Sinking without trace: rightwing press turns on Boris Johnson
Where’s Boris?” asked this week’s Spectator, the weekly magazine the prime minister once edited and from which Johnson might once have expected a better press had it not been for the coronavirus crisis.
With a front cover image featuring a distant blond dot on a tiny boat bobbing rudderless and oarless on a stormy sea, the message of chaos and drift from the title was emphatic – a criticism of the prime minister’s leadership in the battle against the pandemic that is being replicated across an increasingly sceptical rightwing media.
“The question now is whether he can become a proper leader with a sense of direction and purpose,” said the magazine’s editor, Fraser Nelson, effectively arguing that Johnson’s premiership was at a crossroads, that a narrative was close to being set.
After a week in which Britain’s test-and-trace system – once intended by the prime minister to be “world-beating” – was at the point of collapse, Nelson asked “whether the pattern we have seen in recent months – of disorder, debacle, rebellion, U-turn and confusion – is what we should henceforth expect”.
Others writing in the same magazine put it more idiosyncratically. “What on earth happened to the freedom-loving, twinkly-eyed, Rabelaisian character I voted for? Oliver Hardy has left the stage, replaced by Oliver Cromwell,” said columnist Toby Young, complaining of a “lack of engagement with the detail”.
Earlier on Thursday, the same day the Spectator cover emerged, the Daily Mail had reached a similar conclusion. “Boris: We’ve Failed” the front-page headline blared, with the paper claiming it had warned of a “looming test crisis five months ago”.
The rightwing tabloid highlighted Johnson’s subdued performance the day before in front of parliament’s liaison committee, where he had been forced to admit that “the short answer” was that there were nowhere near enough Covid tests available.
Only a week earlier, the prime minister talked optimistically about a “moonshot” plan to test millions of people a day as way to return to pre-coronavirus normality. Now he had humiliatingly been forced to admit there were nowhere near enough tests for worried parents at a level closer to 230,000 a day.
“Too often the government has over-promised and under-delivered,” concluded a leader in the Times on Friday morning. “Policies have had to be swiftly abandoned after the exposure of entirely predictable problems,” the centre-right broadsheet continued, adding the A-level fiasco and the problems with the contact-tracing app for good measure.
The paper – perhaps with one eye on a promotion for the former Times journalist Michael Gove – argued that Johnson needed to appoint “competent deputies” before “the public come to a settled and unflattering view about his ability to do the job”.
--oo00oo--
Toby Young writing in the Spectator:-
I admit it : I was wrong to back Boris
A friend emailed me earlier this week in despair about the Prime Minister. ‘Boris reminds me of a hereditary king — Edward II or Henry VI — who is so staggeringly incompetent that he must be removed before doing too much damage,’ he wrote. ‘I felt the same way about May but Boris is worse.’
He is not the only person feeling like this. It pains me to say it, but I too have given up on Boris. The final straw was hearing him talk about his plans to create an army of ‘Covid marshals’ last week — Britain’s very own, curtain-twitching version of the Stasi.
What on earth happened to the freedom-loving, twinkly-eyed, Rabelaisian character I voted for? Oliver Hardy has left the stage, replaced by Oliver Cromwell. His government has even said it wants to lower the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph. Didn’t Boris once say that voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3? Where did that guy go?
Some people think it’s all to do with his bout of coronavirus. As one person put it to me, surviving a near-death experience can affect people in one of two ways. Either you become more devil-may-care, thinking it could all end at any moment so why not live life to the full; or you become super-cautious, having been left feeling vulnerable by your brush with mortality. According to that armchair psychologist, Boris has gone through door number two. A less generous theory is that the disease actually damaged his brain in some way — and there is some evidence that cognitive decline can lower your appetite for risk. Whether the damage was psychological or physiological, the implication is clear: he’s no longer fit to be prime minister and should step down as soon as he’s got Brexit done.
This explanation is attractive to former Boris enthusiasts like me because it lets us off the hook. It’s not that we overestimated him; rather that he’s changed in a way we couldn’t have anticipated. But the difficulty with those theories is that his mishandling of the crisis predates his battle with Covid-19.
A friend emailed me earlier this week in despair about the Prime Minister. ‘Boris reminds me of a hereditary king — Edward II or Henry VI — who is so staggeringly incompetent that he must be removed before doing too much damage,’ he wrote. ‘I felt the same way about May but Boris is worse.’
