BJ's Advent Calendar of chaos

So now we know that there is indeed a line in the proverbial sand which Boris Johnson must not cross as it will provoke Conservative back benchers into open revolt. At least, now when we say that Conservative MPs are revolting, the Tories will be forced to agree with us even though certain Conservative politicians have been revolting ever since they first slimed their way into public life, Steve Baker springs to mind, for no particular reason.

The revolting Conservatives tried to dress up their revolt as a matter of great principle. But what has finally got their goat about the serial liar and entitled man-child that is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, isn’t all his lies and deceit. Johnson’s willingness to treat the truth as a minor trifle which can easily be ignored when it proves inconvenient for him and the Conservative party was one of the reasons that they elected him as leader. they are all equally culpable in his lies so it’s not like they’re going to find some scruples about them any time soon.

They are not even suddenly upset about the close to 150,000 deaths from Covid that the UK has endured, many of which could have been avoided had Johnson done his job and taken prompt and decisive action in the early phases of the pandemic. Neither have the revolting Tories been driven to action through disgust at the constant sleaze and corruption which envelops the Johnson regime, they too are complicit in all that.

The Commons chamber this week was filled with the self righteous pontificating by revolting Tories about civil liberties and freedoms. But it's not that they are appalled by the open assault on human rights which this government is embarking on. Most of them support stripping human rights from refugees and migrants, and they are equally keen to see the back of protections for our employment rights. All the better to assist in the enrichment of that small minority which can offer lucrative side gigs to present or former Conservative MPs.

Neither do they care about the way in which Johnson is neutering the few checks and balances which a British constitution - that isn’t worth the paper it’s not written on - places on the absolute power of the occupant of Downing Street as Johnson’s moves to place himself and his cronies above the law and beyond meaningful scrutiny or accountability while adopting voter suppression measures that target demographic groups which tend not to vote Tory. Trumpism anyone? All the better to entrench Conservative rule, no matter that these anti democratic measures represent a dangerous step towards authoritarianism. In this, as in everything else, the revolting Tories are defined by their over-riding concern for their own self interest. The only human rights and civil liberties that Tory MPs care about is the right of rich and privileged people like themselves and their absolute right not to be mildly inconvenienced by having to wear a face covering in Waitrose which makes it somewhat less risky for any members of the lower orders that they might cough on.

For all their talk of the authoritarianism of being asked to show papers in order to gain admission to a sporting or entertainment event, few of the revolting Tories, who are now so exercised about civil liberties all of a sudden, seemed to be aware of the important distinction between a covid pass and a vaccine passport. According to the British Medical Journal, a vaccine passport is a document or app which shows evidence of the person’s vaccination status only, whereas a Covid pass is a document or app which shows evidence that a person has either a lower risk covid status based on their vaccination record, has recently had a negative lateral flow or PCR test, or has had a positive antibody test (showing that they had the infection previously and have some level of immunity).

In the end almost 100 Tory back benchers displayed the true depths of their party’s shameless hypocrisy and voted against some limited and partial measures to protect public health in the face of the rapid spread of a concerning new variant of the virus. We had the usual displays of gob smacking idiocy from the Brextremists whom Johnson has decided that it’s a political imperative to pander to. The ever absurd Andrew Bridgen opined that trying to suppress the spread of the omicron variant was dangerous because it might then mutate into something more lethal, thus displaying the same insight into epidemiology that he brought to the debate about Europe. Meanwhile his fellow Brexidiot Steve Baker wondered why, if the new variant was indeed so concerning, was the government only introducing such limited restrictions. Steve apparently hadn’t considered the possibility that it might be because of the difficulty in getting morons like him and his pal Andrew to support more rigorous restrictions.

The measures passed thanks to Labour support but last week's events in the Commons were an abject lesson in the intellectual and moral poverty of a Conservative party that seeks to entrench its power and what it regards as its god given right to rule. And nothing underlines this more than the aftermath of the North Shropshire by-election. It’s finally dawning on the Tories that Johnson is more of a liability than an asset and the knives are starting to appear. Not for the many things I’ve mentioned above that illustrate the moral bankruptcy of the man but because their own positions are threatened. Not because of what he is doing in the name of the country but because he will lose them votes and they might lose power. And that’s what the modern Tory party is all about - power before principle, self before country. 

Footnote: And now we've just learnt that Lord Frost, our Brexit man, has resigned. Another nail in Boris's coffin?

