie fan of old Fist; I'd not seen that particular clip (and he was considerably more restrained than usual it must be said), but it pretty neatly synthesized every Johnson related post I've made here for the past two years.

From this morning's press, things are really starting to heat up in the Government. Reports in a number of papers suggest that the Cabinet itself is descending into factional fighting with suggestions that Sunak should be fired for his disloyalty (which Health Minister Sajid Javid appears now to be echoing).

Johnson has sent an almost begging letter to all of his MPs saying that if they save him, he'll give them much more say in Government policy and have a designated phone line just for them to contact him when they feel the need. But how well they will respond to such abject and craven tactics is questionable. Tory MPs are not noted for their sympathetic responses to those who have fallen on hard times - they are more likely to circle like hyenas preparing for the kill in response to such tactics, as new prospects for advancement present themselves.

A Tory peer has published a book blaming the bulk of Johnson's problems on his wife Carrie. Her excessive influence on the PM has contributed to the chaos that surrounds him as her advice has often flown in the face of that of his other advisors, but he himself has seemed ''mesmerised'' by her and unable to say no to her wishes (not the first instance of the little head ruling the big head when it comes to the politics of nations it has to be said). Meanwhile it is said that the cops are studying a photo of the PM swigging from a can of beer at the illegal gathering to wish him happy birthday - the one with the infamous birthday cake, that he has said he was only briefly present at (and that was illegal at the time anyway).

A top insider has described the situation as "end of days stuff" and the poor beleaguered Chief Whip as being so put upon that he has "switched off his phone". Johnson meanwhile is isolated in a power vacuum at the heart of Downing Street - he can't get people to take the jobs that the departing civil servants have left behind, he has no one to perform the workaday stuff of running the cabinet and Government offices - and has resorted to offering knighthoods and peerages to win back support.

So all in all it's a bit of a mess. And over the course of the weekend, as MPs are harangued by their constituents, things are only likely to get worse.

[peter]

One of those not very much Sundays, when the press is all taken up with one not very significant story.

This morning it's the news that the Queen - celebrating her platinum jubilee as we speak - has requested that Prince Charles' wife Camilla be known as Queen Camilla on her son's accession to the throne as king.

I used to be a royalist as a young person, following in the tradition of my family I guess. Then I became anti monarchy for a while- but never very strongly so, and now I'm pretty indifferent to the whole thing. I think it is better than having a presidency - all of the bullshit around election of one, and the corruption that creeps in. And who would it be? David Attenborough? Nigel Farage? No - screw that idea! No, we're better off sticking with what we've got. They are a good tourist draw, of no constitutional significance and it would take years of worthless effort in order to legislate them out of the system. It simply isn't worth the effort. In the meantime up until the point where they fizzle away due to simple attrition and lack of interest, best thing they can do is to keep their heads down, keep quiet and not draw too much unwarranted attention to themselves. They are a diversion, a soap opera for the masses but of no importance in the long run

On the political front, things have gone quiet. The PM's wife Carrie is taking some flak as a result of this new book about her, and MP Nadine Dorries (an unlikely champion for the PM's cause - and about as useful as a supportive intervention from Tony Blair always is in any cause) has jumped to her defence saying that the press hounding of her is obnoxious and sinister. Funny Nadine, you didn't have a problem with the hounding of Jeremy Corbyn did you? Dorries has claimed that the book is a tissue of fabrications, many provided by Johnson's arch-nemesis Dominic Cummings, who has also recently revealed that the PM likes to think of himself like a Roman emperor, imagining himself cast in statue form at the entrances of all of the building projects he will initiate. Consequently he spends much time pouring over maps (apparently) looking for locations on which he could propose the development of great civic projects that could bear his name going down through history. Didn't Adolph Hitler have similar visions of grandeur if I recall correctly?

But back in the real world, the PM is clinging on by his finger-tips. Some estimates of the number of letters of no confidence that have been submitted are as high as 50 (54 being the magic number), but it is unlikely to be that high. But certainly up in the thirties and possibly around forty would seem a reasonable estimate. It would not take much more, however, to push the figure higher, such is the level of indecision in the backbenchers as to whether to stick with Johnson (in respect of the achievements that he can cite, and the possibility that he could restore his fortunes and turn things around) or ditch him as a lost cause that can only do their re-election chances harm. Privately - and not so privately - the opinion seems to be shifting toward the latter.

Anyway - let's see what the Sunday morning political slots bring - they can always be relied upon to throw up some interesting shifts. Used by the Government to get its message out in the main, it doesn't always go according to plan and occasionally a real clanger can be dropped.

Here's hoping!



Edit:

Just come away from watching Trevor Phillips on Sunday and alongside the usual Government/Opposition spokespeople he also interviewed ex Spad and top Theresa May advisor Gavin Barwell on what he made of the situation inside Number 10.

