#PartyGate: Of the conceited kakistocrat of 10 Downing Street

He is impervious to contrition

It has come as no surprise, at least not to me that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated that he has no intention of resigning after the submission of the #PartyGate report, in fact, after having escaped the necessity of The Queen demanding his resignation after he lied to her majesty on the illegal prorogation of 2019, it was obvious that he has no character, dignity, integrity, embarrassment, sense of responsibility, or shame that could lead to his relinquishing office except by the loss of an election. [BBC News: Sue Gray report: Drunken No 10 party culture in lockdown laid bare]

What is disturbing is the realisation that the United Kingdom is in the unconscionable grip of a kakistocracy never seen in the performance of government ever. A man who has had an undistinguished record of being unable to acquaint himself with the truth that he would lie with such ease and no pang of conscience, who is ready to abandon international treaties that he himself negotiated and signed because of the inconvenience that has exposed his double-dealing and perfidy is not on a journey to become a better man.

Here is one who does not believe he should be held accountable for anything; he constantly gets away with impunity even as his acolytes have joined in his way of doing things to preserve the perverse. Apparently, we met with Conservative MPs and said he was sorry, just like the boy who cried wolf and they believe him. Boris Johnson in his arrogance and conceit is incapable of contrition, but more fool them, as they know who he is and now choose to vouch for his honesty and sincerity.

An unprincipled lot

When friends suggested his brush with a possible COVID death might moderate his outlook and behaviour, I knew Boris Johnson had no redeeming quality that could help him reflect on infirmity or adversity to see a reform of his character, he is utterly rotten to the core. Sadly, his party has become the freemasonry of the unprincipled that would coalesce rather than rid themselves of this pox on our democracy.

If truth and justice cannot be the lodestar of our government and democracy, you can only wonder what these people would allow to happen, if they ever think there is any need to have any sense or purpose. The handful of Tory MPs that have any semblance of integrity are too few to move the needle.

Self-interest rather than national interest is the guidance for most of them and some would be let out like rabid dogs on our televisions to defend the indefensible perfidiously that Beelzebub the father of lies would find himself an amateur to their parselmouths.

Somehow, we are just left with no other choice than to watch and hope that they would exhaust themselves and go the way of oblivion with history judging them as the worst that has ever come to power, the bookend of Queen Elizabeth's amazing reign besmirched by an intolerable government.

The dizzying policy pirouettes of Freedom Day

COVID has no respect

When the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid revealed Saturday that he had contracted COVID-19, it would have been easy to be uncharitable and consider it careless and reckless that within a month of taking on the role, he had become a victim of a situation he was supposed to help prevent the public from suffering. Yet, one must wish him a quick and speedy recovery.

If anything, it indicates glaringly that despite the vaccinations, no one is immune from being touched by the virus, even if you are the Health Secretary and as the pandemic is the most critical issue in our politics, it would hit the centre of government with the risk of crippling it.

Rules are for fools

As he had met the Prime Minister and the Chancellor very recently, the exorbitant Test and Trace app had pinged Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak respectively to self-isolate, they first indicated on Sunday that rather than self-isolate, they will participate in the pilot ‘workplace testing’ release programme that involved daily Coronavirus testing allowing them to remain at work, totally contrary to what they have required of the populace who were under severe risk of expensive and custodian sanctions if they breached quarantine rules.

In response to recriminations and protests, they soon reversed their decision, attempting to play it as being considerate of following the rules everyone else has been compelled to follow. Essentially, the government cannot admit they have been wrong even if it appears everything they do is as if done on a dare to see if they can get away with it.

Rudderless manoeuvring

The prompt U-turn would put a pirouetting ballerina into a dizzy spell, but nothing is beyond the incredulity of the Boris gang, they would create and foster embarrassment where it seems impossible, seize defeat from the jaws of victory like they lost the momentous advantage of the vaccination programme to return to infection levels last seen in January.

The questions the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi could not answer this morning included where the Prime Minister was when he was pinged by the app before he decided to self-isolate at Checkers and how many other people in the corridors of power had taken advantage of the pilot scheme which had been in the system since around January. I do not think any of the vaccines had that stretch of testing and pilots.

Beware of these gangsters

If it were a pilot, you also had to ask when it would be rolled out to the wider public because it had become obvious that pilot was a euphemism of inducing one rule for them apart from the rules, we were supposed to obey.