We are on a slippery slope

It is commonly held that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s attitude to the laws, norms and standards that are expected of the rest of us is casual. In fact, one of his own party has recently described his leader as being a “stranger to honesty”. And there have been numerous instances of Johnson acting as though all laws and regulations have an additional caveat which says : “Does not apply to Boris Johnson if he finds it inconvenient”. We saw him wandering about a hospital in the north of England not wearing a face covering despite the rule that everyone who sets foot in a medical establishment must wear a face covering in order to protect any immuno-compromised patients or people with underlying medical conditions who may be at higher risk from Covid. Of course, none of this bothered a hair on Johnson’s artfully tousled head. It appears that, to him, any risk to other people paled into insignificance compared to the trauma he would suffer by having to put a piece of cloth over his mouth for a few minutes.

Just a few days later he again refused to wear a face covering while attending a London theatre for a performance of a Shakespearean play. I don’t think that the Bard of Stratford upon Avon ever wrote a play titled ‘Tis the Twelfth Night Thou Hast Forsaken the Masque upon Thy Visage, but if he did it would have been a tragedy about a Tyrant who wilfully put his subjects at risk of infection during an outbreak of the Plague while the news pamphleteers and town criers looked on indulgently.

The latest instance of blatant rule breaking is the furore over the Christmas party at Downing Street last year at a time when such gatherings were prohibited by law. Indeed, the Home Secretary Priti Patel, whom no one has ever confused with a ray of sunshine, said, when the regulations to curb the spread of the virus came into force, that she would call the police if her neighbours were hosting a party that broke coronavirus restrictions. Patel has been notable for her silence now that we know that, despite Johnson’s increasingly implausible denials, a staff Christmas party took place at Downing Street. An infamous video obtained by ITV News showed Number 10 staff joking about the party which they admitted was not socially distanced. The leak of the video comes after days of Johnson denying that a party had taken place. Johnson has been forced to apologise, saying that he was “furious” when he saw the video. You bet he was, he was furious that he’d been found out.

Of course, Priti Patel herself had no knowledge of the party at the time. After all, you don’t invite Priti Patel to a party unless your idea of a party game includes stoning migrants or finding novel ways to make a refugee’s life more difficult. Mind you if they had invited her, their denials that a party had taken place would have been more plausible. The mere presence of the Home Secretary is guaranteed to destroy anything approaching a party atmosphere.

Patel is not alone in going into hiding from the press. All government ministers have cancelled their scheduled press appearances and an army of spineless Conservative MPs have all gone to ground, which given the fact that they’re all supine means they didn’t have far to go. Of course it is entirely possible that Jacob Rees-Mogg has put in a media appearance, it’s just that no one recognises him with the supercilious smirk wiped off his face.

This latest unedifying episode in a string of unedifying episodes comes just after the news came out that Johnson is seeking to introduce a measure which would allow the government to retrospectively annul any court rulings which ministers disagreed with, for which read politically embarrassing or uncomfortable. Johnson wants to give himself a literal Get Out of Jail card and give himself the power to retroactively change laws that the government doesn’t like. As they used to say in the Soviet Union when recorded history was altered at the whim of the party and undesirable events were airbrushed out of existence, you never know what will happen yesterday. Johnson is determined to give himself the same power and to give himself an actual caveat in all laws and regulations which says that they don’t apply to Boris Johnson if he finds it inconvenient.

Plans have been drawn up by the Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, and the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, at the behest of the Prime Minister. The plans will allow for a so-called “Interpretation Bill” to be passed by the Commons on an annual basis, allowing the Government to summarily dismiss any court rulings they did not like from that particular year. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the road to tyranny and autocracy. Neither is this an isolated measure. The Conservatives are already intent on introducing voter suppression methods with their Elections Bill. These measures will disproportionately affect groups which tend not to support the Conservatives. Additionally the Johnson regime has made it clear that it intends to do away with the Human Rights Act.

Other anti-democratic measures from this government include severe restrictions on the right of protest. The Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill has been described as the most oppressive legislation tabled by a British government since the end of the Second World War. The Bill potentially bans any effective protests, pickets or any other kind of action in places “such as” roads, railways, ports, airports, oil refineries and printing presses. 

It's not an exaggeration to say that the UK is now at that critical point where it is about to slide into full blown authoritarianism, presided over by an entitled clown. There is nothing in what passes for a British constitution which is able to prevent an unprincipled and amoral Prime Minister who commands a large majority in the Commons from doing exactly as he pleases. 

