Twitter can be quite unpredictable. A carefully crafted tweet can disappear without trace. One written in a moment, and sent out without literally a second thought catches a sentiment and flies.
This is an example of the second type of tweet:
I was waiting to watch Prime Minster's Questions yesterday when Sue Gray was mentioned during Politics Live. Seconds later this tweet was published. It seemed to hit a nerve. It has been viewed more than two million times.
So why is that? It's not as if we are actually waiting for Sue Gray after all. It is the Met that is actually holding matters up right now. But Sue Gray's name is now indelibly associated with an investigation into corruption at the heart of Johnson's government. And that made her's the right name to mention.
But I suspect that what the Tweet did was remind people that this corruption, and the lies, have not gone away.
The self deception - the ability to believe something not true - is continuing after all. In particular, despite the government's claims the UK is very obviously not leading on issues relating to war in Ukraine. If anyone is it is the EU and on many issues, from refugees to sanctions, we are lagging way behind.
And what we now know is that self-deception in political leaders has consequences. Putin is self-deceived. He thinks the stories he has created justify war in Ukraine. My fear is that he thinks those same stories will justify nuclear destruction, which is certainly closer now than at any other time in my life. Self-deception is profoundly dangerous.
So too, then, is accountability. And that is the test that the Sue Gray report was meant to let us check. Is Johnson unaccountably self-deceiving at cost to us all, or are there still mechanisms of accountability left? We still do not know.
My suspicion is that we do want to know, very badly. Whether there is a semblance of good governance left in the UK might matter more now than before this war began. And my guess is that is why the tweet resonated.
That, and the fact that we simply do not know the answer, and that it increasingly looks like the Tory party really is just an instrument for the delivery of pro-Russian policy through deeply embedded networks of control that make it seemingly impossible for it to challenge the oligarchs, or really do the right thing to support the victims of Russian abuses, whether in Ukraine or this country, come to that.
So that Sue Gray report does really matter, still.
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Brexit: an on-going disaster for the Uk economy: wholly owned by the tory party/government
Covid 1: disastrous handling by the tory party/government far more dead than need have been
Covid 2: rampant tory party/government corruption in the award of contracts to tory supporters, much equipment supplied not fit for purpose..
Covid 3: do as I say, not as I do – partying while others didn’t & others died & then lying about it continuously – until found out.
Yemen: supporting the genocide of a nation through the supply of weapons to an authoritarian state
Russia 1: tory party accepting bribes from Russian oligarchs and arguably from Putin – for at least a decade (Gidiot on that rich Russians yacht – 2010).
Russia 2: tory party/gov incapable of acting in a timely fashion with respect to Russian oligarchs – because said oligarchs own the tory party/tory government and have compromat on said party and government.
Tories: corrupt to their very core, always have been, always will be. No empathy – a requirement to be in the tory party, incompetent (Covid 1 ), ideologues (Brexit), congenital liars (Covid 3). The above points fit a pattern & it relates to “born to rule – unfit to govern” (a brownie pack).
Which begs the question: why does anybody that classes themselves as human – ever vote for these sub-humans. & the answer is: the mass media – who for the large part come from the same background as the tories.
Mr Parr,
Forgive me intervening here. You often write informed and well argued comments, but I do not think a reference to “sub-human” either helps you case or anything else; especially now. In this context of the Ukraine crisis it is especially inappropriate in my opinion; and especially disappointing to see a commenter use the term on Richard’s generally well-ordered and more typically, considered and thoughtful blog. Reluctantly, I felt obliged to comment and to protest your use of the term, more in sorrow than in anger. I too comment here and you have made me very uncomfortable. It is not my Blog, I have no editorial rights here, but I felt a duty to comment.
Thanks
I try to remove comments that go too far – as some regulars know
I missed this
mea culpa. Should not have put it in. Apologies. It will not happen again.
The list is shameful – & one could plug in more (austerity/125k deaths, privatisation – the list is long) & the question has to be asked: what is going on? Is the tory party an “enemy of the UK state/the Uk population”? Because it looks like it to me. They have and continue to materially degrade the UK.
Thanks Mike
I accept apologies
We all make mistakes
Thank you, Mr Parr for the retraction.
Very, very well said. There is a very disturbing and unacceptable political narrative being promoted by the usual public supects, that the Ukraine war entitles Johnson to rise above his sins of omission or commission, in the national interest in a crisis. This is a monstrous misuse of the fog of war for the advancement of cynical Conservative political opportunism. In far more serious circumstances Britain changed its PM in 1940; appointing Churchill – a man whom half the Conservative Party hated, despised and did not consider was a genuine Conservative. The Conservative Party has been trying to re-write that history ever since.
Sacking Johnson is in the best interests of solving the oligarch problem, and promoting the defence of Ukraine – Europe, and NATO.
I don’t suppose post-Brexit Britain (which we aren’t yet, of course, it being ongoing) being perceived as some pro-Russian concierge country would have been any help in getting that fabulous deal with America Boris was once so keen on, particularly if, as it now appears, we only Brexited (or appeared to Brexit) because it suited Russian ambitions to splinter the EU.
Still, given the current economically suicidal American efforts to remove Russia from SWIFT thus forcing the world towards the Russian equivalent (SPFS) and the Chinese standing ready with theirs too (CIPS) the abandoning of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency can’t be too for away now so maybe some clear blue water between us and our former Cousins won’t be seen as being any bad thing. The buck stops here! Not before time either, some would say.
I understand Mike Parr’s anger, even though Tim Snyder warns us not to abandon our understanding of why certain people behave like they do. Some of us can get to the point where we’ve really had enough. What’s the point of sharpening pitch forks and then not using them? In one sense it’s only words – better than shooting another MP that someone disagrees with? Mr Parr seems a long way from that. I cannot consistently say the same for myself.
How does a sovereign citizen self defend against a Government that is killing you – not just killing with austerity and poor pandemic planning, but killing your expectations, your hopes and increasing your fears, levelling you down and setting you up to be ruthlessly exploited?
What does international law say about that? I confess I have no idea. Does Ukraine offer a clue?
The more I look at poor Ukraine the more it just seems that the action satisfies so many dodgy objectives both in Russia and Londongrad within our own Government. It seems too good to be merely coincidental in terms of its collateral benefits.
I think the big issue in the West is that Governments – ones that is that are perverted by wealth – and I mean ‘perverted’ – sort of kill you/us softly these days don’t they?
Western Governments just sort of let the reigns go gently almost imperceptibly – like with the NHS for example – these Governments turn away from us (and the environment) and our needs and ‘let nature take its course’ all the while whilst the markets tells us how great life is and we can anything unlimited. Government also lies and tells us that its not doing what it doing.
The old fascist and communists had no qualms about killing people brutally and in plain sight. There was an honesty that could also be met with an equally honest response – and history – even now in Ukraine – tells us how this works.
But seriously now – how do you deal with a homicidal Government that kills you softly – over time, through negligence, through neglect and with a smile and lots and lots of lies in a supposedly democratic country?
I tell you – things have changed right?
Tell me now: Have we really truly come to terms with this ‘gentle’ subtle homicidal strangling of progressive society by these ‘wealth extremists’?
We have to negotiate change despite 30% of people supporting this corrupt government, even now