Look Who’s Really Out Of Touch, Tories

Those who still support alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson - his coterie of ineptitude and those in the right-leaning press who are fully invested in keeping him in 10 Downing Street - have reacted badly to the Easter sermon delivered yesterday by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Anglican Church.

Justin Welby told his congregation “The details are for politics and politicians. The principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot. And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values; because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God, who himself took responsibility for our failures”.

This calm, even serene exculpation was transformed into a “Rant” in the retelling by the Daily Brexit, still called the Express. The Mail was equally judgmental. But that was not the only denunciation of Bozo and his pals: historian Peter Hennessy told that “The prime minister sealed his place in British history as the first lawbreaker to have occupied the premiership” which had become “an adventure playground for his narcissistic vanity”.

Evening all

There was more. Johnson had “broken the law, misled Parliament and has in effect shredded the ministerial code … The Queen's First Minister is now beyond doubt a rogue prime minister, unworthy of her, her Parliament, her people, and her kingdom … If he's not prepared to do the decent thing, why should anybody else behave decently and properly?”

Loyal Tory MPs have denounced both Archbishop and constitutional historian, claiming that either or both are “out of touch”. But here a problem enters: while papers like the Mail titles line up to denounce Bozo’s critics, their own polling shows just who is out of touch. And, whisper it quietly, it isn’t Justin Welby or Peter Hennessy.

The impeccably loyal Mail on Sunday commissioned a Deltapoll poll which makes grim reading for the Tories. Immigration came out as only the eleventh most important issue to voters: pensions, benefits, taxation, climate change, Covid and especially the NHS were more concerning to them. And way out in front - The Cost Of Living.

Labour had an eleven point lead - by offering, well, not very much at all: they were just not the Tories. The Red Team had an eight point lead on the economy; Keir Starmer led Bozo by seven points on “best Prime Minister”. And it got worse when inspecting the detail.

That Labour lead was 60 points for voters under 25, 44 points for 25 to 34 year olds, 18 points for 35 to 54s. And while the Tories held their customary big lead among over-65s, by 29 points, it was down to just three points for 55 to 64s. And in seats that the Tories had gained in 2019, Labour was leading by 21 points. Red Wall redux.

Worse still, as Paul Brand of ITV News has noted, is that “polling by [JL Partners] asking 2000 people to describe Boris Johnson finds the most common word used is ‘liar’”. He concludes “PM has a job to do to tomorrow to convince the public as well as the Commons”. A job that will veer from difficult to impossible with the certainty of night following day. And with only 17 days to go before a round of local elections.

Then we really will find out who’s out of touch. And it won’t be the Church of England.

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