He is not the only person feeling like this. It pains me to say it, but I too have given up on Boris. The final straw was hearing him talk about his plans to create an army of ‘Covid marshals’ last week — Britain’s very own, curtain-twitching version of the Stasi.
What on earth happened to the freedom-loving, twinkly-eyed, Rabelaisian character I voted for? Oliver Hardy has left the stage, replaced by Oliver Cromwell. His government has even said it wants to lower the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph. Didn’t Boris once say that voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3? Where did that guy go?
Some people think it’s all to do with his bout of coronavirus. As one person put it to me, surviving a near-death experience can affect people in one of two ways. Either you become more devil-may-care, thinking it could all end at any moment so why not live life to the full; or you become super-cautious, having been left feeling vulnerable by your brush with mortality. According to that armchair psychologist, Boris has gone through door number two. A less generous theory is that the disease actually damaged his brain in some way — and there is some evidence that cognitive decline can lower your appetite for risk. Whether the damage was psychological or physiological, the implication is clear: he’s no longer fit to be prime minister and should step down as soon as he’s got Brexit done.
This explanation is attractive to former Boris enthusiasts like me because it lets us off the hook. It’s not that we overestimated him; rather that he’s changed in a way we couldn’t have anticipated. But the difficulty with those theories is that his mishandling of the crisis predates his battle with Covid-19.
Few would dispute that he failed to give the pandemic the attention he should have done in January and February, time he could have spent devising an effective containment strategy. Come March, he was just buffeted by events, one minute saying we should ‘take it on the chin’, the next imposing a full lockdown. His lack of engagement with the detail, both before and after his spell in intensive care, means the government’s response has been led by others around the cabinet table, like Matt Hancock, who seem to be wholly captured by a small coterie of scientific advisors who decided early on that Sars-CoV-2 was ‘the big one’ and have been unwilling to abandon that hypothesis in the light of all the evidence to the contrary.
Boris’s supporters cannot claim they were unaware of this risk. His inability to focus on anything for very long was constantly flagged up by those who’d worked closely with him, most recently at the Foreign Office. My response when this was put to me by his detractors was that he had been preparing for the role of prime minister all his life, had a heroic conception of himself as a world-historical individual and wanted to be installed in the pantheon of immortals as one of Britain’s greats. So even if it was only for vainglorious reasons, he would apply himself in No. 10 in a way he never had before. Hal would become Henry V, not Henry VI.
Unfortunately, Boris’s critics have been proved correct. Funnily enough, one of the most prominent, Michael Gove, is now de facto deputy prime minister. Four years ago, when justifying his decision to knife Boris in the Tory leadership contest, Gove said it was because, having seen him operate up close, he’d concluded he lacked the character for the top job. Not lazy exactly, but not serious enough. At the time I took this with a pinch of salt, thinking Gove was exaggerating to make it sound as if he was motivated by public-spiritedness rather than personal ambition. Now I think he was right.
Hope followed by disappointment is a familiar story in politics, a cycle as old as history itself. I should have been better prepared. In future, I will not be so naive.
Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator.
--oo00oo--
Finally Ian Dunt writing for inews:-
Boris Johnson’s campaign to undermine objective truth stops him from being held accountable
Without it, the Government can keep on lying – and keep on operating with impunity
On 19 October 2019, Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that the deal he had agreed with the EU was “about as perfect as you could get”. It was “excellent”, “great” and “very good for this country”. There would be no border in the Irish Sea. Anyone who opposed the deal was standing with the EU over British interests and trying to undermine Brexit.
In the Commons this week, that message was inverted. The deal was now portrayed as a disaster which had to be dismantled through mechanisms contained in the Internal Market Bill. The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said it “contains ambiguities, and in key areas there is a lack of clarity”. There will in fact be a border in the Irish Sea. Anyone who defends the deal is standing with the EU over British interests and trying to undermine Brexit.
In speech after speech, Tory MPs rose to attack the deal, seemingly without recognising that their contribution was fundamentally incompatible with the speeches they had been making over the course of the previous year. When Labour opposed the Government, the official Conservative Twitter account put out a message saying the party had “just voted to side with the EU”.
