PM’S GRANDSTANDING PUTS LIVES OF OUR ALLIES AT RISK

BORIS Johnson he hasn’t been looking his old self of late. Although he may still go for early morning runs that would put me and most of his age to shame he often looks pasty, tired and baffled. So would many in his situation.

He has long pontificated, starting sentences with “I...” and asserting what people want, groped for words and thrown out unusual combinations of words creating the impression of a profound grasp of whatever the topic is and an ability to talk to the common man.

He seems to bounce from one publicity opportunity to the next, a chancer shored up by the system but not thinking of the implications of his utterances.

A classic example of this is his repeated blabbing about Ukrainian forces being trained in Poland and the UK. It may be the Russian intelligence services knew this already but judged it something they would have to let run.

By boasting, the PM makes Russian commanders vulnerable to pressure from hawks to tackle this – perhaps by a strike in Poland, perhaps with assassination, terror or cyber attack in the UK.

Daily wanting to make crowd-pleasing announcements, he thus jeopardises British, Polish and Ukrainian lives and the cause he espouses – all because he seeks always the centre of attention.

Ex-Tory minister Rory Stewart has spoken of our whips system bringing in an elected dictatorship with support tied to promotion and offices being conferred (this happens no matter what party leader is Prime Minister).

Johnson’s survival despite multiple scandals, “Partygate” being but one, suggests he is right. Can we afford this? As the wartime slogan said: “Careless talk costs lives!”

Merity Vecolm