Just heard Boris Johnson has morally outflanked Starmer by declaring MPs should be banned from taking consultancies, giving gigantic contracts to friends and family, selling peerages for £3m and using murky sources of cash literally to line their walls with gold.
Tomorrow there will be further announcements in which the PM will ban his government from privatising health with its NHS Bill, rigging votes with its Elections Bill, and provoking a trade war with the EU over the NI Protocol. Opposition neutered! HOWZAT!?
And in a final, poetic, stunningly strategic coup de grace, PM Johnson will refer himself to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for his hitherto unacknowledged policies of herd immunity. That'll show Starmer.
I gather a letter of apology to Queen is being drafted for having lied over prorogation, and the great Johnson Holier Than Thou Charter will also brilliantly include reparations to former wives, girlfriends and Eton tutors. It's a strategic masterstroke.
Given that some readers think I'm seriously supporting Johnson, should I delete this thread?
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#takebackBritain update. All day, and all through the night, the emails are rolling in. I'm so glad I did it this way, with an email address, and not a form on a website. Because people are writing to me. Not just registering. They are telling me their stories.
/1 of 6
They are sharing their horror. Their disbelief. Their outrage. And they are speaking up for a Britain with values. Compassion and integrity and fairness and accountability. And above all honesty. There is a great Britain in their minds, and this ain't it.
/2
There is a future they want for themselves or their children or their grandchildren, and this ain't it. The passion is real ("I've never despised a government before.") ...
/3
#takebackBritain update. I'm bowled over by the emails coming in - amazing people, amazing organisations, standing by, ready to take action against this failed regime. Incredible.
/1 of 5
What's really striking is that so many people have taken the trouble not just to register their readiness, but to explain why. Sometimes at length. The frustration and outrage is palpable, and so well articulated.
/2
Taken together, these emailed letters are an indictment of our times. But they are also a measure of the true "spirit of Britain" so disgracefully appropriated by our dear leader. The true spirit is alive and motivated. Ready to mobilise and ready to roar.
/3
It's official: our pandemic response was horrendously, shockingly bad. We knew that, but thanks for confirming it.
But I don't buy the defence that herd immunity was the product of well-meaning "fatalistic group think". The tone for this was set by Johnson, who saw himself as
the "cloak flowing supercharged champion" of liberty in the face of "panic beyond what is medically rational". (Greenwich Speech, 3 Feb 2020)
That's not "group think" . That's one man setting a course. Right from the get-go.
One man. Insisting on fighting a virus with ideology.
And did he even learn? Again and again he denied and refused and hoped the virus would respond to his machismo. The British people suffered unimaginable loss. And after all that, what does he say? "Let the bodies pile high." His response always was, and remains, ideological.
The Johnson regime will not keep you safe.
It will not ensure fuel makes it to the pumps.
Or food from farm to table.
It won't ensure you can afford to warm your home.
It won't ensure hungry kids get fed.
Or NHS staff get paid.
It won't take simple steps to protect against Covid
It won't ensure pubs and restaurants have enough staff to get back to normal.
It won't protect the poorest from NI rises and UC cuts.
It won't protect farmers or factories or those relying on the borders being open.
It won't protect those who need the protection of the law.
It won't protect human rights.
It won't protect those whose families have been divided by war.
It won't protect the arts and musicians who can't tour.
It won't protect the NHS or its beleaguered, depleted staff.
It won't protect people of colour from xenophobia and racism.
Does the ordinary British bloke in the street know that they have Covid "passports" in Europe, and they are freer because of them?
I don't think he does.
1/10
Does the ordinary British woman in the street know that there are no empty shelves in European supermarkets, and that the shortage of HGV drivers only exists in the UK, because of Brexit?
I don't think she does.
/2
Does the ordinary bloke in the street know that in the USA and in Europe, they've been vaccinating kids for months without drama?
I don't think he does.
/3
Man literally recorded conspiring to assault a journalist in charge of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Man who directed public funds to his mistress in charge of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Man who proudly signed international treaties with no intention of honouring them in charge of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.