What we’re seeing here is not standard-issue political cynicism. It is something qualitatively different: a conscious effort to eradicate the notion of objective truth as an operating principle in British political life.
It involves a three-stage process: the willingness of the Government to produce disinformation, the undermining of independent fact-checkers who might assess it, and an audience so blinded by tribalism that they will willingly receive it.
The first aspect has been present in the Johnson administration from the beginning. After all, the recent mutation over the EU deal is just the latest reversal he has engineered on the topic. Back when he was foreign secretary under Theresa May, he insisted that “no British Conservative government could or should sign up to” a deal which put a border in the Irish Sea. He then reversed his position before now reversing it again. His public utterances on other policy issues, including the response to Covid-19, follow the same pattern.
The main threat to this approach comes from independent journalists, who might call out the rewriting of history. This is why reporters and media outlets which ask tough questions of ministers are sporadically blacklisted, including Channel 4 News, senior figures from the BBC and Sky, Radio 4’s Today, ITV’s Good Morning Britain and a variety of smaller outlets.
None of these tactics work if you have an electorate which still retains the capacity to assess government messaging on the basis of its objective validity. That’s why a concerted effort is made to frame information instead on the basis of tribal identity.
This is an old phenomenon. The philosopher John Stuart Mill recognised people’s tendency to prioritise their tribal identity over objective reasoning in the 19th Century. A hundred years later, the journalist George Orwell wrote about how people were prone to evaluating new information on the basis of their allegiances.
The only thing which has changed is the advent of social media, where behavioural algorithms allow the Government to deliver a bespoke message, tailored to people’s emotional instincts, in an attempt to create closed-off information ecosystems. Technology has tapped into a human vulnerability and the Government is exploiting it.
That’s why the Conservative party sent that tweet after the debate. It’s why Tory MPs this week claimed the EU wants “to see our country fail” and was trying to turn the UK into an “enslaved economic satellite”. As Conservative MP Lee Anderson said on Monday night: “Members of this House need to decide where their loyalties lie. Is it with the EU or with the United Kingdom?” Once the tribal viewpoint is secured, people stop looking for the truth and instead seek out that which supports their world view.
This approach is not happening by chance. It is followed by nationalist governments around the world, including the US, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and India. It is a very old story: the purposeful expansion of executive control. If nationalists can lie without consequence, then there are no limits on their power. They cannot be scrutinised on the basis of their record.
This story will continue until people recognise it for what it is. The first stage in that recognition is to think rationally on the basis of verifiable information. To even retain the capacity for memory and objectivity, is, in this period, a radical act.
We need to remember that Johnson once insisted he would never sign a deal like the one he accepted, and that he is now attacking the very document which he once celebrated. It’s only by retaining that capacity for objective truth that this Government can be held to account. Without it, they can keep on lying – and keep on operating with impunity.
Ian Dunt is the author of How to be a Liberal: The Story of Liberalism and the Fight for its Life, published by Canbury Press hardback, £25 (also available as ebook and in audio).
Without it, the Government can keep on lying – and keep on operating with impunity
On 19 October 2019, Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that the deal he had agreed with the EU was “about as perfect as you could get”. It was “excellent”, “great” and “very good for this country”. There would be no border in the Irish Sea. Anyone who opposed the deal was standing with the EU over British interests and trying to undermine Brexit.
In the Commons this week, that message was inverted. The deal was now portrayed as a disaster which had to be dismantled through mechanisms contained in the Internal Market Bill. The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said it “contains ambiguities, and in key areas there is a lack of clarity”. There will in fact be a border in the Irish Sea. Anyone who defends the deal is standing with the EU over British interests and trying to undermine Brexit.
In speech after speech, Tory MPs rose to attack the deal, seemingly without recognising that their contribution was fundamentally incompatible with the speeches they had been making over the course of the previous year. When Labour opposed the Government, the official Conservative Twitter account put out a message saying the party had “just voted to side with the EU”.
What we’re seeing here is not standard-issue political cynicism. It is something qualitatively different: a conscious effort to eradicate the notion of objective truth as an operating principle in British political life.
It involves a three-stage process: the willingness of the Government to produce disinformation, the undermining of independent fact-checkers who might assess it, and an audience so blinded by tribalism that they will willingly receive it.