In any case, on our supposed Freedom Day, the muddled message of masks, self-isolation, social distancing, travel restrictions and much else leaves us celebrating the height of confusion with the prospect of more pandemic carnage before things get better, if they ever do at the cack-handed ineptitude of this Boris gang.

The Cummings and goings of the transience of status

History is a mocker of man

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marz

Dominic Cummings took a first in history at the University of Oxford, had he taken a spare module that took him back a few centuries, he might have seen today coming. It is Friday the Thirteenth, have you no sense of paraskevidekatriaphobia?

Like Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell before him in the court of Henry VIII became powerful and prominent figures of the court that they even had histories written of them, their meteoric rise to power presaged a catastrophic fall from grace.

Purposefully absentminded

As Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, it was only yesterday as internal battles raged between advisers in Downing Street that we were informed that he will be gone by Christmas. Whilst to date 51,304 have lost their lives to the Coronavirus pandemic, the court of Boris the Jape was busy playing musical chairs. [BBC News: Dominic Cummings: PM's top adviser leaves No 10 to 'clear the air']

However, I take many lessons from this departure of Dominic Cummings, he was not a particularly likeable character, what he had in the ability to win political campaigns was matched to his lack of charisma.

That the government was willing to expend all political capital and goodwill on this man at the expense of keeping faith with the people during the pandemic lockdown in May, showed how little they care, the consequence has been an unnecessarily inordinately large loss of lives.

Power is transient, O man

The speed at which he was defenestrated simply shows that you should never think the knives when properly drawn are not sharp enough to be plunged into your back with great efficacy and efficiency. In the scheme of things, your back is butter to the knives when faith has been lost in your counsel.

It is the curse of Ahithophel, the counselor whose advice King David in the bible ignored. I guess the proverbial setting his house in order was his walking out of Downing Street having cleared his desk in a public show of ignominy. [BibleHub: II Samuel 17:23]

It would be easy to mock his downfall, but the most important lesson of all is, in power and in politics, if you do not occupy the office by right, you are soon expendable. I wonder, who could have thought the fall of Cummings would rival the fall of Lucifer, just 48 hours ago? Power is transient, use it wisely, with great consideration, a sense of responsibility, and most of all humility.

Jabbing a finger at the idiots of Downing Street

Any wonder he won?

When Boris Johnson won the general election in December 2019 on the promise codified in the “Get Brexit Done”, he must have thought he had won the lottery along with the immunity that gives power the impunity to do anything with an 80-seat majority.

With much regret, we grudgingly congratulated him and wished him well as we licked our wounds for the second time of voting for the sadly unelectable Jeremy Corbyn.

We broke for Christmas and ushered in the New Year then left the EU for a transition period on the 31^st of January, just as a menace brewing in China leading to radical measures was growing global tentacles. An epidemic evolving into a global pandemic was about to unleash itself on mankind, but Boris Johnson could not be bothered.

As an island nation bewitched by the populist sweet-talk of taking back control of our laws, our sovereignty and our borders, you began to realise it was all empty talk because none of that was done as the coronavirus cut a swathe through northern Italy and we saw the restrictions being deployed in China and South Korea, but scratch all that.

As if life really mattered

The UK now stands 5^th with 46,853 reported deaths from COVID-19 for the simple reason that in acquiring power the government of Boris Johnson seemed to have forgotten that it comes with great responsibility, the responsibility for lives. I believe that was his mind when on the 12^th of March, he said to the nation, “I must level with you, level with the British public, more families, and many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.” [Source: COVID19LIVE.Info]

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

Whether he is ready to admit it or not, the government has still not found the way to grapple with this pandemic, as they were advised on the 21^st of September to put the whole nation in lockdown but he has prevaricated and delayed with hubristic inertia, indecisiveness, and absence of resolve that we are now to go into a 4-week lockdown that does not portend an end to the crisis.

Failing on all counts

This pandemic thrives on crowds, close contact, and closed spaces, to tackle it, we need not just capacity for testing, but a prompt turnover of the testing results that feeds back into a tracking and tracing system, none of which are working despite the billions of pounds shovelled off to friends of the powerful.

