Heroes: Disgraced, But Still in Denial 

 

‘Should’ve told the truth 

Should’ve realized you know what I’ll do 

You’re in suspension you’re a liar’ 

 

‘I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.’ 

 
The words of Johnson’s housemaster at Eton, Martin Hammond; they should have served as a warning. 

They didn’t. Johnson was allowed to orchestrate a series of lies that led to ‘Leave’ winning the Brexit referendum, possibly the single worst decision this country has taken since WW2. 

After the desperate in-fighting this column correctly predicted as ‘Leave’ tore the Tory party asunder, they collectively held their noses and elected the least suitable candidate, Boris Johnson, as leader and PM. 

As a result we suffered a harder Brexit that was ever voted for, leaving the country stricken politically, and economically for the foreseeable future. 

Democratic process was an anathema to him. Almost his first decision as PM was to prorogue parliament, and, in doing so, lying to the Queen. He followed this with his own ‘night of the long knives’ when he culled 21 Tory MPs who didn’t agree with him. 

Next week will reveal what the Tory MPs now think of Johnson. 

Former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries said of today’s evisceration of Johnson: ‘Any Conservative MP who would vote for this report is fundamentally not a Conservative and will be held to account by members and the public.’ 

This is simply the usual rubbish one expects from a fascist (remember, populists are really fascists who want to feel better about themselves), involving the wider electorate and refusing to accept democratic process. 
 

‘remember, populists are really fascists who want to feel better about themselves’

 
Following is a brief look at the verdict of the cross-party group that formed the Privileges Committee (‘the committee’). 

The committee found that he ‘closed his mind to the truth‘, and to having knowingly misled the committee itself, breached Commons rules by partially leaking its findings last Friday, and undermined the democratic processes of parliament. 

Initially Johnson would have faced a 20-day suspension from parliament, sufficient to trigger a recall petition that would have probably led to a byelection. However, after his scandalous attempts to intimidate the committee last Friday, the punishment was increased to 90-days. 

The committee recommended that he should not be given a pass allowing him access to parliament as an ex-MP, a traditional privilege. 

The report found that ‘He deliberately misled the house … on an issue of the greatest importance to the house and to the public, and did so repeatedly.’ It said his attempt to brand the committee a kangaroo court ‘amounts to an attack on our democratic institutions’. 

Johnson’s argument that he believed all the parties in Downing Street were legal was dealt with thus; ‘That belief … has no reasonable basis in the rules or on the facts. A reasonable person looking at the events and the rules would not have the belief that Johnson has professed.’ 

In summary the committee found that he: 
 

• Deliberately misleading the Commons 
• Deliberately misleading the privileges committee 
• Breaching confidence (by leaking part of the report in advance) 
• ‘Impugning’ the committee, and thus parliamentary processes 
• Complicity in a ‘campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee’. 

 
The committee found numerous other issues, including: 
 

• Failing to tell the Commons about his own knowledge of gatherings where rules or guidance was broken. 
• Purporting to correct the record, but instead continued to mislead, and also misleading the committee with continued denials. 
• Being ‘deliberately disingenuous when he tried to reinterpret his statements to the house to avoid their plain meaning‘, for example making ‘unsustainable interpretations‘ of Covid rules to justify gatherings. 

 
The fact that today he still refuses to accept the findings of the report, and to brand it as a witch-hunt, serves only to highlight his breathtaking conceit and arrogance.  

I admire loyalty, but there comes a time when it has to be questioned. The blind loyalty of people such as Nadine Dorris reminds me of Hitler’s underlings at the end of WW2. It was either loyalty to him, accept the consequences of their actions, or return to the mundane lives that their mediocrity merits. 

‘to brand it as a witch-hunt, serves only to highlight his breathtaking conceit and arrogance’

In an emergency great leaders step-up and lead by example. The basic requirement of Johnson during Covid was to abide by the rules that his own government had imposed. Clearly this didn’t register with Johnson, he saw himself as an exception, ‘a sociopathic narcissist.’ In his opinion of himself he is above precedent, rules or institution. 

This was true about Brexit too, it was best for him. He supported this by saying whatever came to mind, no matter how untrue it might have been. Then, after ‘leave’ triumphed, he pretended to be the one who could get Brexit done, another lie. What was worse, was that he had no idea what would work or do damage. Worst still, he didn’t care.  

The lies that led to Brexit, have caused the most damage of all his shenanigans. With his fall we should reexamine Brexit and our relationship with Europe. This time someone really needs to take back control. 

Across the Atlantic, Johnson’s US doppelganger, Donald Trump, suffers from the same fascist delusions. 

‘I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the history of our Country and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential election,’ he declared in one recent social media post, adding his trademark all-caps kicker: ‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN.’  

