I was deeply unpopular with some in Twitter for making this comment yesterday:
Why can Boris Johnson go to his second home when no one else who has one can? Are we really all in this together?
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) April 12, 2020
I made the comment for three good reasons though.
The first was concern for the Prime Minister. Tim Brooke-Taylor sadly died yesterday. His friends thought he was recovering from Covid-19. He clearly wasn't. The relapse must have been quick in that case (as doctors keep saying is possible with this virus), and it was literally deadly. There is similar risk, surely, for Johnson? Shouldn't he be at No. 11 then, where he lives, because then he is within minutes of St. Thomas' Hospital? Doesn't that make complete sense, when Chequers doesn't?
Second, No.11 (not 10) is his main residence. And the rules on the lockdown are quite clear. A person is meant to be in and to stay at their main residence. Second-home use is not permitted. And let's not pretend he cannot stay in the No.11 flat: people all over the country face the same constraint. Why are there separate rules for Johnson?
Third. let's remember that the former Chief Medical Officer in Scotland was forced to resign over going to a second home and that Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick is in virtual political quarantine for breaking the rule. But now Johnson is going to a second home.
Third, in that case this makes no political sense. Johnson wants to play the hero. His video message makes that clear. But he can't be a hero playing by different rules to everyone else, and by breaking the very guidelines he established. As it is his government is on borrowed time. PPE failures, the falsification of deaths figures, the past lack of support for the NHS, the failure to prepare for a pandemic that is now widely understood, and the sheer hypocrisy of thanking immigrant nurses whose lives Johnson wants to make much harder in future with barriers to entry and extra charges to use the NHS they actually work for will all come back to haunt him. As will business failures, unnecessary job losses and sheer hunger. Playing by separate rules on isolation will only exacerbate that. In the politics of this era going to Chequers will be seen to be a big mistake in the end. The sense that there's one rule for the rulers (as the testing of one of Gove's family also proved this week) and another for the rest of us will not, eventually, go down well. His political antennae have failed him here.
I'm more than happy to stand by comment in that case, even if Tim Montgomerie was stirring up sentiment against me and the few others willing to question this decision.
And most of all, I genuinely hope this folly does not put Johnson's health at risk. I fear it might. But apparently saying that requires that you be called out by right-wing Twitter. I will never understand their indifference, and their sheer sense of entitlement that makes them believe that the world is divided into the categories of rulers and those who obey. I will, however, be pleased to see it consigned to history.
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I am speaking this morning from the position of my ethnic background which as far as I am concerned is Celt (Father originally from Scotland; Mother originally from Eire).
The English have always had a serf like mentality and are very good at knowing their place in society and not questioning their betters. It is a sad state of affairs, almost touching in a way. Bless.
The other thing is Boris himself. These days in politics, personality dominates and policy comes a distant last. Boris is liked because of who he is and not what he is (a member and leader of the nastiest political party in recent memory). Like all good fascists, the Tory party knows how to stir up libidinal feelings for the leader amongst the serfs by making sure there is a hate figure to balance it – you might find yourself in this role now Richard. Enjoy.
The other thing that Boris is doing is reflecting the dreams and aspirations of his serfs; they want to be able to mince about the country spreading their germs too. And if THE LEADER can do it, then good for ‘im!
It is not always lions being led by donkeys I’m afraid in England; a lot of the time it’s donkeys leading donkeys too. Hopefully Covid-19 might make a lot of people wake up and the balance of donkeys to lions might change.
Note that I said ‘might’. The English…………………aaaaahhhhh.
I ask you – who’d be English, eh? Poor, misled, abused buggers that they are.
You are right to highlight the inconsistency and hypocrisy of those who think they are God.
“The English have always had a serf like mentality and are very good at knowing their place in society and not questioning their betters. It is a sad state of affairs, almost touching in a way. Bless.”
The ring of truth there
Yet ironically, as a nation, they have an overwhelming sense of superiority, that they have been placed on Earth to rule all other nations. Hence Brexit
By doing so he’s made enforcement for the police somewhat harder has he not? Somebody gets fined by the police who then challenge it in court and use Johnson as a form of “case law”.
Exactly
As we have known for more than 40 years, there is one rule for those that pretend to run the country and another for the sefs & peasants that constitute most of the population. Johnson ignored social distancing etc and (supposedly) caught the virus – he then (supposedly) reaped the “rewards” of ignoring social distancing rules and made some kind of recovery. Who knows what other “rewards” he might reap given his move to his holiday home. not that any of this will make a blind bit of difference to the media which now treats him in much the same way as the North Korean press treat Kim il Jung – or whatever the fatso leader in North Korea is called (they could do a tour together: the two fatsos).
The same could apply to Prince Charles not staying at his his home in Gloucestershire.
You are absolutely right to call him out. It is what you expect of a chancer. My grandmother used to say “avoid chancers at all costs unless you want to be one of their chances”. We all know are. Stay resolute.
I understand the replacement CMO in Scotland is a promoter of the Herd Immunity policy.
I would like to have Ms Calderwood in post.
She will have learned her lesson. I doubt if he has.
[…] she read my reasoning and concern for Johnson implicit in it? I doubt […]
The move for the ruling classes to exit London to the safety of their other home was led her Maj when she fled London early to Windsor followed by her son who with the virus took himself plus virus to Balmoral.
I am shocked, if nº10 is not good enough to recover, every other patient discharged from hospital should be free to choose where to go. What an example!