Thus the warning from Gordon Brown to Damian McBride not to cross the line into actual, and potentially provable, dishonesty: once one lie gets told, the possibility that a lot more lies will have to follow as part of the cover-up becomes stronger. This is now proving true with the Chris Pincher saga, and the behaviour of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
What makes the Pincher fallout that much more spectacular is not only that Bozo lied about it, but that under his less than benign leadership, Downing Street staff followed his line and lied about it, perhaps unwittingly at first. Then came a procession of variously senior ministers who also followed the given line, and who therefore also lied. Now the house is falling in.
The situation is so bad that, looking at the grim countenance of some around the cabinet table this morning, the prospect is now being faced: Bozo’s departure may come sooner rather than later, and with it their own demotion to the back benches. That departure may be forced by the Pincher lies: those cabinet colleagues fed up of being sent out to lie for their leader.
Beginning yesterday, the stench of decay became not merely rank, but overwhelming: Adam Bienkov of
Byline Times summed up the ever-changing definition of reality. “
Downing Street first said the Prime Minister wasn't aware of ‘any allegation’ against Chris Pincher, then said he wasn't aware of any ‘specific allegation’ against him. Now we're told the PM wasn't aware of any ‘serious specific allegation’”. And all the while there was that policy vacuum.
Which was noted by Peter Geoghegan of Open Democracy: “
Friday it was 50 year mortgages. Yesterday it was taxing [the] childless. Today it's a consultation on increasing how many kids a child minder can look after at once … Increasingly it feels like UK government isn't even pretending to have actual policies, just endless blether balloons”. Something to brief to the right-leaning press. Just to give the impression that something is happening.
And with this morning’s media round came further humiliation of all those prepared to go out and cover up Bozo’s lying, some of whom may have had enough. The
Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff caught up with one of those thus humiliated: “
Dominic Raab moving in the space of 5 mins from ‘that’s not accurate’ to ‘that’s news to me’ (on claims PM was directly told of a formal complaint against Chris Pincher in 2019) to admitting that he didn’t directly ask the PM if he was told about this”. But that merely begs another question.
Did he just keep schtum when Pincher was made deputy chief whip? Did he look the other way in order to keep himself in the style to which he had, perhaps undeservingly, become accustomed? It got worse for Raab when he was skewered by co-host Susanna Reid on ITV Good Morning Britain. By contrast, her co-host, former Labour MP “
Auguste” Balls, did not need to intervene. Raab may not be winking at Angela Rayner tomorrow.
And then it got a lot worse, potentially terminally worse, as Pippa Crerar of the
Mirror told “
Simon McDonald - who had a glittering four-decade career in government - publishes bombshell letter to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner saying No 10’s claims about Chris Pincher aren’t true”.
Whoops! Once more, Adam Bienkov had the detail. “
Boris Johnson's spokesman said yesterday that there was no formal complaint against Chris Pincher upheld against him prior to the Prime Minister appointing him. The former head of the diplomatic service, has now written to the Standards Commissioner to confirm this is false”. And there was more.
“
So far we have been told the PM was: Not aware of ‘any allegations’ against Pincher - Not aware of any ‘specific allegations’ - Not aware of any ‘serious specific allegations’ - Not aware of any allegations that were substantiated … All of these claims now appear to be false”. He may not be too surprised by the news, knowing Bozo from his days as occasional Mayor of London.
And then it got even worse, as Matthew Harris of LBC observed “
a serving senior civil servant rings in to say our democracy is in danger due to lies coming from No.10 Press operation. Says he was felt a duty to ring in after watching Dominic Raab call into question Simon McDonald’s account in his letter”. The caller also called on Simon Case to resign.
Like Pincher, the Tories knew what Bozo was like before they made him leader. It was “
priced in”. Now his continued presence may price them out - of power. And the Tory party knows how to hang on to power by disposing of leaders who have outlived their usefulness. The end approaches.
The only question now is who will wield the knife.
Decisions, decisions.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
9 comments:
Day after day a succession of arsewipe sycophants trot out to defend the indefensible, often only a day or two after one of their colleagues has said exactly the opposite. They have no shame and take us for bigger even bigger fools than they take themselves fit. It’s so depressing.
Same old government by pr soundbite shorthand, aka lying bullshit.
After "Get Brexit Done" we now hear "Make Brexit Work"* from the Starmer Quisling and his gang. Spot the "difference".
Johnson's departure was always just a matter of time. Which is why I said (even immediately post GE 2019) a Quisling "Labour" government is entirely possible. We have been a de facto one party capitalist state for over four decades: there are only minor differences between parliamentary factions, nationalist nonsenses aside.
Johnson is a logical product of the sheer rottenness of it all. His replacement won't be so obviously corrupt.
*Whatever the fuck that means.
We may assume that whoever takes over from Johnson will be equally incompetent and will f-ck up in their turn.
Well, Javid and Sunak have resigned and the footage of today’s Cabinet meeting when they heard MacDonald's evidence showed even idiots like Dorries, Braverman and Grease-Smugg looking like they'd been hit over the head by a board-wielding goon.
(Does happy bounce)
Right now, there are some very posh 16-year-olds who have just finished their GCSEs, and who are thinking of going into politics. They are therefore making coffee and such like in the offices of Conservative MPs who are their relatives, or who went to their schools, or what have you. They are in that building tonight, and they are going to be there all night. Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger.
Would you believe Boris Johnson if he told you that he was lying? One by one, the Cabinet trooped in and told Margaret Thatcher that it was time to go. They respected her enough to do it to her face. There is no such respect for Johnson. Instead, they are sending letters and then tweeting them, presumably before the hard copies could possibly have arrived on Johnson's desk. They despise him this much.
In the midst of the cost of living crisis, we now have a Chancellor of the Exchequer who claimed parliamentary expenses to heat his stables. An emergency Budget of tax cuts would at best be useless to the 42 per cent of adults whose incomes did not reach the income tax threshold. No, not "before benefits". Those are taxable income. Two in five adults have gross incomes, from all sources, of less of than one thousand pounds per month. If that does not sound like the Britain that you know, then you need to get out more. You might start by visiting a key marginal constituency here along the Red Wall.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has accepted a fixed penalty notice, but has decided that he will resign only if Boris Johnson did. That was not what Starmer said before. Johnson has little with which to work at this week's Prime Minister Questions, but under parliamentary privilege, he does at least have this.
Spaffer will hold on desperately, in a display of undignified desperation and narcissistic entitlement that will rival even Mr. Trump's obscene antics.
The Tories are on the ropes...so Starmer cedes political ground to them. I fail to see the logic of this.
The truth is that Brexit can't work and that pandering to Murdoch won't do him any favours.
One Will Quince, who is apparently the “Minister for Children”, has just resigned too. And probably not because of the enormity of the task of keeping track of Bloody Stupid Johnson's offspring either.
Ah yes, Damian McBride.
Self confessed lying propagandist for red tories.
A semi-clone of practising gobshite McTernan.
“Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has accepted a fixed penalty notice”
[citation needed]
Because nine or a dozen reputable news sources have, in the last hour, reported that there are to be no fines for Angela Rayner, Sir Keeves or anyone else involved.
Post a Comment