We are at this point because despite all that is obvious around the world and in the territories of our neighbours, as Sir Keir Starmer with forceful conviction, “They failed to learn. They failed to listen. And they failed to lead. The result is tragic – but all too predictable.” [The London Economic: Sunak’s ‘name is all over’ delaying lockdown claims Starmer saying ‘result is tragic’]

They have consistently failed to learn time and time again, as populists, they will only listen to convenience and have to be railroaded by circumstances to take tough decisions late, much like shutting the stable door after the horses have bolted and rather than lead, they have had to follow disaster, defeat, death, when they should have prevented it.

If only leadership were just about Brexit and populist postulations, however, it cannot always be an easy ride, for when it is called upon by situation or circumstance, those in power must have the capacity and the ability to meet the challenge, or lives will be lost. We have not had this kind of loss of British lives, not since we were in WWII. Ineptitude has been compounded with unbelievable incompetence never seen in Whitehall or Downing Street, this is going to the record books.

Blog - Opinion: Of our PM, cometh the hour, cometh no man

Can anything rid us of the grip of this unconscionable kakistocracy? I’m afraid, this blog offers nothing more than a review of Boris Johnson’s unimaginative, talentless, gormless, ill-fitting cabinet of discarded woodwork. We’ll do some thinking elsewhere.

 

 

Who is still listening to Boris Johnson?

I am shielding at home

It may surprise some that with the easing of the lockdown restrictions in England, I have of my own volition gone into self-imposed shielding. Besides attending church on Sunday in a properly socially distanced seating arrangement, I was out in our neighbourly courtyard for half a glass of wine the same evening and since then sequestered at home.

Obviously, I met a stranger, the Uber driver who brought over my catering order after a seemingly histrionic falling out with the Nigerian catering whose impeccable African timing was as infuriating as it left me seething, that I told her, we would do no more business together if she could not sort her customer service out. She might have been saved by the tastiness of the food also attested to by my Irish friend and the friend who recommended her.

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It’s still dangerous out there

My Irish friend paid a visit to partake of the bountiful largesse that I feared I might not have enough space to put away. Even that visit left me partly terrified as he has been socially active in parks and at home, that my main extended contact with anyone has been him at my home. I cannot say I have been wise about this situation.

The more we learnt about the Coronavirus, the more one is certain that you don’t want it and the vaunted immune response after you survive it is no guarantee of the return to status quo ante of health or wellbeing. [GAVI: The Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19]

Are you still listening?

Then after the parliamentary committee appearance of the Chief Scientific Officer, Sir Patrick Vallance yesterday with the clear indication that the government was following anything but the science, wisdom and knowledge are a defence in these uncertain times where governmental hubris far exceeds the ability to appreciate how COVID-19 unnecessarily and avoidably cut a swathe through our populations. A lockdown a week earlier could have saved a considerable number of lives. [City A.M.: Sir Patrick Vallance: UK coronavirus response has not achieved a good outcome]

Instead, at the Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson was in the full loss of his humanity, empathy, compassion, and awareness, with a tasteless joke on Calvin Klein briefs in what could only have been peak sociopathy. Proving the point, I have never deviated from that his life-threatening encounter with the Coronavirus has done nothing to mollify character or personality. He never had the capacity, a change of heart would hardly come with a heart or full organ transplant too. [Independent: Boris Johnson accused of lacking compassion for coronavirus victims after making 'Calvin Klein briefs' joke]

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

Blog - #Coronavirus: Can commendable competence emerge from astonishing incompetence in the UK?

My lion games are tame

Today, he announced an extended timetable of easing lockdown restrictions and I have not bothered to check on the detail. I last watched television news over a month ago. Twitter and radio seep the news into my purview. My most pertinent question is, “Who in the UK is still listening to Boris Johnson for pandemic guidance or advice?” [BBC News: Coronavirus: Boris Johnson statement fact-checked]

You are a braver person than when it crossed my mind that I could tickle the tonsils of a wild lion with my head and come to no harm. Those scratching their itching noses with the gaping fangs of a recently killed black mamba are fidget spinning and in no danger. I scoff.

Opinion: Now they stew in their ineptitude

I still cannot forgive it

I was chatting to a friend in Nigeria when it was brought to my notice that Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister had tested positive for the COVID-19 Coronavirus. The unrefined human in me if given vent might have thought it was just desserts, for this is a man that subscribed to the atrocious ‘herd immunity’ scheme that would have allowed the Coronavirus to run through the population without the shield of a vaccine in a Social Darwinism experiment that defied logic.