The first aspect has been present in the Johnson administration from the beginning. After all, the recent mutation over the EU deal is just the latest reversal he has engineered on the topic. Back when he was foreign secretary under Theresa May, he insisted that “no British Conservative government could or should sign up to” a deal which put a border in the Irish Sea. He then reversed his position before now reversing it again. His public utterances on other policy issues, including the response to Covid-19, follow the same pattern.
The main threat to this approach comes from independent journalists, who might call out the rewriting of history. This is why reporters and media outlets which ask tough questions of ministers are sporadically blacklisted, including Channel 4 News, senior figures from the BBC and Sky, Radio 4’s Today, ITV’s Good Morning Britain and a variety of smaller outlets.
None of these tactics work if you have an electorate which still retains the capacity to assess government messaging on the basis of its objective validity. That’s why a concerted effort is made to frame information instead on the basis of tribal identity.
This is an old phenomenon. The philosopher John Stuart Mill recognised people’s tendency to prioritise their tribal identity over objective reasoning in the 19th Century. A hundred years later, the journalist George Orwell wrote about how people were prone to evaluating new information on the basis of their allegiances.
The only thing which has changed is the advent of social media, where behavioural algorithms allow the Government to deliver a bespoke message, tailored to people’s emotional instincts, in an attempt to create closed-off information ecosystems. Technology has tapped into a human vulnerability and the Government is exploiting it.
That’s why the Conservative party sent that tweet after the debate. It’s why Tory MPs this week claimed the EU wants “to see our country fail” and was trying to turn the UK into an “enslaved economic satellite”. As Conservative MP Lee Anderson said on Monday night: “Members of this House need to decide where their loyalties lie. Is it with the EU or with the United Kingdom?” Once the tribal viewpoint is secured, people stop looking for the truth and instead seek out that which supports their world view.
This approach is not happening by chance. It is followed by nationalist governments around the world, including the US, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and India. It is a very old story: the purposeful expansion of executive control. If nationalists can lie without consequence, then there are no limits on their power. They cannot be scrutinised on the basis of their record.
This story will continue until people recognise it for what it is. The first stage in that recognition is to think rationally on the basis of verifiable information. To even retain the capacity for memory and objectivity, is, in this period, a radical act.
We need to remember that Johnson once insisted he would never sign a deal like the one he accepted, and that he is now attacking the very document which he once celebrated. It’s only by retaining that capacity for objective truth that this Government can be held to account. Without it, they can keep on lying – and keep on operating with impunity.
Ian Dunt is the author of How to be a Liberal: The Story of Liberalism and the Fight for its Life, published by Canbury Press hardback, £25 (also available as ebook and in audio).
Unfit Boris awe how could this be said. He inherits a privatised Britain . Private landlords property rich. Private gas oil electricity steel postal parcels rail trains buses community homes. The Tories sold the lot health on its way out too. All that money to privatised boards and grayling in private ports too. They can afford to isolate while the people face the brunt of a virus on low wage poor housing and rising bills. All of which had it remained publically owned could all have been mobilised to protect the population privatised telecoms internet and the like all add to media dysfunction and mixed messaging the country is in a mess. More will die now as we get a second wave that should have been avoided but th stories and their cash flow greed opened Britain up to early to much to a virus that kills . The Tory profiteers do not care the spare beds in care homes are soon filled. As will the hotel's again to hide the dying from the streets. Don't blame Boris he is just a puppet of the British new way of privatised industry and by the way the north helped them in. Our killers of socialism is Toryism and unfortunately this what the British asked for.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably an old fashioned view, but I always thought that those privileged enough to be educated at Ivy league schools such as Eton received more then just first class academic tuition.
ReplyDeleteI somehow thought they were places where character was shaped, integrity instilled and the importance of decency and honesty was imbued.
Eton does cost about £42,000 a year to attend.
Yet I watch the 'old Etonians that frequent Parliament and I'm just disgusted by their sense of individual privilege, their lack of concern and interest for those living in the real world that they shape and design for us, and their lack of integrity and complete dishonesty is abhorrent.
Boris Johnson has got through life by just 'blagging' it. Bullying, bluff and bluster. Jester Johnson.
He may have reached the heights of Prime Minister, and many others that have walked the halls of Eton have reached equally prominent positions.
