Nobody died from Partygate. We must forgive Boris for his sins or plunge the UK into chaos at the worst possible time
IT’S time to bring an end to Partygate. To quote Boris Johnson, the “cat has been kicked enough”.
We have worked ourselves into a self-righteous lather over whether a Prime Minister with a landslide Tory majority should be sacked for landing a £50 fixed penalty notice.
As we obsess about Downing Street, French presidential voters have been forced to choose between “cholera and the plague” in the Elysee Palace. Cholera (Emmanuel Macron) won.
Germany’s new government is in meltdown for selling lethal weapons to Kremlin killer Vladimir Putin — while we fret about two-year-old breaches of lockdown.
Millions of Ukrainians are fighting for their existence with British anti-tank missiles as we squabble about cake.
Yes, I know about the Queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral. I sympathise with those who could not visit dying relatives because of ridiculous Covid lockdown rules.
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Boris Johnson would sympathise, too.
He followed the rules which barred him from visiting his mother when she was stricken with Covid shortly before she died.
I also know politicians must not lie to Parliament. I just believe Boris thought he was telling the truth when he assured MPs that all rules were followed — Downing Street is both his home and his 24/7 office.
The meddling Met has decided otherwise. But I have my doubts about the impartiality of our highly political law enforcers.
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In any case, should a Prime Minister who had just dodged the Grim Covid Reaper be sacked for marking his survival — and his 56th birthday — with colleagues who work 18 hours a day at his side?
Ragbag coalition
To cite the mantra of police after, say, the murder of Sarah Everard; the NHS after the maternity ward deaths of hundreds of babies and mothers; social services after the deaths of abused children; or the BBC after Jimmy Savile and Martin Bashir; “lessons have been learned”.
At least, nobody has died from Partygate. We need, as they also say, to move on.
Boris is not a monster. Nor is he a saint. He is the same person millions of voters chose as Prime Minister, fully aware of his vividly reported flaws and imperfections. He is also the person who, against all the odds, delivered the wishes of most people in this country by taking Britain out of the European Union.
Indeed this, not Partygate, is the unforgivable sin for which Boris is being crucified by the BBC, the Church of England, the Labour Opposition and his own Remainer MPs.
Some voters may be tempted to use next month’s local elections as a protest by voting for another party or not voting at all. They should be careful what they wish for.
A Tory collapse would trigger a no-confidence vote, a three-month leadership crisis and political chaos just when Britain needs stability.
It would also raise the spectre of a Keir Starmer-led ragbag coalition of Labour socialists, flabby Lib Dems and Nicola Sturgeon’s Stasi-style Scot Nats.
These, remember, are the people who wanted more lockdown, more face masks, more social distancing — and who still cannot bring themselves to say a woman is an adult human female.
That risk remains whatever happens after May 5.
Britain and the world face the worse cost-of-living crisis in recent memory. Voters invariably turn on their leaders at times of hardship.
The question the Tory Party cannot answer is who should take BoJo’s place.
It won’t be teetotal Chancellor Rishi Sunak, outrageously fined for stumbling into a party where no cake was eaten.
Tooth and nail
His star is tarnished, not so much by his wife’s tax affairs but by the US green card he retained while running the Treasury.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is not trusted. Health Secretary Sajid Javid is not rated. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace doesn’t want it. Which leaves the amiable Jeremy Hunt as default favourite.
Choosing an avowed Remainer as leader would condemn the Tories to perpetual civil war.
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Boris is still struggling to seize the opportunities of Brexit, although he is making headway.
Can anyone imagine Jeremy Hunt fighting tooth and nail to sever the ropes still binding us to Brussels and steering SS Great Britain into the open seas?
'Vindictive and insulting' Rees-Mogg
BLOB-blitzer Jacob Rees-Mogg is under fire for teasing thousands of civil servants slaving away on their sofas by leaving “wish you were here” cards on Whitehall’s empty desks.
Sky’s Sophy Ridge joined in, describing his messages as “passive aggression”.
Dave Penman, excitable leader of the mandarins’ union, the First Division Association, went way OTT, describing The Moggster as “vindictive, condescending, crass and insulting”.
How many of these polite cards did JR-M leave? Just three!