Letter: The Man on the Street Is Not Taken In – But What’s To Be Done?

Published on: 3 Feb, 2022
Updated on: 2 Feb, 2022

From: Ben Paton

In response to: Guildford’s Tory MP Quits Government Role Over ‘Partygate’ But Does Not Call for PM’s Resignation

WS Gilbert’s “British Tar” (“ever ready with a knock down blow”) aka “white van man” or the Empire Windrush immigrant knows very well what to make of all this: a plague on ALL their houses.

The police are corrupt. See the verdict of the Daniel Morgan Enquiry, which gave the Met the moniker “institutionally corrupt”. See the verdict of the IOPC [Independent Office for Police Conduct] on the carrying ons at Charing Cross Police station where it was alleged a policeman raped a member of the public on the premises. And who was “on the door” at these No 10 parties? The police of course.

The Home Office is corrupt. See how it deported upstanding citizens for lack of paperwork in the Windrush Scandal. (Wasn’t Mrs May the Home Secretary at the time?) See the verdict of the judge in the case brought by the Sub Post Masters against the Post Office – at that time a organisation owned by HM Government.

The Civil Service is corrupt in the polite devious way of Sir Humphrey Appleby. There was a time when we thought Yes Minister was funny. Now we know it was really a documentary. See how the civil servants hide behind secrecy rules that are designed to protect them from scrutiny.

Who were most of the party goers? The civil servants of course. Once upon a time they signed themselves “your humble and obedient servant”. Now the tables are turned. We have to sign ourselves their humble and obedient servants and plead with them to do their jobs properly.

The lawyers are venal. See how they will collect enormous fees for defending anything “arguable” no matter how absurd.

Are the politicians any better?

The “British Tar” and Del Boy know that Boris is a plonker. They’re not taken in. Nor are they taken in by the other actors on this stage, for example top cop Dame Cressida Dick or major mandarin Mr Case – who was only shamed into recusing himself at the last minute?

The problem is that collectively we paid for an expensive and time consuming process to elect Boris and his government. He got to No 10 through various public and transparent processes that no one has or can impugn.

Do we really want to go through that all over again? No.

Edward Heath appealed to the public for help when he could not handle the miners’ union but the public just got rid of him.

Either Boris limps on with our conditional consent or the Conservative Party will have to get behind somebody better.

Responses to Letter: The Man on the Street Is Not Taken In – But What’s To Be Done?

Stuart Barnes Reply

February 3, 2022 at 9:00 am

I agree with most of the above and in particular the last paragraph.

I am afraid that Boris Johnson needs to go, not because of the parties, but mainly because, (a) he is not a Conservative but a rather left-wing trendy socialist/liberal; (b) his failure to get Brexit properly done; (c) his obsession with what he used to call “green crap”; and (d) his inability to behave with the gravitas expected to be shown by this country’s PM.

The Conservative Party must now appoint a dedicated and serious Brexiteer to take over as soon as possible.

It is sad that we have reached this point but we must still thank Boris for having got us out of the corrupt and failed EU – even though he has not completed the job.
David Roberts Reply

February 4, 2022 at 6:43 pm

The idea of Johnson as a wild lefty is laughable, but I agree that a man devoid of convictions of any sort is ill-fitted to lead the most ideologically fixated British government since Oliver Cromwell.

Whatever one thinks of Brexit, there is no doubt that this bunch of ministers was pre-selected for their pro-Brexit credentials, automatically excluding most of the Tory party. This is unprecedented in any party in this country’s history. On top of that, too many years in office have left the party in the hands of a distinctly “3rd eleven.” This exhaustion happened to Thatcher and New Labour too.

Mr Paton’s suggestion that we wait for the Tories to find someone better is defeatist. Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman). What we need is not so much to get rid of Boris Johnson as to renounce the whole populist, personality-cult style of politics that foisted him, Corbyn, Trump and others on an innocent world.

We’ll find plenty of fresh blood in all parties if the narcissists and egomaniacs who don’t know how to run a country are recognised for the charlatans they are. In years to come, the last six years will be looked back on as a period of collective madness.