I’ve joined the bitter flotilla of women let down by Boris
Boris Johnson has shirked responsibility throughout much of his adult life. This much we know. Whether dealing with wife or mistress, girlfriend or lover, friend or foe, it is clear he is the kind of man who has always done exactly as he pleased.
in his churning wake he has left a bitter flotilla of disillusioned and saddened women, beached by regret, their lives diminished rather than enhanced by making his acquaintance. And now i know how they feel. For even his most ardent fans must admit that, as Prime Minister, Boris has turned out to be a terrible disappointment. it’s almost as if he expended all his energies in his decades of yearning and hankering to be PM, but once he actually got the gig he didn’t know how to cope. What shall i do, just stand here and look stupid? Job done.
Every time Boris has appeared in public recently, nothing lessens suspicions that the position is beyond him in every way; physically, mentally and emotionally.
Where is the fight, the spark, the inspiring leadership in this time of terrible crisis? Like Bonnie Tyler i am holding out for a hero on the political front line, but so far no luck Boris-wise.
Giving the latest Covid bulletins this week, the PM was a shadow of his former self; a deflated balloon, a seasick flounderer, a puddle of muddle. There were moments when he seemed hesitant, with an unsure grasp on the Covid regulations he had signed off himself.
Look deeper and you could see a touch of confusion in his gaze; like looking into the eyes of a captured honey bear tasked with doing a jigsaw. There was bafflement aplenty. sometimes i thought i could even detect the flare of real fear. God, i really hope i imagined that.
What on earth has happened to Johnson, a man once held in awe, albeit mostly by his own family? is he — as some suggest — suffering from Long Covid? or is it that the cares of office during a pandemic have dragged him down so far that his natural ebullience and optimism have been replaced by fatalism and a taste for the hard smack of f oppression?
A £10,000 fine for failing to self-isolate? Good luck with that, darling.
Look.i’m not one of those who believe that everything the PM and his Government have done has been a total catastrophe, although it has come close. nor am i one of those instant armchair experts who AkB (always knows best) in hindsight.
Mistakes have been made, but the Government has done its best to firefight a shape- shifting pandemic in circumstances where it is often hampered by citizens who won’t abide by the new rules. Beach parties, raves, pub nights, illegal gatherings? We are not doing ourselves any favours.
of course, there was the lockdown that came too late and the protective suits that didn’t fit. not to mention the instruction to work from home; no, come into the office; no, go back home again. The test-and-trace app that we all knew wouldn’t work and hey presto, it didn’t work! All this has tested our patience mightily.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Boris airily dismissed many of these inconsistencies as ‘seeming illogicalities.’ Behind these words lurked the tacit implication that all would be well in the long run, once his secret, super- clever Covid master plan was unveiled.
he is clearly hoping we will believe that there is something substantial underpinning the chaos, and let’s hope that special something is not just more chaos.
Was it really only just over a year ago that th Boris Johnson stood outside 10 Downing street for the first time, brimming with hope and optimism fo for our post-Brexit world?
he had replaced Theresa May as Prime Minister, and five months later delivered the Conservatives’ biggest el election victory in more than 30 years, fi finally followed by Brexit itself. What a man. Many had their doubts about him, o over his tenuous grasp of detail plus a sh shaky commitment to the country, to u us and to his party, but for a brief, sh shining moment he seemed to have it in him to do great things, to do all th this and more.
now i am not so sure. There are moments these days when he seems like a quivering sapling hiding inside the thick bark of the Tory tree; someone who is a touch too meek beneath the teak, a man who seems to be missing in action rather more often than seems entirely comfortable.
has Covid beaten him, in more ways than one?
Back in May, Boris promised us that he would deal with the pandemic by ‘throwing everything at it, heart and soul, night and day’. now i can’t help but feel that he has just thrown it all away instead.