If only ...

... we had Ian Jack to help us understand what we are going through. His collection of essays is my current bedtime book. There's so much to admire.

:-)

I apologise for the rant to follow.  The Cummings Affair has me hopping mad. 

The Prime Minister has indicated that he has drawn a line under the sorry tale of his Special Advisor’s indulgences.  He wants us to move on: as he has, only too apparently.

I will move on.  I am going to move my anger from the front to the back burner.  There I will keep it warm on a low simmer for the rest of his administration.  I won’t let it go cold that is for sure.

Let’s sort out whether it is anger I feel or sadness or disappointment.  In truth there are elements of all three.  Disappointment: because Johnston and his administration made a promising start. Sadness: because we have been here before: Tony Blair ignored our public fear and warnings over Iraq. His reputation never recovered. Now Boris Johnston has turned a deaf ear to our pleas for fairness and equity in the case Cumming’s transgressions. He has thrown away his reputation on a matter as trivial as an aide's appointment.  What a waste.  What poor judgement. What an abject failure of leadership.  Principally, however, I feel anger.  
     
Why am I so angry?   I am angry because I feel the views and collective will of the people of this country have been rejected and betrayed. For me, the facts speak for themselves.

Dominic Cummings did wrong.  He clearly broke the guidelines he helped cast, or at best, twisted them out of shape and beyond all recognition.  He was caught bang to rights, as others had been recently in less important examples.  Consider Neil Ferguson or Catherine Calderwood.  They paid for their errors and were sacked or forced to resign.  He was treated entirely differently and his boss connived with him to cook up a stew of lies and misdirections to allow him to be pardoned and retained.  There is no equity or justice in this. 

Secondly, I am angry because he, the principal spin doctor in our times, who has done so much to undermine truth in our political discourse, has spun his way to a not proven verdict.  What else would he do? It is the only contribution he has to make.

But mostly, I can’t forgive the way in which he has diminished the sacrifices that so many have made.  I watch the TV stories of the front line COVID NHS and care home staff: the fear, sadness and exhaustion etched into their faces.  I think about the terrible loss families must feel saying goodbye to loved ones over the telephone while unable to visit them: or even attend their funerals. But Cummings couldn’t stay still in London and do his Lockdown time like the rest of us. Oh no, that was clearly asking too much. 

Then when caught out, does he hold his hand up and apologise?  Is he contrite?  Does he seek redemption?  Don’t make me laugh. Instead he treats us to a press conference in which he concocts a veil of rationalisations and justifications that would not convince a five-year old.  Then his boss follows this up saying he has behaved responsibly, legally and with integrity.  The use of language is positively Orwellian.   

Would it not be Christian to forgive?  Perhaps so, but I can’t rise to the test while I am this angry.  My feelings are still at the festering stage.  I’ll forgive once the two them have repented and stopped reaping the benefits of their sins.  

I have just come in from a final “Clap for the NHS” session on our doorstep.  Next time I’d happy clap to boot out Johnston and Cummings.