Blog - #Coronavirus: A collared UK Government dumps satire

Yet, I hope I have more of the qualities of the best of our humanity in me to commiserate and sympathise, to walk a hard-long mile in the shoes of another to wish him a speedy recovery. With that, one would hope that the hubristic effrontery that informed the blasé view that the public should take it on the chin will be tempered with humility and a realisation that we cannot take life for granted and that the Coronavirus is no respecter of persons.

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

Only yesterday, we learnt that Prince Charles, the heir-apparent had tested positive too with mild symptoms, I probably felt more concerned for him than for our bombastic Prime Minister. Also, we found out that the Secretary of State for the Department of Health and the Chief Medical Officer were showing mild symptoms.

Stand up for frontline staff

To them too, I hope they recover as well as come out better men. In all, we must understand what is playing out before our eyes. We had the time and scope to act yet found ourselves at the point where frontline NHS staff are exposed to risk without adequate protection despite assurances the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) was stockpiled and being distributed. In my view, that wasn’t enough, the staff should be fully donned in PPE garb at the point of contact with those suspected of infection.

They have been meeting these patients for weeks, the urgency to supply the demand is present and immediate. The same goes for testing the staff so they are not taken out of service in self-isolation when needed the most.

The issue of ventilators is another where the UK was invited to the EU procurement scheme, but it ideological recalcitrance lost us that opportunity that the contract for manufacturing ventilators landed in the hands of a caterpillar maker and a vacuum cleaner manufacturer, both of them have no expertise in that field, whilst British companies with the know-how were ignored.

Accountability and hope

Even in these pressing times, the government has not been weaned off the penchant of jobs for the boys. I would hope an inquiry into the government’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic would be independent, far-reaching and unrelenting. There must be culpability for failings, irresponsibility, and ineptitude. With high office comes such demanding responsibility and accountability. For once, I hope Mr. Boris Johnson feels the weight of office with the truth that the buck does stop with him.

I don’t know where in the spectrum of the curve of managing pandemics we are in; it is likely to be longer than planned for. I wonder what the aftermath portends for travel and the requirements to be satisfied before embarking on a journey. I am however hoping for a better world beyond this.

Coronavirus streets in Manchester

Politicians polluting prospects

These Coronavirus pandemic times appear to invade every aspect of life and quite inconveniently for all. That it is fronted more by politicians that need to manage the message rather than experts who deal with facts does not make it any easier.

For instance, without any supporting data, Boris Johnson was suggesting this whole matter would be over in 12 weeks. I guess in the absence of any good news you throw something out there and leave everyone who really heard you scratching their heads in incredulity.

It does not engender confidence, it is as reckless as it is irresponsible, it is no time for soundbites from an inveterate japester. We want to send the virus packing, but it would take more than standing at a rostrum japing and genuflecting. [The Guardian]

Shut up, Donald

Over across the pond, Donald Trump stepped up to suggest Hydroxychloroquine was the panacea to the Coronavirus and the drugs was ready to be ramped up for prescriptive use. The FDA had not approved the drug as it was still being tested and was still being accessed for viability.

Various drug regimens are being deployed to this disease, many still unproven and inconclusive to determine what works and Donald Trump simply jumped the gun with the risk of forcing the system in a direction that could prove completely impulsive. [Daily Beast]

Those of us who used quinine compound drugs for the treatment of malaria in childhood experienced maddening side effects of severe itching of the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. No one who experienced it drew any comfort from that knowledge especially when antihistamines did not reduce the itching.

Since sliced bread disappeared

I stepped out earlier to get some shopping, as the last time I was out, there was no sliced bread on the shelves, they are literally run out of eggs and all the toilet rolls were invisible. I am still at a loss as to why toilet rolls matter so much for the Coronavirus pandemic, I have not noticed acutely incessant diarrhoea as one of the major symptoms of contracting the virus. Then I don’t use hand sanitiser, I just use soap and water.

Today, at noon, sliced bread, toilet rolls and pasta were missing from the shelves, though I have enough food at home, it is worrisome that panic buying belies the lack of useful assurances, prevarication, and indecision from the government. The messages are mixed when pubs, restaurants and public places should be closed forthwith, and the government put in ameliorating steps to support businesses through these uncertain times.