Eton will obviously claim part of those career successes, but surely when it comes to character, honesty and integrity and decency, they really are falling short, and can't feel very proud of some of the people they are turning out.
'Getafix
Well put getafix . Indeed they are a despicable group toffs and surf's the rest ...
DeleteIt'll be 25,000 new cases in a week with today's data.
ReplyDelete4,422 today
Delete25,186 new cases for the week Sun-Sat inclusive
So what? We knew it was coming. Who cares anymore? Certainly not the UK government. And certainly not those in the UK population who *need* to eat out, who *need* international holidays, who *need* to go to the pub, who *need* to drag their staff to the office, etc etc etc.
FranK.
Yes Frank Boris the mouthpiece of the rich and entitled had no choice they want their money no matter who the Tories are going to kill. It is their fault it could have been avoided they know how modeling numbers works but ignored it for their paymasters . It has been said the Tories pose a greater risk to our lives as the Nazis.
DeleteBoris Johnson is a prisoner of the small statists, Chris Grayling is one of their spokespeople.
ReplyDeleteSome of Grayling's paybck was announced recently £100,000 pa for 7 hours work a week - or was it actually a pension.
I wonder if Johnson has the nouse to keep himself financially afloat until he leaves office and can himself get some more pay off money.
Johnson does have money worries it seems.
DeleteHow could anyone possibly afford child care with a salary of only £150,000pa and a few bob from book royalties with no mortgage or rent to pay free transport and no utilities to pay?
Little wonder he looks so glum of late.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-worried-money-carrie-22708865.amp
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-travel-agent-lands-fresh-serco-test-and-trace-work-despite-staff-training-concerns/
ReplyDeleteFrom the Guardian.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/20/why-boris-johnson-is-constantly-surprised-when-his-government-fails
They are ALL unfit for office. Today Hancock says its up to the British public to avoid lockdown. Hancock said he was not prepared to apologise for anything, saying: "I will endlessly defend my team. They are doing amazing work day-in-day-out."
ReplyDeleteThey cannot be wrong. They will not accept they have ever been wrong. They will throw anyone & everyone overboard to prove they are not wrong. Teachers, police, firefighters, probation staff, social workers, doctors, nurses - anyone & everyone is fair game to these arrogant, petulant fuckers.
To date: 42,000 deaths in the UK (by UK govt count)
But you must remember this: its NOT the fault of Johnson's government.
FranK.
From the Mirror.
Delete"Boris Johnson 'considering lifting rule of six for 24 hours on Christmas Day'
The Prime Minister is reportedly anxious at being "portrayed as Scrooge" and is weighing up telling Brits they can gather in groups of more than six for one day to try and lift spirits."
Clearly no lifting of lockdown restrictions for the foreseeable?
Whilst I wouldn't take Hancock's view that he has no responsibility, the Brits do not do themselves any favours.
DeleteBBC News: Visitors have flocked to Blackpool despite police warning against having a "last blast" in the resort before tighter restrictions come into force. People reported queues for attractions, heavy traffic, little social distancing and few people wearing masks indoors.
On Friday, Lancashire Police deputy chief constable Terry Woods appealed for people not to have one "last blast" before the restrictions come into place. He said: "Going to Blackpool this weekend if you're not from [there] and mingling in any large crowds - that wouldn't be looking after your family. Make sensible decisions to protect yourselves, going to Blackpool in mass numbers is quite the opposite of protecting yourselves."
But what's this?
Gem Concannon, 36, from Northwich, Cheshire, said she had visited the resort on Saturday with her family. She said: "It was heaving, hardly anyone was wearing masks or social distancing. It was shocking. I've never seen it that busy before."
That'll be Northwich-next-to-Blackpool then, I guess - 1 h 8 min (62.9 mi) via M6.
I'm certain its not just happening in Blackpool
uk no-fault govt covid-19 data 20/9/20
new cases: 3,899
deaths within 28 days of +ve test: 18
FranK.
"A third of coronavirus patients in intensive care are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, prompting the head of the British Medical Association to warn that government inaction will be responsible for further disproportionate deaths." (source: Guardian)
ReplyDeleteChaand Nagpaul, the BMA Council chair, clearly hasn't seen the memo that says its NOT the government's fault.