Firstly, Trump is factually incorrect; In 2016 Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, who had the largest popular vote margin of any losing presidential candidate in American history. 

Secondly, he believes that being popular puts him above the law. Sounds familiar? Yes, he and Johnson both believe that. In fascism, rouse the wrath of the people to intimidate democratic process and the rule of law. 
 

after reading the indictments against Trump, even former loyalists are wavering

 
However, after reading the indictments against Trump, even former loyalists are wavering. 

Former attorney general Bill Barr, said he was ‘shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly‘. Adding, ‘If even half of it is true, he’s toast.’ 

As with Johnson, Trump has nothing to cry over other than his own endless misdeeds. 

Returning to the UK, Johnson’s failed leadership and the Tory’s obsession with retaining power at all and any cost, leaves us stricken. Voters no longer share their obsessions with low-taxes, protests and immigration, today voters care about the pollution of their rivers and coasts, as was shown in many parts of the country in May’s local elections. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said that proposed laws to curtail peaceful protest were ‘incompatible‘ with the country’s international obligations. 

One of the failings of the Tory’s obsession with power is democratic stability; we now regularly change PM’s without elections. Labour are also guilty of this after Blair stepped down in favour of Gordon Brown. 

Economically we seem to be constantly flirting with recession, inflation remains stubbornly high and pay strikes are disrupt much pf our public services. Much of our failings are due to the fact that we cannot, or do not, take advantage of the people’s potential.  

Many of our economic institutions operate for the benefit of elites at the expense of the masses. As a result, the richest 50 families in the UK, have more wealth than the 33 million people found in the bottom half of the UK population. 
 

‘our economic institutions operate for the benefit of elites at the expense of the masses’

 
According to The Sunday Times Rich List, UK billionaires wealth now totals £683.86bn. 

In response, Dr George Dibb, head of the centre for economic justice at IPPR, said: ‘It’s more urgent than ever to address rising inequality in our economy: income from wealth should be taxed at the same rate as income from work, and we must ensure everyone benefits from a growing economy, not just a lucky few.’ 

A sentiment endorsed by over 200 millionaires who signed an open letter calling for global action on extreme wealth, during the Davos annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, 

The group ‘Cost of Extreme Wealth’, includes UK-based millionaires as well as US figures such as film star Mark Ruffalo and Disney heiress Abigail Disney. 

The group said in an open letter. ‘Tax the ultra rich and do it now. It’s simple, common-sense economics. It is an investment in our common good and a better future that we all deserve, and as millionaires we want to make that investment.’  

The Conservative government’s position on a wealth tax is clear – it isn’t needed.  
 

‘Conservative government’s position on a wealth tax is clear – it isn’t needed’

 
Just one more example that their time is gone. 

But, other countries do get it. 

Vienna, the capital consistently voted the best place to live, more than 60 percent of the city’s 1.8 million residents live in social housing. 

Finland has for decades provided every schoolchild with a warm, healthy lunch, a precondition for happy learning that the British state cannot manage.  

France’s government is building four gigafactories for electric vehicle batteries while the UK can’t manage one. 

Still we have taken back control; control of what? 
 

‘What else could I write? 

I don’t have the right 

What else should I be? 

All apologies’ 

 
 
Philip bids a not-very-fond farewell to Boris after he was dismembered by the Privileges Committee, and wonders if The Donald is heading the same way. What was he thinking?:

The Privilege Committee report on Johnson was far more damning than many, myself included, dared to hope for.

It should finally lift the blinkers of even the most bigoted Johnson supporter. Yet, I read that some are trying to make Monday’s vote on the report into an apocalyptic event, trying to pitch party members against the parliamentary party.

Where this goes, who can say. After the impact of the Brexit referendum on the Tory’s I am ready to believe anything. Perhaps, as I predicted all those years ago, the party will be irrevocably split.

Johnson, might yet end his career in the same way as Oswald Mosely and Enoch Powell a renegade with leading a bunch of renegade right-wingers.

Should common sense prevail Sunak should kick him and his supporters out of the party. They aren’t the type to forgive and forget.

In the US, Trump is no different, but more dangerous.

In truth, Johnson is the fault of the Tory’s and their continual lust for power. They have run the country into the ground, and are not totally out-of-touch with much of the electorate.

Inequality is a result of their broken and tired policies. They don’t get it, but some billionaires do.

Capitalism, in its current form, is broken, it no longer serves the people. As the Tsar and the wealthy in Russia found out, people can only be exploited so much…..

Musically, we start with the Sex Pistols “Liar”; could it have been anything else. We finish with an ironic flourish and Nirvana’s “All Apologies”, something that seems to be in short-supply. Enjoy!

@coldwarsteve

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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