[ad_1]
Prime ministers can make big mistakes and be forgiven. But sometimes a mistake defines failure so much that the public never forgets it.
John Major was doomed to failure from the moment Great Britain collapsed from the European exchange rate mechanism, which he had led the country to two years earlier, in September 1992. The episode destroyed his reputation for competition and that of his administration . He was never able to recover.
Tony Blair was equally a marked man after the 2003 Iraq war, although it took voters a long time to realize the extent of his ruse and he was able to win the 2005 general election. But the reckoning finally came, after which was thrown into the political desert.
Prime ministers can make big mistakes and be forgiven. But sometimes a mistake defines failure so much that the public never forgets
Boris Johnson’s cancellation of Christmas is very likely to remain in people’s minds for as long as he is Prime Minister, and will hold against him until he leaves number 10. Although I cannot predict when that will be, I have no doubt that you will not be forgiven for what you just did.
Note that it is not only the 16 million inhabitants of the new draconian Level Four that are deprived of Christmas. Even in the most favored areas of England, festive ‘bubbles’ from up to three households can now gather on Christmas Day, while people in the other nations of the UK are being similarly penalized.
It is not the cancellation of Christmas per se that causes so much resentment. When he addressed the nation last Wednesday afternoon, most people probably would have understood if the prime minister had said that the five-day recess during the holiday season could not continue after all.
Note that it is not only the 16 million inhabitants of the new draconian Level Four that are deprived of Christmas. Even in the most favored areas of England, festive ‘bubbles’ from up to three households can now gather on Christmas Day, while people in the other nations of the UK are being similarly penalized.
Had he emphasized that there was a new mutant strain of the virus going berserk in London and the South East, which was sequenced by scientists in September, the public might have appreciated the need to alter the arrangements.
As it stood, the Prime Minister insisted that while new guidelines existed, mixing of up to three households for five days could still be carried out, and people should exercise their own discretion. In words that will stick with him forever, he declared that it would be “downright inhuman” to ban Christmas.
So now, by his own definition, he has acted inhumanely. Well, nothing very significant happened in the three days between his first statement on Wednesday and his second on Saturday afternoon. Infection rates continued to rise in the capital and much of the southeast.
Today a week ago, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that a new variant of Covid-19 associated with a more rapid spread in south-east England had been identified. Boris Johnson was completely in the picture Wednesday afternoon.
What changed between Wednesday and Saturday was not the lethality of the mutant virus. It was Boris Johnson’s mind that changed, no doubt under pressure from scientists who had not approved his decision. Medical Director Chris Whitty looked as happy as a wet afternoon at the first press conference.
On that occasion, the Prime Minister, wanting to please and be the bearer of happy news, endorsed ‘a happy little Christmas’. Changing your mind so quickly on such an important matter is unforgivable.
Why did he do it? Weakness and lack of clear thinking played their part, no doubt. But there is something else. Despite his generous heart and good disposition towards humanity, Mr. Johnson is terribly removed from the consequences of his decisions in everyday life.
It’s neither decent nor fair to allow people to raise their hopes for a family Christmas and then blow those hopes up three days later. There is a carelessness and irresponsibility in Boris’s heart that leads me to question his aptitude to be prime minister. There is an even darker possible interpretation.
The influential Conservative MP Sir Charles Walker suggested yesterday that the government knew on Wednesday that it was going to cancel Christmas, but delayed doing so because Parliament was still sitting and could have created a scandal. That would be despicable if it were true.
What is certainly beyond doubt is that Mr. Johnson has been guilty of an enormous trust betrayal, for which he will not be forgiven by many people, nor, I hope, by several of his own defenders, some of whom they are visibly losing. faith in your unpredictable leader.
Also, there was something objectionable about the overbearing way the face change was achieved on Saturday. We were treated to the well-known sham of unenlightening graphics by the grim duo of Professor Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance.
Johnson said the new variant “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible” than previous versions of the virus. What does that mean? Where is the evidence? As is often the case during the pandemic, momentous decisions are made on the spot and announced without due clarification.
There was also no awareness of the catastrophic economic effects of what amounts to another lockdown in London and the South East, which account for around a third of UK GDP.
The influential Conservative MP Sir Charles Walker suggested yesterday that the government knew on Wednesday that it was going to cancel Christmas, but delayed doing so because Parliament was still sitting and could have created a scandal. That would be despicable if it were true
Well, there wouldn’t be, right? Mr. Johnson only listens to scientists, and they have little idea of the disastrous consequences for the economy, what people’s lives mean, of their ruinous medicine.
Democratic governments are expected to behave reasonably. To govern effectively, decisions must be made in an orderly and transparent manner, especially if we are arbitrarily deprived of hard-won freedoms.
Although it pains me to say, this Government is at sea and Mr. Johnson is rapidly losing authority. One consequence is that a growing number of people will no longer observe the ill-conceived regulations that emanate from an increasingly rebellious number 10.
Will Boris survive as prime minister? Not if it continues like this, repeatedly cutting and switching and withdrawing commitments almost as soon as they are made. This is the man to whom, we are told, a supine cabinet is happy to entrust the final decision on whether to accept an EU deal.
Maybe he can still save himself. But I doubt that he will ever break free from the unhappy reputation of being the prime minister who betrayed the public over Christmas.