Coronavirus streets

Leaving my local Sainsbury’s, I walked down to the low-budget Spar to see if I could get a loaf of sliced bread when I noticed to my left that the Grade II listed Refuge Assurance building that became the Palace Hotel and changed to The Principal Manchester, three years ago has now become the Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel. I have not noticed a building change names that many times in such a short while. [LiveAndLetsFly]

Obviously, there is some interest in the historic building within the hospitality industry and I suppose each new offer has been impossible to refuse. I am not holding my breath; I give it another couple of years, and it might be called the Changeling Hotel. [Historic England]

Further on, Starbucks was open but without seats and tables, having transitioned to a Grab-and-Go coffee shop. It looked quite eerie from outside. There were people on the streets, masks on many apparently from the Asian subcontinent, though long before this pandemic, many did plod our streets with masks. I did get my loaf of sliced bread from Spar and I made my way home. [Business Insider]

Opinion: Of our PM, cometh the hour, cometh no man

A good time to lead

I mused openly on Twitter about what a time it must be to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the First Lord of the Treasury. To sit in office as the leader of the 6^th largest economy in the world whose waning global influence is deftly characterised by the will of the people in Brexit ensconced in a nostalgic past that never existed.

Boris Johnson won a landslide election on the mantra of ‘Get Brexit Done’ then promulgated laws to really get it done within a timeframe that would never shift at the pain of illegality. We left the EU for a transitional period until the end of the year on January the 31^st.

Now, all that Boris and his team had to do was wait out the rest of the year distracting us with either a Canada+ deal or and Australian deal, which in effect is a ‘no deal’ scenario, because Australia has no deal with the EU.

A joke too far

Boris Johnson wanted to be Prime Minister so bad, he gambled on a lot of things, a fantasist with no acquaintance to the truth through his journalistic career, his penchant for abuse passed off as inconsequential banter is well-documented that it needs no repeating here. It is probably not delusional to think that having once been the Mayor of London, higher office beckoned.

Theresa May, whose record as Prime Minister, history might be less forgiving for, plucked him out of looming obscurity and made him Foreign Secretary, it was a joke that went too far, but it paved the way to the resurrection of a leadership dilettante whose charisma is a mountain to the molehill of his scruples or principles.

His cup to drink from

If for a moment, he as the Lord before his Passion did have a Garden of Gethsemane moment, a clear recognition of what the responsibility of the Prime Minister held beyond winging it as a circus clown with bombast, bluster and buffoonery, he might have prayed or rather refused to drink of the cup. The intoxicating brew of Brexit became a mission of drunken desire which as it reached ferment found the sweetening of spoonsful of the Coronavirus.

Now, duty calls to rise to the occasion, like he (Jesus) who went to the cross knowing the suffering it entailed or his hero, Winston Churchill, who with honest oratory painted the big picture with all its gloom whilst leading a nation through the hardship of World War II to victory over Nazism, I fear, with the Coronavirus pandemic, the hour has come, but the man is absent.

If there be any redeeming feature of Boris Johnson apart from his ability to make babies, it would be a transfiguration before our eyes, I would however not expect any of the great Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom to waste their eternal repose coming up for a chat. He is Prime Minister, and I wish him well if hubris doesn’t get the better of him first.

But I can better let my sympathies be with those in harm’s way, our NHS legion of people of inestimable value, for whom necessary protection is still stockpiled somewhere rather than on them, wearing the kit to keep them safe.

#GeneralElection2019 Resist The Third Martini

Principle for the people

Mr Jeremy Corbyn is a man of principle, it took a second failed general election attempt to prove conclusively that he is not a man of the people.

As I read on Twitter yesterday when the exit polls suggested Boris Johnson had successfully gambled and won the general election as the Labour Party was about to be handed its most catastrophic defeat in a century, I could not help but agree that “The problem with the government of the people, by the people, for the people, is the people.”

Yet, to blame the electorate for an electoral loss is to entirely miss the point of elections. Democracy and winning elections are the mastery of the art of persuasion. We have to admit, in spite of and despite the prevailing circumstances, Jeremy Corbyn has been unable to persuade the people of your agenda, no matter how noble, you have not successfully won their hearts, their minds and their votes to your side.