It’s knackering to keep up with this stuff, I know. It’s so dispiriting and it’s tempting to look away and do nothing. But that’s what they’re counting on. You have to hold the b*****ds to account. Make a noise, Write to your MP.

Political snouts in the troughs

I was finishing this post off when the 'Partygate Affair' broke. Although it is deplorable, I think it's more an example of arrogance and exceptionalism than sleaze and corruption, the topics of this post.

A recent opinion poll from IPSOS-Mori for Scottish TV shows that a massive 80% of people in Scotland say that they are dissatisfied with the performance of a Prime Minister who leads a party which is constantly mired in allegations of sleaze and corruption and who repeatedly demonstrates a casual contempt for the standards of behaviour expected of the rest of us. Across the rest of the UK, three-quarters of the public are concerned about corruption in government, including seven in 10 of 2019 Conservative voters, according to recent polling. A mere 10% of the public think that the ruling party of British Government does not give the impression of being sleazy and disreputable.

There is one thing we know for certain about Conservative corruption scandals. While the British Government, aided by large segments of the media which prefers to look the other way, will do its utmost to move public attention away from this story, nothing meaningful will change and some new Conservative sleaze scandal will come along later. It should be clear by now that sleaze and corruption in the Conservative party is not the limited aberration of a few bad apples, it is a property of the entire Westminster orchard. Those aren’t apple trees, they’re sleaze trees growing entitlement and privilege.

From a royal family which erases the line between public and private for the personal enrichment of its members and which is treated with a sycophantic deference which places it beyond any accountability to an unelected and undemocratic House of Lords which is a machine for patronage and a House of Commons which awards absolute power to a party which can win even less than 40% of the popular vote and a Prime Minister who suffers few effective checks on his or her authority, the Westminster system is designed to perpetuate the privilege and entitlement of the few over the many. Corruption and sleaze are not unfortunate occasional lapses in this system, they are what it is designed to facilitate.

Expecting Westminster to take effective action to crack down on the sleaze and corruption of senior members of the Conservative party and to introduce meaningful checks and balances on the power of the Prime Minister, never mind democratic reform of the House of Lords or cutting down to size the bloated entitlement and greed of members of the House of Windsor, is like expecting the most narcissistic vampire to take up veganism. It’s simply alien to the nature of the beast.

If we want to live in a country which is truly democratic and where everyone is held to account equally, how an earth are we going to get it? Under Westminster we are condemned to a perpetual Groundhog day of Westminster sleaze and corruption stories which are met with promises of reform which are carefully calibrated to placate us and to take the heat off the government of the day and solve its short term political embarrassment but which have no meaningful effect at all.

The Tories are easily the worst offenders but the intrinsic corruption of Westminster infects all parties who attain control of Parliament. Let’s face it, the Labour Government of Tony Blair was no stranger to allegations of corruption and the selling of peerages to party donors.

Fundamentally the issue is about democracy and accountability and ensuring that those who have the powers to change our laws, make public policy and determine the path that this country takes are answerable to and led by the people. The Westminster Parliament with its carefully constructed veneer of democracy is designed to ensure the perpetuation of entitlement, privilege and inequality. It has had several hundred years of practice at co-opting and neutralising any radical or democratic threat to the ability of a small minority who are well-connected to continue to enrich themselves and to arrogate to themselves the ability to direct public policy and the course of the state. It is a system which has well-developed mechanisms designed to protect it from the threat of reform. The current public outrage about Conservative corruption will go the same way as all the other bouts of public anger about corruption and sleaze in the British establishment – nowhere.

We can live in a better country. We can replace the weary cynicism generated among the public by Westminster as a self-defence mechanism with a realistic vision of a country where public office is not a route to private enrichment and where the priority of those in power is the common good not personal gain. It’s a better country which is within our grasp, all we need is the courage and confidence to grasp it and to root out for good the poison apple trees that constitute the Westminster orchard of greed and privilege. But it depends on us all making a noise for what we want and voting only for those who share the same objectives. 

Oink, Oink, Oink

The clown with the stage name Boris Johnson, who is treating the position of the Prime Minister of the UK as the world’s greatest improv gig, seems to be having a self-inflicted rough time at the moment. The fall out from his disastrously self serving decision to rip up independent oversight of Conservative MPs’ sleazebag side gigs had not abated when he compounded backbench anger with his toe curling, well let’s call it a speech, to the CBI, which contained more hums and haws and vroom vroom noises than actual words in the English language.

