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Head of UK 'partygate' probe mired in office's own events

6 Comments
By DANICA KIRKA

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6 Comments
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This is interesting but complicated. There are lots of variables at play.

Mid-term by-elections are used by unhappy voters to complain about their lot, although they aren't usually such comprehensive spankings as this one was. The Tories are more jittery than usual as their pro-Brexit supporters flocked to a LibDem candidate, and the LibDems are generally anti-Brexit. Does this suggest that Boris's Brexit card is not as effective as it was? Probably not, as it was a mid-term and UK/EU aggro is easy to stir up.

Partygate got people off out to vote in the by-election as bare-faced hypocrisy is irritating. Politicians have been dodging the rules, flying around the planet etc, all through the pandemic of course, but the timing was as bad (or good) as it could have been, to influence the vote. It should be said that UK citizens have only worn masks in rare cases, as required (shops, transport). In the US being unmasked is a political statement. In the UK it is a mix of laziness, arrogance and ignorance. Johnson has been very careful to moderate the restrictions - much more than EU nations. This has helped him and will continue to.

All this is distinct from the anti-lockdown rebellion in the House of Commons, where a Tory PM relied on a compliant opposition to overcome a sizeable rebellion in his own party over early implementation of restrictions on hospitality, travel and tourism. Labour could have voted politically to unseat him and then supported the restrictions later or encouraged voluntary restrictions. But they didn't.

Does any of this matter in the long term? Not necessarily. Johnson has bounced back more times than a Christmas single and the electorate have short memories. A general election is a very different beast, generally seen as a two-horse race between Labour and Tory. Will the Tories try to unseat him? Probably not yet. They don't really have much of a Plan B. They will wait and see.

There is still electoral mileage in Brexit as Clockwork Macron is so easy to annoy. Wind him up and away he goes. Labour have kept under the radar for a long time. It may be their best strategy, but it is not a winning one. It just hides their continued problems.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a fairly weak six week lockdown (whether Omicron merits it or not) with, somewhat unscientifically, Christmas off. Public money would have to be handed out. After which Boris could declare the booster campaign a success (whether it was or not), exhausted/despairing parents could send their kids back to school and some normality could return. As long as Johnson's minders/wife can keep his gaffe-count down, a flare-up with the EU can be engineered, and there is enough free money handed out, his popularity will go up again. Having softer lockdowns than the EU is important here. The deaths of unvaccinated people doesn't really bother the UK voting public. Anti-vaxxers are regarded as fringe/nuts by the mainstream in the UK. The supply chain really will have to be patched up though, regardless of Brexit red lines. Nothing loses votes in the UK like empty supermarket shelves. Politically, the UK is the ultimate consumer economy and Brexit was always going to cause problems there. That will be tougher to fix.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Let's hope "the party's over" in more ways than one for Brexit Boris and his team of grifters.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Head of UK 'partygate' probe mired in office's own events

UK politics are a mess now. The entire country is grappling with rising unemployment rates and rising drug use among its youth.

And now even the French don't want to allow Brits entry.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Civil servant tasked with investigating No. 10 parties 'held own party'.

Nothing strange.

After all, birds of the same feather flock together..

They keep looking for trouble..

1 ( +1 / -0 )

 The entire country is grappling with rising unemployment rates

Er, no. In fact vacancy rates are high due to skill shortages.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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