He didn’t help himself either

Now, I do understand that there is a perspective that the whole establishment and the mainstream media had demonised Jeremy Corbyn complete, and he for himself probably with his history and associations did not help matters that much. I for one have voted for the Labour Party since 1992 in all general elections including this, whilst I have given my vote recently to the Liberal Democrats in the local and European elections for the simple fact that the Labour Party had departed from the ground where general elections can be won.

Tony Blair won three general elections comfortably, the last he won even after the taint of the Iraq War had taken hold. Whether Tony Blair is liked or not, you cannot ignore his electoral successes and anyone who wants to win elections with the Labour Party will at the very least study the strategy and methods by which he was able to appeal and win the confidence of the people to govern.

Opposition or government

At this juncture, the Labour Party needs to decide if it wants to be a party of government, 9 years in opposition is a long time and if Boris Johnson runs his full term, the Labour Party will languish in opposition for 14 years.

You cannot do policy from the opposition and it is sad that the Labour Party hierarchy ignored the prescient warning of Tony Blair when for the first time, the opposition parties could control the agenda in parliament having had Boris Johnson on the ropes. They ignored him and now, the Labour Party has become a rump of itself with Jo Swinson being sent on her way.

I voted Labour in the election, not for the sake of Jeremy Corbyn but by recognising my constituency MP, Lucy Powell does a good enough job and that she should not be punished for the unfortunate situation of her party leader. All politics is local, at least that is what I see.

No sweet scent of Jeremy

Yet, I cannot deny that there were so many insurmountable misgivings about Jeremy Corbyn with many of my immediate interactions on social media and the reported issues on the doorstep. People just could not see Jeremy Corbyn being Prime Minister. That I was able to hold my nose and see more of the man, that was not how many others felt, odium and opprobrium seemed to dog him to the point that it overwhelmed the ability to assess him objectively.

Having lost two general elections, there is no doubt in my mind that Jeremy Corbyn is first responsible for the losses along with his team and the cult of Momentum which I would hope falls into the black hole of ignominy and history as Mr Corbyn departs the centre stage. There must be a collective responsibility of the shadow cabinet for this disaster.

You need to win elections to initiate and implement policy, else, your ideas remain on paper and are mere words of no import. The idealism that has driven the Corbyn agenda will not win elections, we need more pragmatism that broadens the church of the Labour Party to include the full spectrum of people and ideas that must embrace the Blairites and the Corbynites in common purpose for the United Kingdom.

The five stages of defeat processing

I appreciate that many of the ardent supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are loss in the first stage of the Kübler-Ross model of the Five Stages of Grief (Defeat), they are in Denial of the truth that Jeremy Corbyn bears the principal responsibility for the loss of the 2019 General Election. Some are expressing Anger at the media and even the electorate, that is misguided.

I doubt there is anything to Bargain for, the time for that passed when between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, they could have a coalesced to keep the Tories out. It is the great regret of missed opportunities for which I hold both Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson responsible.

Then, I hope they will not spend too much time in Depression before they reach the point of Acceptance that Jeremy Corbyn is a failure and he has to go sooner rather than later, that the Labour Party needs a new direction with the fundamental principle that they must prepare for government with a leader to whom the people can relate and a message that can persuade the people of the Labour Party is the better choice.

Missing the prize

As for where we are, the prize is with Boris Johnson and I fear with the infighting, the cult of Momentum, the anti-Semitic charge, and the exodus of Labour Party moderates and centrists, the party of the working people took their eyes off the prize and gave victory to Boris Johnson. What could have been, but we are where we are now.

The world will not end, maybe Brexit will really happen, but Mr Johnson has enough room to manoeuvre without being held hostage by a faction of his party. Heck! We have had three years of Donald Trump and not a world war for each year he has been in office. I fear, that Donald Trump might well win a second term if the Democrats do not refine their socialist tendencies.

Resist the third martini

I do not have a palate for strong alcohol, a Martini will probably kill me, if I attempted a shot and dared a second, but by all means, I must resist the third Martini, just as Jeremy Corbyn should not have a third shot at leadership or the general election and the Labour Party as it now will fail at a third visit to the people, if it does not radically reform and return to winning ways.

