With Jabba the Hutt desperately clinging onto power despite Partygate, surely it's only a matter of time until he is removed from office
If you are a regular reader of this column, you will know that I write predominantly about car culture. But on occasion, there are topics that I feel obliged to speak about, or rather rant about. For those that take an interest in politics, and are informed of the personal, professional and political track record of Boris Johnson, the evaporation of his moral authority as Prime Minister comes as no shock.
With a chaotic private life that includes adultery and fathering an unknown number of children with various mistresses, his sexual incontinence is an indication of his untrustworthy nature that can’t be relied upon. And that’s before we even get to his professional life. Johnson has made a career of publishing bullshit in numerous newspapers, like at The Times when he was sacked for making up quotes (lying) and attributing them to his own god father when he was a graduate trainee, or at The Torygraph for publishing lies about the European Union when he was Brussels correspondent.
It was therefore entirely plausible that transgressions would become an inevitability when he obtained the most powerful job in the land. As someone who has repeatedly pointed out that the emperor has been naked, in spite of many people claiming the contrary, I do take some solace from the recent Downing Street party revelations that have been disclosed, as it dispels the myth that people with experience know what they are talking about. Johnson is an example that experience counts for nothing if you aren’t competent.
Johnson is morally bankrupt. He has no grasp of what is right or wrong. As a result, he has contaminated the standards in public office. This can be illustrated by the seven principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. Johnson fails every single one, every single day. The fish rots from the head down, the example he sets is depraved and despicable.
The most manipulative technique Johnson reaches for is lying. To be honest, I am surprised that it has taken the disclosure of Downing Street parties during lockdown for his true colours to cut through to vast swathes of the public. His unsuitability renders him unfit for office. And the long list of egregious scandals he has presided over beggars’ belief that a significant proportion of the public thought it would be a good idea for him to be Prime Minster in the first place.
"Nadine Dorries is quite possibly one of the thickest people ever to walk the planet"
While the Tories claim to be the party that represents Britain’s interests, the evidence suggests the opposite – actions always speak louder than words. Johnson is undermining the integrity and credibility of the country’s most treasured institutions for ideological reasons, with the ultimate goal of destroying them altogether. But here’s the catch for the Conservatives, they can’t publicly admit and campaign for what they really intend to do, as it would backfire with the electorate who understand the significance of such institutions, but nevertheless take them for granted.
The complacency of the public is founded on an ignorance that is to the detriment of themselves. Take the BBC, for example. Instead of taking a wrecking ball to the corporation, the Tories are incrementally dismantling it, brick by brick. Through austerity, BBC funding has been cut by 30% since 2010. Now Johnson, who perceives impartial broadcasting as biased, has been urged by Rupert Murdoch to demolish the broadcaster. Thus, the next stage of the plan is now in motion.
This has been enacted by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Now, to anyone with a functioning brain, it’s rather obvious that Nadine Dorries is a sandwich short of a picknick to put it charitably. But I’d go as far to say that Dorries is quite possibly one of the thickest people ever to walk the planet. The decision to freeze the licence fee cost until April 2024 at £159 will be below inflation, which means a real terms reduction in funding amounting to £2 billion.
Not only that, as of now, the licence fee funding model will be the last when it ends in 2027. This mortal threat is as serious as it gets. What is one of the most respected institutions in the world will be wiped off the face of it by a Conservative party that does nothing but torpedo the best of what Britain has to offer, and makes everything worse. This charted course is not in the national interest, but a doctrine that serves a specific echelon in society at the expense of most people in the country.
And while on the subject of the BBC, can somebody explain to me why Director General Tim Davie will continue to receive an agreed £75,000 increase on his salary when he has failed in such spectacular fashion in presiding over these cutbacks. It’s discernible that the BBC has pursued a policy agenda to pander and placate Johnson and the Conservative government, but that's just played into their hands. Davie’s position is justifiable because he’s a Tory sympathiser, a stooge put there by Johnson to politicise the BBC.
"Brexit is a series of disasters that were known would happen. But leaving the EU is a smokescreen for a darker path"
Another audacious aspect that’s nonsensical is how the Director General is on £525,000 when not only was his appointment inappropriate in the first place, and that he’s not good enough for the job, but the wage disparity between bosses at the BBC and salaries of the impecunious factory workers who actually produce content are skewed disproportionately towards the most senior people. It leaves subordinate employees on peasant pay.
Of course, Johnson doesn’t give a shit about that, because he doesn’t give a shit about anything, or anyone other than himself. He is manifestly unsuitable to be Prime Minister and it’s a damning indictment of the political system that Johnson, a dreadful politician and an even worse person, was ever put in charge of our country. Many people pursue a career in politics to make life better and easier, but many people – predominantly Tories – also go into politics to make life worse and harder for normal people, except themselves.
