With the UK set to have the highest death rate in Europe – currently we have the third highest death rate in the world – any sane, dispassionate, thinking person would presume that whichever Government presided over such a disaster would be getting hammered by the electorate. But you would be wrong. Welcome to the UK.
In terms of the polls, at the end of January, Reckless Boris had a net approval rating of– 1 per cent. By April 13, with the country reeling, the PM’s ratings had increased by 41 per cent! This paragraph is worth re-reading.
Additionally, during this same period of time, the proportion of people likely to consider voting Tory at the next general election rose from 41 to 45 per cent.
Now let’s take a fair look at what the Government has done well and what it hasn’t.
What has gone well
- Some of the economic measures, notably furlough, VAT payment cessations, and business rates rebates, which have secured, as much as they could, the lifeblood of capitalism: confidence.
- Some of the public health broadcasts have been fine.
- The NHS hasn’t collapsed.
- The nationalisation of the railways.
What has gone badly wrong
- Thousands of unnecessary deaths.
- PPE shortages.
- First and second versions of the CBIL scheme were disastrous.
- The PM shook hands with Covid patients on 3 March, whilst other countries were locked down.
- Cheltenham Festival and other events were allowed to continue.
- Very limited testing.
- Under-funding of the NHS for a decade.
- Social care on its knees.
- Initially, the bonkers idea of herd immunity.
With our impressive National Health Service, the additional weeks for preparation, our island advantage and as the 6th richest country, our death rates are simply staggering. Lest we forget that Reckless Boris missed five COBRA meetings. Lest we forget that Captain Tom felt compelled to raise money for NHS charities, so starved of funding the NHS has been. Lest we forget that Reckless Boris succeeded in his mad mission to catch Covid, when his umpteenth partner was heavily pregnant with his umpteenth child. With all that, surely the public must be dismayed with his handling, but no.
What can explain such defective thinking by so many?
Though a lobotomy would be needed to think in such a flawed way, perhaps the electorate who voted for Reckless Boris in December knew that they had elected a charlatan, but he was their charlatan. They knew that he didn’t know all his children, knew that he had been sacked multiple times for bending the truth, but he was better than “terrorist-sympathiser” Corbyn. Confirmation bias as much to answer for.
But why are there new converts to cause Johnson, given the mounting evidence that his actions and omissions will have killed their loved ones? To hazard a guess, the fear of Covid is so awful, so all-consuming, that to add to the woe the realisation that we couldn’t have a worse leader at such a crucial time would make the Covid stupor even more unbearable. So, don’t think about it. Presume faith in Dear Leader. Suspend intellect.
And we shouldn’t forget Reckless Boris’ gift for politicking. Britain’s identity is wrapped up in our obsession with World War Two. Once Reckless Boris took Covid seriously, he whipped the country into war mode, with him playing Churchill. It’s heresy to question Churchill’s decisions, though there were many hair-brained Churchillian calamities. Brainwashing of millions now complete. But Boris is no Churchill, he’s like a First World War general, sending his men over the top.
