Party din drowning out party policies...

WHILE the full damage done to Boris Johnson by the “partygate” scandal is yet to be assessed – along with other ensuing crises involving cakes and the evacuation of dogs from Kabul – the political fall-out gets clearer by the day. It has now become nigh on impossible for the Government to launch just about any policy on any issue without it being promptly dismissed as “red meat” for the Conservative faithful.

This is the lazy Left revelling in the supercilious and dismissive language they employed so regularly during the Brexit debate.

Remember how anyone who had concerns about controlling immigration or power being siphoned off to Brussels was dismissed as a “racist,” “gammon” or “Little Englander”.

This laziness is becoming rampant again as the Government tries to push through new policies.

Admittedly, they are keen to move the dialogue on from attempted putsches and parties.

But why is it wrong to announce policies that seek to stem the tide of refugees crossing the English Channel in perilous circumstances?

Or to warn the BBC it cannot expect to rely solely on licence fee funding as the TV market changes so radically and at such a pace?

Or to seek to get the jobless back into work? Dealing first with the policy to encourage people back into employment, it unsurprisingly has Left-leaning politicians and campaigners boiling over with rage.

To them, the idea someone’s benefits will be subject to sanctions if they fail to attend interviews, accept a job or even put in the slightest bit of effort to find work is abhorrent and akin to apartheid.

They see it as eminently sensible that many people struggle in jobs they hate for bosses they loathe, because they know they must provide for their families. Let them bear the (unfair) tax yoke that those who can’t be bothered to get out of bed impose with such apparent disdain. And never mind that job coaches are to be provided, tasked with providing face-to-face support to help the jobless apply for work, hopefully with success.

It is well proven that work is a tremendous buffer to mental health issues and the discipline and rewards it provides give people a sense of purpose as well as, in most cases, a virtual support network of work colleagues.

Given the tsunami of cases of people with these problems that the Covid pandemic has created, you’d have thought even the most fanatical on the Left would see the huge benefits employment brings. But their misguided opposition is steadfast.

The Government’s warning to the BBC that the days of reliance on the TV licence are numbered is dismissed as “state sponsored vandalism” and “a war on our cultural institutions”, yet both accusations are plain stupid.

The development of TV and the growth of channels continues at a dizzying speed. The grip which old-style terrestrial TV had on the population has all but been killed off.

The walls were severely breached by the arrival of Sky in the 1980s. And companies such as Netflix and Amazon coming on to the scene could be the coup de grâce.

Relying on a funding model that was introduced in 1946 – the year after the Second World War ended – in 2022 is patently unjustifiable. As is pursuing

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up the “TV tax”. Lastly, the Government’s aim to introduce new laws that will crack down on people smugglers and seek to swiftly return illegal migrants to France – or whichever safe country from which they began their crossing – are also being attacked.

The proposed legislation is said to be “unfair” and “inhumane”, but it’s worth noting that few, if any, other possible policies are suggested.

The unfortunate truth now is that if Boris Johnson and his Government were to reveal they had found a cure for Covid, while at the same time balancing the books and handing back millions of pounds in tax breaks, these would still be labelled as more “red meat” policies.

Those “parties” were reportedly pretty raucous affairs, involving a DJ, a suitcase of booze and youngwilfred’s swing being broken.

The din from them goes on – and is drowning out virtually every other announcement.