Judging by voting records, the Conservatives live up to the name of the party, and are averse to progressive change, when they really represent regression. Just one example is austerity cuts that have decimated public services. These have been implemented for ideological reasons. Furthermore, the notion that Tories are fiscally responsible and the party of business has been smashed to smithereens, as Brexit demonstrates, proving that both hallmarks are mistaken myths.
Johnson is the poster boy for Brexit, which is one of the most damaging policies ever undertaken by Britain. It is a never-ending disaster with catastrophic consequences for our country. From January 1st 2022, a new wave of red tape and barriers came into force between the UK and the EU. Now out of the single market and customs union, Brexit Britain must comply with additional procedures to obtain clearance for entry into an EU member country’s territory. For clarification, these are not EU checks, these are Brexit checks that are applicable to third countries.
To reduce the amount of time at the border to process these checks, the Goods Vehicle Movement System was introduced (GVMS). This structure is supposed to enable paperwork such as customs declarations, safety and security documents and transit forms to be handled more efficiently. However, even with this structure in place, the extra bureaucracy is causing lorry queues so long that they can be seen via satellite images taken from space, and have stretched for eleven miles.
"Putin merely sees Johnson as a useful idiot to further his agenda"
Brexit is a series of disasters that were known would happen. But leaving the EU is a smokescreen for a darker path. A key foreign policy objective of Russia is to destabilise and weaken the western world. This plays into the hands of Putin, who believes the Russian star is rising. For pathological liar Johnson, Brexit was an opportunity to put his personal interests before the national interest, to become Prime Minister. But both are linked in a covert way.
There’s no evidence in the public domain, but it’s likely Russia manipulated the Brexit referendum. We don’t know conclusively, because Johnson and the Conservative government have refused to investigate that breadcrumb trail. There are reasons that perhaps reveal why. "Follow the money" is a catchphrase that highlights money as often the main motivation in situations, and that the power it wields cannot be underestimated. One quarter of senior ministers in the British government have taken donations linked to Russia to the sum of £2m. Suspicious to say the least.
There is legislation called the Global Human Rights Magnitsky Accountability Act that allows governments to impose sanctions on human rights abuses and corruption against offending people and countries. However, it’s known that members of the House of Lords are paid by Russia to stop the implementation of the Magnitsky Act. And in the broader British political establishment, there are members that have influence in other political areas that are paid by Russian money.
In layman's terms, Russia has infiltrated the British political system and are conducting covert operations, which is a matter of national security that goes above and beyond the realms of political jurisdiction. This corrosion has happened under Johnson’s watch. But don’t think his hands are clean in this. He has held charity events with Russian oligarchs himself too. Putin merely sees Johnson as a useful idiot to further his agenda, and he has been used to devastating effect.
What’s most indicative though are comments made by Aleksandr Yakovenko, the Russian Ambassador to the UK between 2011 and 2019. "We have crushed the British to the ground, they are on their knees and they will not rise for a very long time." Johnson and the Conservative party have been convulsed in an ideological psychodrama at the expense of the country. In other words, they are complicit in Russian foreign policy for their own political gratification.
"From a political perspective, it is now in the interests of serious and competent politicians that Johnson remains as Prime Minister"
It is humiliating that Johnson is Prime Minister and embarrassing for the country’s reputation – the nation has become an international laughing stock. Putin must spend ten minutes every day laughing his head off at just how Russia has turned Britain into an irrelevance with no influence on the world stage. And there is so much scandal and corruption attributed to Johnson and the Conservative party that it’s hard to keep up with it all, and I could continue writing about it here indefinitely.
The reality for Johnson is that the dark arts he has used in every part of his life to get his way or get away with things no longer work, and the Downing Street parties have exposed him for what he really is – an incompetent, lying charlatan. It’s often said that the more people get to know Johnson, the more they dislike him. The revelations have proved that thesis right, and have burst his bubble.
With the Met Police finally investigating the Downing Street parties, and prohibiting the full publication of the Sue Gray report, his short-term survival is relatively secure. But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security, because in the long-term as Prime Minister, he is finished. Johnson is a dead man walking, but the country will continue to be damaged not just until he is gone, but until the Conservative party is removed from power as well.
In the medium-term, that means attention turns to who will replace Johnson once he is removed. The Tory ranks are full of second-rate politicians and people that are entirely unsuitable to be Prime Minister. There are likely to be many contenders vying for the job, but the frontrunners are thought to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who is a billionaire, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who’s incredibly stupid, she can barely recite the alphabet.
However, from a political perspective, it is now in the interests of serious and competent politicians that Johnson remains as Prime Minister for as long as possible. This way he will continue to damage his own image, and he will continue to damage the Conservative brand as well. The Tories have been in government for nearly twelve years, all of them wasted. In that time, they’ve achieved little, but destroyed a lot. For the sake of our country, the time they are cleared out can’t come soon enough.
PS. Car fanatics, don’t fret. Callum’s car culture content will resume in my next post!
Photo: Andrew Parsons
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