In a healthy democracy Boris Johnson would by now be a former PM. The fact he's still in post - having lied to Parliament and the public last year - tells us we have a problem that goes beyond his personal qualities as a political leader, to the heart of our failing democracy.
We now know Boris Johnson and the No 10 operation either didn’t understand the lockdown rules they made, or they didn’t believe those rules applied to them.
Either of these possibilities means this PM should resign and his government fall. But they haven’t.
Either of these possibilities means this PM should resign and his government fall. But they haven’t.
There has been scant empathy with the public, who largely complied with lockdown measures to protect their families and communities.
While much of the public acted in the collective interest of our country, the same can't be said of some who devised & imposed the lockdown rules.
While much of the public acted in the collective interest of our country, the same can't be said of some who devised & imposed the lockdown rules.
So what now, after such serious allegations have been made about the conduct of the Prime Minister, and the update in Sue Gray’s preliminary report out today?
The power to hold the Prime Minister to account for his actions is now in the hands of the damaged institution of the Metropolitan Police - which has finally and belatedly started investigating - and Tory MPs who have the cover of the 1922 committee.
Herein lies the problem. Without a written constitution and without strong checks and balances on an increasingly powerful government committed to doing away with the weak checks already there, the institutions of our democracy will continue to be fatally undermined.
Right now, the government is using their power to make sure the public has none – whether that is through attacks on our voting system and the independence of the judiciary, or the hollowing out of the right to protest, the right to vote, citizenship rights, and our human rights.
Boris Johnson should go. But this issue goes far beyond the integrity of the PM or even his government.
Until we undergo a programme of democratic renewal, we’ll be stuck with a system that has proven itself unfit for the challenges we face now and in the coming century.
Until we undergo a programme of democratic renewal, we’ll be stuck with a system that has proven itself unfit for the challenges we face now and in the coming century.
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