The British leader causes discomfort by absenting himself in the announcement of a long recession and spending his final stretch in power on planes and parties
A columnist for ‘The Spectator’, a magazine that Boris Johnson once directed, has revealed that the prime minister is on vacation in Slovenia, that the finance minister, Nadhim Zahawi, is with his family in a house he owns in a foreign country, and that not even the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke, was at his post when the Bank of England raised the interest rate by half a point.
The columnist, specialized in gossip, warned of the seriousness of the context: the central bank forecasts a long recession, inflation of up to 13% at the end of this year and double digits during the next. And he sentenced: “In such circumstances, one hopes that all hands in Westminster join the hose to try to calm fears.”
Following the custom of copying what others publish, some media outlets have become alarmed. It is a burst of optimism about Johnson’s virtues, just over a month after his parliamentary caucus unseated him as party leader. But would the comical politician with his presence have prevented the rise in rates, recession or inflation? Calm fears surely not.
Johnson is in Slovenia after hosting a wedding anniversary party with his wife, Carrie, last weekend. Some millionaire friends set up a large tent for them on his estate in the south-west of England, to bring family and friends together. At their wedding, due to the pandemic, only a small group of relatives then congregated in Downing Street after the religious link.
They were going to celebrate the party at Checkers, the country residence enjoyed by the British heads of government. As they also organized a resignation party with friends and collaborators at the Oxfordshire mansion, ten days after his fall, there were many protests about the repeated use of Checkers for such a private party. A millionaire friend again threw a cable to Johnson in a hurry.
The farewell party coincided with meetings of the security committee that meets in emergency situations. The media pointed out that Johnson – who had already refrained from attending four meetings of the same committee when the pandemic began – had missed two in mid-July to coordinate this time the palliative measures for the heat wave.
Days after becoming acting prime minister, he boarded a Royal Air Force fighter jet for a spin in the skies over southern England. The candidate to replace him, Liz Truss, has already jumped on a tank, to emulate Margaret Thatcher, in favor of getting on tanks from time to time. Johnson wanted to get on a fighter plane and his days were running out.
In the middle of the electoral process
The snake of this summer is that Johnson does not give a blow, which is what those who now criticize him asked for in July. There was discomfort in the parliamentary group and in the media for the continuity of Johnson as interim. The waters calmed down due to the launch of the electoral process to replace him and because a Johnson on planes and parties does not commit the vengeful misdeeds that were feared.
A journalist from the newspaper ‘i’ showed that Johnson telephoned Volodímir Zelenski whenever he had domestic problems. The last public notification of a call to Zelenski is from July 7, after announcing his resignation. As for inflation, candidate Sunak laughs at his rival, Truss, for believing that he is going to reduce it by lowering taxes. Regarding the recession, Truss blames it on Sunak’s taxes.
#Johnson #indulges #fun #interim #prime #minister