by John Ward
Thus far in these columns, I have had very little to say about the Labour leader Keir Starmer. This is partly because there’s not much one can say about him: he has no charisma, no elucidated vision, no enthusiasm, and even less imagination. He’s the sort of bloke who makes you want to scrawl something backwards on his forehead when he’s asleep, in the hope that he’ll see it in the bathroom mirror later. Something like, I don’t know, “How about a an Opposition policy on Covid19?”
Quite a few in the British pressgang this morning are, unbelievably, congratulating he of the facial flat screen for having “at last” come up with a distinctive Covid policy.
They must be blind….or bought: having spotted that Boris Johnson has overruled the latest Whitty madness, all Starmer has done is side with the Boys from Pharmafia and predict utter disaster unless what Labour now calls a “short circuit’ total lockdown is applied. Indeed, at the PMQs just completed, the Labour leader pressed hard on this point.
Mr Starmer is and always has been part of the Corporacratic-to-Green Reset envisaged by Davos and the world’s varietal Whitehalls. I have posted before to the effect that, as and when BoJo’s services are no longer required, Sir Humphrey’s game plan will be a National Unity hotch-potch led by Starmer and Hunt. However, this blatant piece of cynicism by Starmer is, I fancy, somewhat ill-judged.
Meanwhile, what of the much-vilified Mr Cummings? It seems he is enjoying a second coming as the man who chucks the ice-bucket at his boss with the words, “Wake up”. Stand by to watch carefully as BoJo edges away from Manflu Halfcock….er, on the other hand, stand and stare as Boris considers moving to the “circuit breaker” lockdown if his tier system fails to work.
This represents the endlessly infuriating element of dealing with the Johnson administration: the rapidly ageing chestnut of “following the science” is now a nonsense, but in two different ways – because Hancock is slavishly repeating the lies of The Pharmafia, whereas the PM is is as always primarily concerned with the survival of Boris Johnson.
It is a classic case of saying to both Hancock and Sunak, “I think you may well be right…..and if you are, I’ll be right behind you”.
Trouble is, given the timescales involved, I think it unlikely that either man can be proved right before Boris needs to take a decision. For myself, I am in no doubt that the Chancellor is far closer to fiscal and economic reality than the Health Secretary; further, I must record here that Rishi Sunak is already fabulously wealthy and less open to a bung than any of the other players.
It is hugely relevant to the Constitutional crisis we face that, far from being discreet about the disagreement between the PM and the model peddlers, the latter group of unelected pseudo-science has gone out of its way over the last 36 hours to pin all blame for whatever happens on the occupant of Number Ten.
This is typical of the Sedwills, Whittys, Fergusons and Horbys of this world…. they run from accountability as the Devil runs from crucifixes soaked in Holy Water. As indeed does Boris.
How else can one conclude on these observations other than to declare, “A plague on both your houses”….preferably, something more devastating than the tepid killer Covid19.
But looking further ahead, Keir Starmer is the one making by far the biggest gamble. For if, as looks likely, the hysterical projections of the Narrative pushers prove yet again to be boys crying wolf, he has nowhere to go.
One finds no sense in any of this – no desire to do the best for the common good, no ability to revisit the data and accept the now blindingly obvious Big Mistake that has been made. As Solzhenitsyn noted of the Soviets, they “never made mistakes”. This was what, in the end, rendered them extinct.
Set against this, we must recognise that – in fieldwork that ended just three days ago, an Ipsos MORI poll found that seven out of ten Britons support local lockdowns in areas where coronavirus is rising, and a similar number support implementing local lockdowns where they live if needed.
This is therefore no time for those who study the data to rest on laurels and assume that the Pharmafia narrative is doomed to revelation as the disgraceful myth it is.
The search for smoking guns – and hacks in the MSM who will write about them – must continue at full throttle.