We’ll be fine, everything has a shelf life and the era of Boris Johnson will pass. Lastly, I congratulate Boris Johnson on his victory, and I hope he sees the great calling of office to lead and be a successful Prime Minister. Our prayers follow with great expectations. Our hope remains strong for a bright future.

Courtesy of the William Kentridge exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town.

The UK: You haven't arrived just because you now vote Tory

It’s a Parliament not a Presidency

Sometimes, we in The UK want to pretend we have a presidency when in fact we have a parliamentary democracy.

You cannot vote for a party leader except if you are a paid-up member of that party, then, a party leader that can only take office by being a member of parliament.

The Green Party, for instance, has two party leaders but only one is in parliament.

I hear people say they can't vote for Jeremy Corbyn and many of us can't because we are not members of the Labour Party and we are not constituents of Islington North.

Yes, he heads the Labour Party, but if his constituents vote him out of parliament, he is head in name only, he cannot become the Prime Minister because he needs to command the confidence of the parliament.

I am voting for my MP

There was an aberration at the advent of WWII, Winston Churchill was not the leader of the Conservative Party, but with war looming ahead, he commanded cross-party support to form a coalition and leadership was ceded to him.

My constituency MP, Lucy Powell, belongs to the Labour Party, she does a good job, I see no reason to kick her out. I believe Jeremy Corbyn also does a good job for his constituents, that’s why they have kept him as their MP since 1983. Now, there are many things I do not agree with concerning Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership that has necessitated my voting for other parties in the local and European elections.

Yes, he is a pacifist to a fault, he has made friends with a broader spectrum of people I would find utterly reprehensible, yet, I return to Winston Churchill when he said, “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.” I do not eulogise Winston Churchill nor do I excuse Jeremy Corbyn, Churchill did what he had to do when he saw the danger of Nazism, it meant war, but once the war ended, he was one of the greatest advocates for peace in Europe, despite his many other failings.

Tough when it is demanded

Gosh! There was a time Jerry Adams and Martin McGuinness could not be heard on our airwaves because of their links to the IRA, then with much talk, we got the Good Friday Agreement, with that even Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness became best pals in the Northern Ireland government.

I believe Jeremy Corbyn would do what is necessary to keep the UK safe if it means war, but he definitely will not be banging the drums of wars at the first sound of a bang. We probably need more level heads in a world of Putin, Trump and Kim Jung-un.

The issue of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party probably should have been dealt with better, but I do not believe Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite, more has been done and wrought by the schism of Brexit to endanger all minorities in this country, be you European, Muslim, Black, Gay, or even dare I say reasonable. The demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn has been complete whilst the lies of Boris Johnson goes unchecked.

No shame in Boris

This is a person who lied to the Queen to prorogue parliament, who when it came to it did not die in the ditch when Brexit did not happen on the 31^st of October, yet, he gets away with more and more offence and lies without scrutiny or sanction. This inveterate buffoon has nothing to offer this country, but we live in the times when you win regardless of whether you play fair or not.

Tory grandees, former Prime Ministers have risen to say one clear fact, there is no upside to Brexit, it is quite likely if a referendum were held in 1939, people could have been persuaded to go for appeasement and avoid the suffering of war because we have no skin in Europe. It was great leadership that gave us the courage to face war and defeat fascism.

There are no sunlit uplands after Brexit, we are not positioned to achieve anything greater as a minor outpost to the largest trading bloc in the world. We are not transitioning from the British Empire to a Commonwealth of Nations, there are no new lands of opportunity to be conquered. This is where we need leadership and conviction, indeed the people voted for Brexit, it is for their leaders to state the clear facts that it was a bad choice for innumerable reasons. That is what leadership is about.

The Tories are the problem

Boris Johnson took a two-faced approach to Brexit, he wrote two articles, one for and one against as if he was in some Oxford Union debating society, then chose to go for Brexit, just for his own advantage. We have been on this since June 2016, we are on our third Prime Minister and all this came about because of the Conservative Party, the party that gave us austerity and has been in power for 9 years pretending they now have new ideas for our future.

There is no social climbing nous earned from being able to say you now vote for the Tory Party when in reality it is not in your interest or the national interest. These are carpetbaggers and snake-oil salesmen. I would rather put my lot with Jeremy Corbyn than Boris Johnson, but as I said before, I can only vote for my own representative in my own constituency, that is Lucy Powell.