To make matters worse for Johnson, who got the position of leader of the Tory party in part because of his supposed skills as an orator, the meaningful words which the – are we still calling it a speech? – did contain were not strung together in any coherent fashion, and appeared to be mostly concerned with a visit to Peppa Pig land, which Johnson claimed was his kind of place. This must come as a surprise to those who have seen the programme in the company of some under fives and had failed to realise it was actually about a compulsively lying serial adulterer who tries to get a journalist beaten up and who would privatise the NHS if he thought he could get away with it.

Still it’s nice to know that even the supine jellyfish on the Conservative benches in the Commons do, in fact, have a limit to their toleration of Johnson’s appalling behaviour and manifest unsuitability for public office. However it speaks volumes about the lack of morality, or indeed basic human decency in the Parliamentary Conservative party that the limit was reached, not with a callous incompetence in handling the pandemic which has left the UK with one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world, not with one lie after another. It was not even reached with Johnson’s naked assault on the democratic norms of the UK which the Conservatives effect to be so proud of – up to and including lying to the Queen in order to unlawfully prorogue Parliament in an effort to evade Parliamentary scrutiny of his Brexit deal. The Tories have been just fine with all of this, just as they have been fine with the corruption, the sleaze and the flouting of the lockdown rules which the rest of us must adhere to. Johnson once again flouted official requests to wear a mask as he watched a performance of Macbeth at a busy theatre in North London just days after he refused to wear a mask on a visit to a hospital in the north of England.

No, what finally did it for the Tories was a stumbling and shambolic speech about Peppa Pig. The Tories knew exactly what they were getting with Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. They knew all about his total lack of concern for anyone other than himself, the fact that he occupies a principle and moral vacuum, his rank opportunism, and his laziness. But despite all that, they chose him as leader anyway, because they cynically calculated that his carefully contrived shambolic “Boris” alter-ego with his deliberately rumpled appearance and purposely unkempt hair would appeal to a certain type of voter in England who would be swayed by the alleged charms of an upper class patrician type whose persona is based upon not giving a shit. A significant minority in class obsessed England confuse this act with authenticity, enough to give Johnson and the Conservatives the victory they craved in the General Election of December 2019.

Now however the novelty has well and truly worn off and the public in England are starting to show signs of tiring of the Boris performance. Even the bland Keir Starmer is starting to make inroads into the Conservatives’ lead in the UK-wide opinion polls. As Leader of the Opposition, Starmer is assiduous and energetic in attacking his political opponents. Luckily for Johnson and the Tories, the great political opponents of the Parliamentary Labour party are other parts of the Labour party.

There is now widespread disquiet on the Conservative benches as Tory MPs fear for their second jobs and start to doubt Johnson’s ability to get them re-elected. There are rumours of moves being made against him and even that some Tory MPs are sounding out their colleagues about a potential leadership challenge. Downing Street has been forced to go on the defensive, with Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, himself a selfish incompetent who owes his position entirely to Johnson’s patronage, asserting that Johnson’s speech to the CBI was an example of the prime minister being “ebullient”, in the process giving us yet another example of senior Conservatives using words in entirely novel and unexpected ways.

It is unlikely that Johnson will be unseated by his party in the short term, the anonymous briefings to the press from unhappy Tory MPs and the rumours of leadership challenges are more likely an attempt from within the party to deliver a shot across the bows of the Johnson ship of state in the hope of getting a few concessions. However what recent developments within the Conservative party do signify is that for the time being we will not be hearing any more talk from the Conservatives and their allies about a snap General Election in the Spring in order to take advantage of the ineffectiveness of the Labour party. The Conservatives know that they need to get their own house in order first. Their problem is that what they are getting with Johnson is precisely what they should have expected they were going to get. He’s incapable of change and as such is a perfect figurehead for a corrupt and shambolic Westminster which is incapable of reform. How did we get into this mess? And don't blame Jeremy Corbyn.

Septuagenarians on Bodmin Moor - Bolventor and beyond

We've driven across Bodmin Moor on the A30 many, many times. And occasionally we have stopped at Jamaica Inn, which most people associate with this part of the moor. But we've never been there with the intention of taking a walk in the surrounding countryside. Last week we did and here's a post to prove it. It was great walking in a new area and along tracks and footpaths that were obviously not well-trodden.

