Bozo, Tories And A Mexican Standoff

We should not be surprised: what we had previously been told about now former Tory deputy chief whip Chris Pincher was only the tip of the iceberg, and this morning the papers are full of more lurid allegations of drunkenness and what That Tory Spreadsheet might have called Inappropriate Behaviour.

As the BBC has reported, “Six new claims of inappropriate behaviour by former Conservative deputy chief whip Chris Pincher have emerged, days after he was suspended from the party for allegedly groping two men … The allegations stretch back more than a decade”. There is more.

“The allegations reported in the Independent, the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times include three cases where it is alleged Mr Pincher made unwanted advances to male MPs, including in a bar in parliament, and in his own parliamentary office … It is reported that one of the MPs contacted Downing Street in February with details of what he said had happened to him and voiced his concerns that Mr Pincher might be made a party whip, in charge of the discipline and welfare of other MPs”.

Which brings us closer to being able to answer the frequently-asked question of why the Tories have still not thrown alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson overboard, given the damage he is causing to the Tories’ reputation, and, more to the point, the party’s poll ratings.

After all, Bozo was another of those names on That Tory Spreadsheet, although what is said about him will not be repeated here. He cannot give a straight answer to the question “how many children do you have?” He has redefined dishonesty. He is obscenely corrupt. His appeal to voters is diminishing all too rapidly. The Bozo joke ceased to be funny long ago.

But then, it wasn’t only Chris Pincher who was also on That Tory Spreadsheet. Pincher’s former boss Chris Heaton Harris also features. So do a number of Bozo loyalists, like oh I dunno, Conor Burns. Who has now changed what he saw when he found Bozo and Carrie in the former’s office - from oral sex to the more mundane “having a glass of wine”.

Loyalists like John Whittingdale, whose relationship with a sex worker was spun as “he met her on Match dot Com” - by Carrie Symonds, as she then was. We know the press has plenty on Whitto - some of it came out after the sex worker story, or rather why that same press wasn’t running that story, was exposed. It looks more and more like a Mexican Standoff.

As we’ve seen with the Murdoch press going after Prince Charles in the aftermath of his passing adverse comment on the Government’s cynical and nasty idea of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, Team Bozo only has to give the word, the safe full of incriminating material is unlocked, and the target is attacked. Mere MPs will steer well clear of going there if their own personal cupboards have even a trace of skeletons present.

Bozo loyalists are rewarded by unquestioning press adulation, the latest being a shameless puff piece in the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph on Suella “Cultural Marxism” Braverman, who is alleged to be bravely fighting “Remainer civil servants”. How do they know what side those working for her chose in the 2016 EU referendum? Has there been an impromptu vetting? Or is this, more likely, just another malicious pack of lies?

And so the Mexican Standoff continues: Bozo, or those close to him, must know that they can frighten the payroll vote into staying loyal, with so many likely to be sacked or demoted by any other Tory leader. The Rothermere press may now be wavering, but if Team Bozo can keep the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker onside, they have a means of getting their attacks out there, and the strong possibility that press herd instinct will do the rest.

What That Tory Spreadsheet said about Chris Pincher was, it seems, just the tip of the iceberg. Which may be true of others. That’s a lot of dirt Bozo may have on his opponents - maybe rather more than they have on him, or more than the press is prepared to put out there right now. Remember the Times pulling the Bozo and Carrie story? If they won’t publish, voters won’t know.

Getting rid of Bozo may not be so easy. Not while that Standoff persists.

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