Just how low can the Conservative party sink? I thought that we were on a downward descent when Liz Truss broke her oath as Lord Chancellor to protect the judiciary when the press attacked our independent judiciary as Enemies of the People. Things had become pretty tawdry before that when Johnson decided to abuse the royal prerogative. Then we had his lies about the funding of the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. Then his lies to Lord Geidt about texts messages to Lord Brownlow. Both men, who appear to be thoroughly decent pillars of the establishment have had their reputations trashed. It can’t be long before Geidt goes, after the fig leaf for him remaining in his job is his plea to have a statutory footing is quietly thrown into the long grass. And now we are told that to save Big Dog more reputations have to be trashed and more advisors and civil servants have to be thrown under a bus for our prime minister’s total disregard for any scintilla of honour, decency, principle or judgment.
The Number 10 outfit is an incompetent, entitled, kindergarten for those who only seek to make life a bed of roses for the chosen ones. The Masters of the Universe. Themselves. The very people who have foisted draconian lockdown regulations upon a freedom loving nation have shown that they regard that the rules are only for the little people. They have trashed their party, their institutions, their government and their queen. They have spat in the faces of those who are still grieving for the loved ones that they couldn’t comfort in their last moments on earth. The anger is real, palpable and visceral. And it is deserved.
If you live your life like a Mississippi card shark it is inevitable that you will end up being tossed off the paddle steamer. The cabinet, the party, backbenchers, the civil servants and even the monarchy are fed up with being a support act for a man who is lazy, venal and utterly self obsessed. The bodies pile high to save this despicable man. But the magic spell has been broken. He is no longer a winner. He is a lame duck prime minister, surrounded by sycophants and courtiers who, if their jobs didn’t depend on it, would stab him in the back. Day after day hapless ministers are made to swear embarrassing oaths of loyalty on the airwaves. It is an uncomfortable spectacle to watch. And ministers who do not swear undying loyalty to their leader are attacked in the most personal way. The attack by Mogg on Douglas Ross the leader of the Scottish Conservatives as lightweight for saying what most of the Parliamentary party are thinking was a disgrace and puts the Union in mortal danger. Because Rishi Sunak dared not fall to his knees and kiss the Johnsonian hand in fealty he is accused of being a prancing pony.
By the time this piece has been published MPs will have been briefed that support in their constituencies for Johnson has plummeted. Subscriptions are not being paid and loyal lifelong conservatives are leaving in droves. Bemusement that had turned to anger has become outrage. They cannot comprehend how a Conservative Prime Minister can behave like this. Neither can I. He is an abomination that shames us all. And no amount of ersatz apologies and public hangings will save him.
A word of advice to the new intake. Don’t expect Johnson to do the decent thing. The words are not in his vocabulary. When the men in grey suits come with the pearl handed revolver and the bottle of scotch he will drink the scotch and shoot the suits. He will be offered a face saving exit. He will reject it and barricade himself in the cabinet room. Number 10 has become his bunker. For the reckless chancer addicted to political gambling there is always just one more throw of the dice. And another. And another……
Government is now paralysed and the sky is black with Johnsonian chickens coming home to roost. We await Sue Gray’s report. We await more revelations in the Sunday papers. But must we await the funeral pyre of decent Conservative councillors who will be sacrificed for one man’s ego and bloody minded selfishness in May? No. Big Dog must be taken to the vet so we can be put out of our misery.