Boris Johnson’s ‘partygate’ is poisoning the political blood stream. Politicians are never held in high esteem but this scandal has reached new levels of awfulness with all politicians being tarred with the same brush.
Boris Johnson is said to have broken ‘rules’, which doesn’t sound too bad. But lockdown regulations weren’t ‘rules’: they were laws backed up by the courts.1 Boris Johnson’s excuses would shame a teenager not handing in homework.
No-one is suggesting that Damian White’s councillors attended these parties, or indeed, any party at all but they’re likely to be punished as if they had attended. Why?
Millions of British people suffered dreadfully during the lockdowns. ‘Partygate’ is shocking but it’s actually worse than that. Tens of thousands of people died and their loved ones couldn’t see them in their final days or attend funerals. Johnson’s parties were despicable. But he can only be punished in the electoral box: in the local elections. And that is precisely what will happen.
May’s elections could be ‘the slaughter of the innocents’.
Note
1 How many people prosecuted for breaking lockdown rules | South Wales Argus This included one person getting six months and 3500+ people being fined.
Politics in Havering 