Dr Zubaida Haque, a member of Independent Sage and a former deputy director of the Runnymede Trust, said: "A good point to start is to ask the government: ‘What exactly have you done?’ Because we haven’t seen anything that they’ve done." (source: Guardian)
I'm in no doubt that the self-styled 'elite' in government truly believe that if people *weren't* from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds then there wouldn't be an issue. That they have ZERO understanding about being BAME is the only reason I can imagine they haven't responded to the concerns/warnings from earlier in the year about disproportionate BAME cases & deaths. Surely it can't be intentional? Not even Bozo & co could be that vile, could they?
Wonder what will happen to the perennially criminal Bankers this time? Errm, nothing. Again.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because they look after the finances of the Tory Chumocracy, many of whom will no doubt be party to the whole disgraceful, greedy mess.
"HSBC allowed fraudsters to transfer millions of dollars around the world even after it had learned of their scam, leaked secret files show.
Britain's biggest bank moved the money through its US business to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014.
Its role in the $80m (£62m) fraud is detailed in a leak of documents - banks' "suspicious activity reports" - that have been called the FinCEN Files.
Leaked documents involving about $2tn of transactions have revealed how some of the world's biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world.
They also show how Russian oligarchs have used banks to avoid sanctions that were supposed to stop them getting their money into the West."
The many favoured multinational chums (probation staff might be aware of some) are part of the whole money-go-round, draining or shifting funds through thr UK's criminally negligent financial laundry
BBC Panorama
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54225572
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8025000/8025349.stm
Wonder what Rees-Mogg thinks about the 'ordinary people' "carping on" about others' dodgy finances?
"If only the boorish oiks could understand that it is impolite, discourteous and totally unnecessary to discuss another man's wealth."
Of course, there's no link whatsoever between Tory moneygrabbers & anything dodgy whatsoever:
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54228079
"The husband of one of the Conservative Party's biggest donors was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Putin.
Lubov Chernukhin has given £1.7m to the Tories, including paying to spend time with the last three prime ministers.
Leaked files show her husband received $8m (£6.1m). The money initially came from a politician facing US sanctions due to his closeness to the Kremlin.
Mrs Chernukhin's donations to the Tories have given her access to figures at the top of UK government.
In return for £135,000 she was invited to a ladies' night dinner at a luxury hotel with Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet in April 2019. She is pictured above, fourth from the right.
And the 47-year-old has twice made winning bids at auction for tennis matches with Boris Johnson. The last, in February this year, cost her £45,000.
In 2014 she paid £160,000 to play tennis with Prime Minister David Cameron and then London Mayor Mr Johnson"
Did Boris nip over to Italy on the QT? To see his mate Lebedev, perhaps? For a loan? Or maybe something else?
Delete"Asked if Johnson had landed in Perugia in the past two weeks, which the Umbrian airport said had happened in a statement, Grant Shapps, the transport minister, told Sky News: “Not that I’m aware of. I think it’s mistaken, as far as I’m aware.” A source said he had arrived “on Friday 11 September at 2pm and left on Monday 14 September 14th at 7.45am”.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “This story is completely untrue. The prime minister has not travelled to Italy in recent months. Anyone who publishes these claims is repeating a falsehood.”
The claim of Johnson making a seemingly undercover visit to Perugia would be seen as especially intriguing given he has done it before. In April 2018, while he was foreign secretary, Johnson was photographed looking somewhat dishevelled at San Francesco d’Assisi airport.
It emerged that Johnson had stayed at Palazzo Terranova, a restored castle owned by the media billionaire and socialite Evgeny Lebedev, who is renowned for holding lavish parties.
The pictures of Johnson at the airport [in 2018] suggested he went to Italy without a police escort. According to another passenger on the flight back to the UK, Johnson was on his own, apparently without any luggage and very much the worse for wear."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/21/no-10-denies-reports-boris-johnson-went-on-secret-italy-trip
Funniest bit about this non-story - the staff at San Francesco d'Assisi mistook Bliar for Johnson. Proof positive you can't get a cigarette paper between 'em!!
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/05/everyone-was-drenched-in-the-virus-was-this-austrian-ski-resort-a-covid-19-ground-zero
ReplyDeleteOr 'How The Well-Heeled Middle-Class [probably] Distributed Covid-19 Across Europe'
Quick, Quick! Open up the air corridors & let the Tory faithful travel again.