A 6.3 mile circular route that took us over the River Fowey twice, onto Codda Down, Webbs Down and Palmersbridge before returning to our starting point. Which was just opposite Jamaica Inn on the north side of the A30. Not the best of days weatherwise and I'd grade this walk as 'moderate' with a fairly difficult stretch across a few fields of tufty grass. Oh, I should mention the rather poor signposting - and probably equally poor map reading - that lead to a few moments (!) of confusion.

Our starting point, showing the mizzly hazy conditions that accompanied us for a great part of our walk. There were, however, some periods of blue skies and clear views. Typical Cornish weather really.

It's a good year for all sort of berries.

Looking up the valley towards Leskernick Hill in the centre distance. Keen eyes might be able to make out the isolated Leskernick Cottage, nestling at the base of the hill. An almost blue sky.

For lovers of sheep creeps, here's a good one for you to admire. Made to look even more attractive by the brown of the bracken.

The River Fowey is formed from the drainage of Fowey Marsh, which is probably a mile or so from this point. Luckily there was a rather handy footbridge to get us over this bit without having to wade.

Browngelly in the distance.

Move 45 degrees from the above and we can see Brown Willy. Most of the farm land in this area has been reclaimed from the open moor since the early 1800s. When the reclamation first started, Bolventor was known as 'Bold Venture' which gives a good indication of how difficult farming was thought to be.

Brown Willy in the mist. We really must make an effort to get up there.

I've already mentioned the questionable signposting and here's a good example. Spot the finger post.

Our second crossing of the Fowey - Palmersbridge. One of those places that are so quiet that it seems a pity to intrude. But intrude we had to to get to the other side..............

....and have the joy of negotiating this steep, leaf-bestrewn cattle track. This lead from Dryworks Farm, over the ford by the bridge and then up to grazing on the moor. I doubt whether it's done that often nowadays.

A short break on the Lizard

 We were recently treated to a two-night break at a cliff top hotel on the Lizard - the Polurrian, just outside of Mullion. We've already walked all of the Lizard coastline but it was absolutely no hardship to repeat a couple of walks. It's one of our favourite parts of Cornwall, especially out of the tourist season when there are far fewer people around.

Our first walk was a 5.5 mile circular route, starting and ending in the Square in St Keverne. We dropped down to the coast at Porthallow, followed the coastal footpath through Porthkerris to Porthoustock and then back inland to our starting point. A delightful walk that the few showers did not spoil and, as the elevation profile shows, there were a few ups and downs.

W

We saw a lot of this style of stiles on the walk, with varying gaps between the ‘rungs’. The wet, slippery surfaces demanded extra care as a broken ankle would not have been much fun. And, as I’ve said on previous walks, I just love these natural windows into what is to come next.

How on earth they got this dumper truck in this position is a mystery. Perhaps they were going somewhere else and got stuck? Not the sort of thing we normally encounter on one of our walks. The biggest bit of litter we've ever come across.

Advertised as a holiday let with a sun roof and close to the beach at Porthoustock.

A terrace of cottages just up from the beach at Porthoustock. As far as I can find out, these are unusual in that they are not holiday lets but are actually lived in all year round. Long may it continue this way.

One of the few fishing boats still working off the beach at Porthallow.

Mrs P leads the way up the rather steep footpath leading out of Porthallow.

Looking eastwards, with St Mawes and Anthony’s Head being visible. A little further away are the Gribbin and Rame Head. A nice clear day and I'd estimate the visibility at around 25 miles.

Looking down on the beach at Porthkerris. Not a place for swimming but is a well known centre for diving.

No comment.

Why not commune with nature in this holiday let in a rustic position? It's at Trenoweth Mill if you are interested. Glamping it's not.

Part of the path from Porthoustock to St Keverne. At one time, it must have been a major route between the two, maybe even used by packhorses bringing goods inland from the beach. Or, perhaps, a track used by smugglers as they brought their contraband for distribution to the locals?

The rather pathetic dribble at the holy well dedicated to St Prostatus, the patron saint of elderly men. At the neighbouring well of St Viagra, the outflow is much more impressive.

I forgot the photographers' mantra - don't take a shot into the sun. Oh well, you can still make out the size and style of St Keverne Parish Church.

A fine trio of mature trees in the graveyard. I must say that the graveyard was obviously very well looked after.

After St Keverne, we headed off to visit the church of St Anthony in Meneage. This part of the Lizard, a combination of five parishes, has long been known as the Meneage - Land of the Monks. A Norman church built on the site of a Celtic original. It's relatively isolated and its location on the edge of an estuary adds to its charm.

