Johnson’s the panto villain who long ago lost any credible plot
WE haven’t seen this level of incompetent leadership in Downing Street since chancellor Norman Lamont was heard singing in his bath as the pound went down the plughole.
This government is struggling to make clear, rational decisions in the middle of a killer pandemic due to living in fear of the different demands from its backbenchers and is past caring if its cowardice is obvious.
We’re watching a pantomime without any plot, wit or believable characters. Even the slapstick is third-rate.
Boris Johnson waffles on about us having ourselves a merry little Christmas when people want to hear the best scientific advice about family bubbles, not a mumbling impression of Michael Buble.
Priti Patel says she won’t be seeing most of her family ( presumably just bullying the ones she lives with) and
urges everyone to follow suit and “have a more local Christmas”.
But we don’t want to hear the person in charge of the police doing an impression of Tubbs from League of Gentlemen, we want to hear what she thinks the actual law is on this.
Then there’s Treasury Secretary Steve Barclay telling us to follow the festive Covid rules but “do the minimum”. What?
To be fair, at least tha that reflects what the Tories hav have done to fight this pande pandemic since March. Unless it comes come to PPE contracts when they ha handed the maximum taxpayers’ cash ca to the maximum amount of mates. mate
The problem they’ve go got telling us what to do dates back bac to the unequivocal support they t gave Dominic Cummings in May Ma when the Mirror exposed him floutin flouting lockdown rules by driving his son and wife, who had Covid symptoms, 264 miles m to his parents’ farm in Durham.
When Johnson said his a adviser had “followed the instincts of every e father and every parent” and his ministers were sent into studio studios to say
Cummings did what he thought was best for his family, the game was up.
They had trashed their own rules, humiliated their scientists, poured contempt on everyone who was playing by the book, mocked the dead. And lost all credibility when telling others how to behave.
Maybe that’s why Johnson, unlike every other world leader, struggles to look directly into the cameras when talking about Covid restrictions.
So maybe we should all follow the Cummings lead over the next week or so and do what we think is best for our family. Have yourself a Barnard Castle Christmas.
Have as much of a ball as you can while looking after others and staying safe. The only way Christmas can be cancelled is in your own head and this is one we should enjoy more than ever.
We need to wave two fingers to the passing of this dismal year, raising a glass with the other hand to those who died, and those who helped to keep the rest of us alive.
Go for a meal at a pub if you can, and for the majority who can’t, enjoy a drink at home, relishing the fact that there are no once-a-year drinkers stopping you getting served.
I’m starting Christmas on Monday, because it’s the shortest day of the year, meaning, once it’s gone, the darkness of 2020 will gradually start to lift.
And hopefully the worst of it, despite the efforts of this panto government, will begin to be behind us.
Oh, yes it will.
Backing Cummings trashed their own rules and credibility