I don’t usually post about politics, but the UK situation has degenerated into a sitcom that thinks it’s a docudrama. Or vice versa.
If “Blackadder”, “The New Statesman” and “Yes Prime Minister” had a bastard child, it would look like this.
@dduane reblogged someone’s “Explanation for Non-UK readers” HERE.
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There have been nearly (more than?) 60 resignations and 1 sacking - that one was for threatening to resign if Prime Minister Boris Johnson didn’t.
BJ mishandling Covid response to the tune of a mountain of corpses didn’t start this, BJ having parties while the rest of the country was in lockdown didn’t do it, BJ giving his minders the slip to chat with a KGB agent (they call themselves FSB nowadays haha but we know who they are, and what was that about anyway?) didn’t do it.
The list of things that didn’t do it is astonishing.
This memorable image of the Queen observing attendance numbers and distancing at her husband’s funeral...
...stands for all the other people who couldn’t attend funerals or even be with dying family members.
The night before that photo was taken, there were two (TWO) parties at 10 Downing Street...
But no resignations.
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The catalyst involved a known sex-pest called Chris Pincher - ”Pincher by name, pincher by nature” BJ is claimed to have said after the first male-groping incident and formal complaint. That was in November 2017.
18 months later Pincher was back in favour - BJ favourite catchphrases are “time to move on” and “put this thing behind us” (ooh-er, Missus!) - and held the post of Deputy Chief Whip (swish-smack! you could NOT make this stuff up...)
Then in June 2022 Mister Whippee groped other males at a party. They were Party Members as well as party attendees, and it seems Pincher pinched their members as well as their arses. Maybe he thought that made it okay. What British Tories regard as acceptable nowadays is a mystery.
There was another formal complaint about the incident.
After which...
The Prime Minister denied that he’d been told anything about it, then denied that he’d been told very much about it, then denied that he’d been told as much about it as the people who told him about it said they’d told him about it, then claimed that he’d forgotten what he’d been told about it, then was confronted in an open letter with proof showing that he’d not only been told about it, but exactly how much he’d been told about it.
And that’s when the resignations started.
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The number of letters with phrases like “...can no longer tolerate...” show that those whose names are on those letters were content to tolerate everything prior. They are no more admirable after the letters than they were before.
It seems - did it apply to the woman caught by an MP giving BJ a BJ in his office? (oh yes, that happened too) - that the Johnsonite gang would rather swallow than spit.
Maybe it’s something learned at Public School, or maybe the rug’s too soggy with sleaze to absorb any more.
It’s certainly lumpy enough from all the stuff swept under it.
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At time of posting,
Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia offered to provide a venue for any press conference due to “having experience with this sort of thing”.
Somebody was sent to get the Mess Webley.
BJ is believed to have resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party (although his speech did not use the word “resign” anywhere) but plans to stay on until the October party conference as “Caretaker PM” - which conveniently allows use of Chequers, the PM’s country home, for his next wedding reception. At taxpayer expense. Apparently invitations have already gone out.
Nobody can find the Mess Webley.
Moves are already afoot to extract him from the No 10 janitor’s cupboard before he can fill the resignation posts with acquiescent lickspittles, as well as fears of what he might do or cover up in the interim out of carelessness, disinterest, personal interest or spite.
Nobody can find the ammunition for the Mess Webley.
Ex Tory PM John Major has publicly stated that for the good of the country (and other countries!) BJ should not be allowed to remain PM.
It’s as if somebody has deliberately hidden the Mess Webley.
And its ammunition.
ETA: after some “what’s a Mess Webley?” questions, it’s this.
Also, someone who enjoys irony posted this (Gordon Brown (Labour) was 4 PMs ago.)
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Currently the most respected, trusted and popular resident of 10 Downing Street continues to be Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office.
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