A modern etched window to the memory of a past vicar, Willie Jenkin. I do like etched glass but it's a shame that this photograph does not do it justice. Exposure bracketing is what I should have used.

Some traditional stained glass - St Mary.

It's a small church but very well looked after. I would imagine its spirit of place would add to any service here - provided, of course, that it was traditional and not one of the more modern variants.

St John from the East Window above the altar.

Everybody likes the sound of running water.

The following day we thought we'd walk around Loe Pool by Helston. An anticipated 6 miler that actually came in at 7.5miles because of a closed footpath. The longest we've walked for a while but a good one.

Quite a large part of the walk was through wooded areas alongside the water of Loe Pool. The Pool is the largest freshwater lake in Cornwall, excluding reservoirs like Siblyback etc.

Looking down on Loe Bar, an area of shingle that separates the freshwater Loe Pool from the sea. The bar itself is formed by the tide and first blocked off the entrance to the Pool in mediaeval times. Before then, the Pool was a river and Helston had its own port.

Looking up the Pool from the Bar. This is the view that sailors would have seen when there was access to the sea.

The view from the Bar looking eastwards towards the Lizard. Looks can be deceptive - this beach is one of the most dangerous in Cornwall.

The Bar with the thin line of the sea above it.

The tranquil water of  Loe Pool. Look closely and you might make out the shower dappling the surface.

Sleaze, corruption and the Tories

As the Conservative sleaze scandal and the controversy surrounding second jobs for MPs, or in the case of Douglas Ross, third and fourth jobs, rumbles on, it has come to light that the Conservative MP for Moray, list MSP for the Highlands and Islands, leader of the Scottish Tories, and linesman for the Scottish Football Association managed to “forget” annual extracurricular earnings of over £28,000 a year which he failed to declare to the Westminster register of financial interests. In total his annual additional earnings on top of his MP’s salary of £81,932 before expenses is £32,835.

This would be the Douglas Ross who recently claimed that he and his party were more authentic and in touch voices for working class people in Scotland than the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and the SNP. There are not many working class people in Scotland who manage to forget about annual earnings of over £28,000. Those are people who struggle to do without the £20 a week in Universal Credit that Douglas Ross voted to take away from them while he was forgetting about an extra £540 per week that he receives on top of his weekly income of £1575 from his MP’s salary.

There certainly are not many working class people who bring home well over £100,000 a year. However when you represent a party led by a man who once described the £250,000 a year he earned on his side gig as “chicken feed”, your understanding of the financial constraints that working class people are under is probably as warped as a Conservative MP’s grasp of what constitutes moral and financial probity in public office.

The real issue isn’t the fact that Douglas Ross has a side line as a football linesman, it’s that many of his colleagues in the Conservative party have extremely well paid side jobs representing financial and commercial interests which potentially conflict with their duties and privileges as legislators who are supposed to be speaking up for the interests of their constituents. Public confidence in the institutions of the British state is not helped by the fact that the Conservative party is far more assiduous in taking steps to neuter independent oversight of MPs’ outside financial interests than it is in ensuring that MPs are kept to the high standards that the public has the right to expect of people who make our laws and shape public policy. And all the while the allegations keep piling up.

Over the weekend there were fresh allegations that Jacob Rees-Mogg failed to declare director’s loans totalling £6 million that he received from his company Saliston Limited between 2018 and 2020. Additionally Labour is demanding that new information from American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri about her relationship with Boris Johnson while he was mayor of London should be investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Earlier this year Johnson avoided a criminal investigation into his relationship with Arcuri after the IOP ruled there was no evidence Johnson had influenced the payment of thousands of pounds of public money to Arcuri or secured her participation in foreign trade trips he led.

The disquiet created by Boris Johnson’s attempts in the wake of the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal to abolish the independent Parliamentary Commissioner’s role in investigating allegations of wrong doing made against MPs in order to replace it with a sham committee of his chums is compounded by the many recent scandals about alleged wrong doing in the awarding of lucrative government contracts. A number of senior government figures including former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Home Secretary Priti Patel, and Michael Gove have been found to have been in breach of the ministerial code or to have acted unlawfully. None of them have faced any consequences as a result.

There is now a widespread and entirely accurate perception that members of the British Government and the Conservative party operate in a moral vacuum where they will never have to answer for their actions and behaviour. Their belief in their own privilege and exceptionalism must surely be be found out by the electorate? Or perhaps not? Do they really care enough to call them out on it?