Obviously, I would have preferred a better choice to Corbyn or Johnson, say, Rory Stewart or Yvette Cooper, but we don’t have that luxury. I know Jeremy Corbyn has never been anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic, lack in empathy or full of lies, that cannot be said of the apparently well-liked Boris Johnson, he published his views and even under duress been unable to honestly apologise for them.

Beware what you believe

I return to a post I made on Facebook yesterday when a presumed ex-Labour activist appeared to have some friends in thrall helping their confirmation bias. “Like honestly, we can believe whatever we choose to believe, even mine the Internet to find everything to confirm our biases, because there is enough to even convince anyone that if they jump out of the window at the top of a skyscraper, they'll float down and land like a feather.

However, there comes a time where in the cold light of day you have to ask, am I being taken for a ride as I nod like the Churchill dog to everything I am hearing?

Maybe it is time to step away from all this and just consider what is best for you and your community.

No one is going to be persuaded much differently after the stuff this electoral season has produced.”

It is your vote, use it right!

Boris Johnson: I do not believe this Moses can part the #Brexit Red Sea

The man – Boris Johnson

By the force of sheer ambition and ingrained public-school entitlement, Boris Johnson is on the cusp of becoming the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He must be congratulated for this achievement, but it is at an inauspicious time.

Boris Johnson has both a record and form, his history is littered with gaffes and buffoonery, the tack of playing the court jester whilst executing the dastardly, he does not have the best references from many of those he worked for, but we are where we are now.

I was distressed but not full of despair when it was announced that he had been elected the leader of the Tory Party, the position was his to lose, for he does offer some sort of star power and to those easily distracted, you could be fooled for how Machiavellian he could be.

We need more than hope

Listening to his victory speech yesterday, I could notice no hint of sincerity in what he said apart from fulfilling the righteousness of seemingly saying the right things. We are as a country and conglomerate of nations facing crossroads of what future is ahead of us, we all, knowing how this country has stagnated since the Brexit vote of June 2016.

We all need a dose of optimism, but it cannot be realised by ignoring the stark realities this all portends. I would be the first to tell you that when I finally accepted I had cancer, just under 10 years ago, I knew I would survive it, but I still had to face the reality ahead of me, I didn’t even know that treatment I would get would work.

It was 5 gruelling months of chemotherapy, 4 types of pain medication, enough to quieten the pain, yet with that little bit of pain that proved I was still alive. Optimism and hope alone was not enough, as my consultant said to me if I did not respond well to the treatment, I had just 5 weeks to live.

What kind of Moses is he?

For all the optimism and hope that Boris Johnson suggests we need to get Brexit realised, there are some tough obstacles ahead about negotiating deals and assuring a future for this country and its people. We cannot just proceed on jingoism, bluster, rhetoric and gallons of intoxicating hope towards the sunlit uplands that are figments of an inebriated and overactive vivid imagination, there are jobs at risk, lives in the balance, futures in turmoil and other unintended consequences.

Leadership in the case of Brexit would be like us being brought like the Israelites of old to The Red Sea, the question is if indeed, the one who has brought thus far is the Moses with the rod to part the Red Sea or a charlatan about to drown the nation having convinced us we can swim like dolphins to the other side.

“The UK is at its most combustible. And now it’s led by a man who plays with matches.” Aditya Chakrabortty in the Guardian today. [Guardian]

We will continue to oppose Brexit

I earnestly believe Brexit is not the right path for the UK at this time. Nations use the heft of bloc, trading, political, military and economic to exact deals and this has been the case for decades already. A good example is us calling on Europe to help police the Gulf shipping when the US apparently refused to help us out. Ireland has the heft of the EU-27 behind it and so commands much more clout in the EU negotiations than the UK can alone.

I will put my support behind parties that support revoking Article 50, we would not be a silent minority in terms of where our nation is going. We belong here and we patriotic, and if patriotism needs to be redefined, it is the love of the fatherland, it does not automatically include the love of the government, their agenda or policies, we all need to be persuaded and convinced and if we are not, we are no less citizens and have no less a say in how we are governed.

In the end, I can only wish Boris Johnson a successful premiership, he will be opposed for as long as we can muster the support to do so if we believe he is taking us for a ride. There is a time to know when a course leads to perdition and someone should take that decision to turn back from ruin.