Barwell made the observation that it didn't really matter on the quality of the advice that Johnson was recieving if he simply wasn't going to listen to it. As an example he cited the recent Jimmy Saville comments that Johnson made across the floor of the House, comments that have not aided the PM's cause, but have made it considerably worse. Johnson, said Barwell, was told by his advisors not to make the comments - but went ahead and did so anyway. Against this backdrop, Barwell said, it mattered nothing how good the advice he received was.

Phillips asked if he, Barwell, was in agreement with the sixty plus percent of people who thought Johnson should resign - and it was here that for me the interview became significant. Barwell is a highly respected Tory figure - not an MP, but a man closely linked to the top advisors of the Party, and someone who's words carry weight.

He said that on a moral level it was difficult to support the PM, knowing what had been going on and, choose whatever spin the PM tried to put on it that it was simply wrong. On a Party basis, he said that it was difficult to see how Boris Johnson could turn things around and regain the upper hand, to become once more the driver of events rather than the victim of them. Lastly, from the country's point of view, given the damage to our international reputation that the scandal was causing, again it was difficult to find the space in which to throw in behind the PM.

So in total, given all the above, he thought it better that the PM should go, but (and here is the crux, so my italics) there was no way that the PM would go of his own accord and so it would be up to the Tory backbenchers to remove him.

Now this is the whole reason that he was there in front of the cameras giving this interview.

His message was not to the viewing public as a disinterested observer - it was to the wavering Tory MPs who I mention above - to nudge them into sending in those letters.

I don't know who was behind it, who had cooked up the plan, but this is what was going on. It could have been in conjunction with Cummings (difficult to see but not impossible - the previous enemies are now united in their antipathy towards Johnson) - perhaps even Michael (Blackadder) Gove had his thin white fingers in the pot - but this was what was going on.

Will it be enough to tip the balance - it remains to be seen. But one observation. He said that Johnson will never go of his own accord. Maybe not, but one snippet from the morning press was that Carrie is by all accounts, begining to feel the heat. The report suggested that behind the scenes, she may actually be trying to convince her husband that the game is up. And if the recent book is anything to go by, it might be that her advice is the only advice that he might be prepared to give half an ear to.

[Fist and Faith]

I'm a Johnathan Pie fan of old Fist; I'd not seen that particular clip (and he was considerably more restrained than usual it must be said), but it pretty neatly synthesized every Johnson related post I've made here for the past two years.

Yes, I told the woman, from England, who sent it to me that you would appreciate it.

[peter]

Indeed Fist. Johnathan Pie (real name Tom Walker - the character is a satirical spoof) did a really good twenty minutes film at the recent Cop 26 conference in Glasgow. For a searing indictment of that particular crock of hot air, that pile of disingenuous green-washing by the worlds worst offenders in terms of catastrophic planetary damage, see his YouTube post from the venue. It makes for good comedic viewing, but is ultimately a sad, sad postscript to a squandered opportunity.

Carrie Johnson is coming in for considerable flak in the wake of Lord Ashcroft's book, in which she is depicted as exerting undue influence on the PM, and being largely responsible for the chaotic shambles that his administration has become.

By all accounts, she is less than pleased by all of this and in today's press is reported as saying that it is down to bitter ex-emplyees who are using her to exact damage on her husband.

Yesterday on the Sunday Morning show, journalist ex-wife of Michael (Blackadder) Gove, Sarah Vine, said that her own experience of the press when it got it's hatchet out, was not dissimilar. On a smaller scale, she too had been the subject of what she described as "slut-shaming" (whatever that is), and Carrie, she said, somewhat had her sympathy. Was not Johnson the man in charge, she asked? Was it not his fault if he gave her too much say in the way that things were done? The implication of Vine's remarks was that it was because she was a woman that the blame was now being shifted upon her shoulders, that because of her gender she was seen as fair game by a patriarchy in which women were still to be put down at every opportunity.

Fortunately, the other woman journalist on the show was more measured in her reasoning. Carrie Johnson was unusual as a political spouse, she said. She was intimately involved in the political machine itself, she being a former spad in the Johnson team. She was not separated from the work going on in the same way as other leaders wives and as such was fair game, could expect to become the target of such attention. She was not an innocent bystander being set up to take the fall.

From some of the reports that are emerging this would certainly seem to be true. In one paper it is described how, getting her hands on the PM's phone, she sends messages that purport to come from the man himself, issuing instructions that are then followed in the belief that this is so. Be this as it may, it is clearly not a good thing that a Prime Minister - particularly not one as poorly equipped to do the job as Johnson - should be subject to a constant stream of contrary advice to that which is coming from the broad front of those who have earned their positions via (lets say) the normal channels. In such circumstances only confusion could ever result, and the evidence is manifest before our eyes.

[Avatar]

LOL, that was an amusing video.

--A