Boris and the Bagmen

[smokingboot]

I admit, I have problems believing any of it. But there is one thing of which I am sure; little truth is coming out of Number 10. He is either much more ill or much less ill than reports say. The Cabinet is in a state of purest panic, a Bosch-like cacophony of the unknowing, promoted only because of their readiness to lie for Brexit and with no capacity at all for real statescraft or running the country. They will be lying, not even out of necessity, but because they don't know how to do much else.

Dominic Raab, who is basically a giant confused neck, is technically in charge, but I suspect that Gove will be attempting some form of importance, and, self-isolating or not, Dominic Cummings will be screaming orders down the phone. These orders will be about how to make Boris Johnson seem Churchillian. He could not give a damn about ventilators and PPE.

And on they go, while the death count rises. Brutally speaking, while I genuinely wish BJ a full and speedy recovery, the state he is in reflects his own policy and the state our NHS are in reflect his party's policy. More than most, he has directly influenced his own chances. That's an opportunity few get.

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

I wouldn't believe a single thing coming out of BoJo's mouthpieces, frankly. People do no go out into the ICU out of an abundance of caution.

[smokingboot]

They have been trying to make his survival a kind of badge of merit indicating personal strength of character and fortitude, as if anyone who dies of Covid-19 must lack courage or virtue! Fortunately, this ridiculous stuff gets debunked. https://www.indy100.com/article/emily-maitlis-coronavirus-newsnight-boris-johnson-bus-driver-deaths-9456806
But is it enough?

[mallorys_camera]

That's an excellent analysis of the official rhetoric. 😀

[thisnewday]

"They will be lying, not even out of necessity, but because they don't know how to do much else."

As I read your comments on this, and reflect upon our situation in the US, I wonder which of our so-called leaders is the actual madman and which is the doppelganger, the apparition.

Or if both are simply part of the same bad dream that we'll somehow wake up from...

[smokingboot]

I wish it was the latter. Historians will analyse this era to pieces. Was it ignorance? Social media? Unchecked opinions being broadcast as news? Blue-collar workers punching down and sideways?

I wonder if there are similarities in the populations that voted for these people, but don't know enough about the demographics or voting systems to be sure. My in-laws (comfortably well off ardent tory Brexiters) often visit a couple of well off Trump supporters in California. Apparently the latter have found PresidentTrump good for their pockets, though what they think of the gent now is unknown.

The irony is that as a party member, one of my in-laws wrote to the chairman to say it would be a huge mistake if BJ became the tory leader, but for all those misgivings, I would be very surprised if he kept his vote in his pocket at the last GE.

[thisnewday]

"...though what they think of the gent now is unknown."

I have the impression, based on folks in my own extended family--totally anecdotal, I know, that if it's good for their pockets they're able to ignore the rest.

Which is disappointing, given what I'd taken to be their fairly principled lives in the past.

Or maybe it's just, as I've been saying recently, that while Barack Obama encouraged us to consider what we COULD be, Donald Trump is showing us what we, in fact, ARE...

[smokingboot]

People try to separate their principles from their politics without thinking too hard about it, which is why we get men like Trump and Johnson in power.

Whatever I think of his policies, I would expect more from the President than railing at the Press for not praising him. It seems he feels nothing for the people he is supposed to protect, and I am surprised folk think he has anything to offer. But then, from what Patrizia and I have discussed, I would need time spent in the US to really understand attitudes to tax there. The UK is more contradictory.

We are spoonfed this idea of Churchill being the best we could be, and Johnson presents an easy cartoon version of that. What folk forget is the lives their great grandparents lead between and before the wars. The population of GB would be much poorer, their lives much shorter without Clement Attlee, but then he was no showboat, and their history is all about flag-waving.