The massive issue with our government is trust. The trust in Boris Johnson and his uninspiring crew has been systematically undermined and its credibility repeatedly brought into question as they over-promised and under delivered across a whole range of issues.
Glib words like “world class” or “world beating” fall from Johnson’s lips only to be followed by chaos and failed performance. And people continue to die in increasing numbers.
Johnson’s weakness, unable to deal with opposition, means he selected a greatly impoverished cabinet lacking in experience and competence. Independently minded Tory MPs were excluded from Parliament. His attempts to muzzle opposition newspapers, even the BBC, shows his thin skin and weakness. Max Hastings, his former boss at the Daily Telegraph, wrote “He has long been considered a bully, prone to make cheap threats”.
Hastings also noted “There is room to debate whether he is a scoundrel or merely a rogue, but not much about his moral bankruptcy, rooted in a contempt for truth.”
Johnson’s main concern seems to be how he can survive on £3000 a week, from his prime minister’s salary. Failure to be open and transparent about huge government contracts on track and trace opens the door to increasing speculation about government corruption, of contracts being awarded to Leave cronies of Dominic Cummings without competitive tendering.
Johnson hangs around with rich Russian oligarchs, refusing to investigate Russian interference in Britain, despite the murder of numerous Russian opposition figures, a refusal to investigate that seem to be based on Russian donations to his leadership campaign and the Tory Party.
Now Johnson scraps food standards, opening the door to steroid stuffed beef and chlorinated chicken at the behest of US interest groups, deliberately attacking both the British people and British farmers.
None of this was in the Tory election manifesto. It is being done by stealth. “Johnson would not recognise truth, if confronted by it in an identity parade”, says his former boss, of his former Brussels correspondent, notorious for his misleading EU reports.
According to some, trust in Angela Merkel, is why Germany has done much better with Covid 19, the German people trust her to tell them the truth. Very few people trust Johnson, particularly after he refused to sack Cummings for breaking lockdown.
Andrew Milroy
