Students sometimes joke that a party is only a good party if the police come to the door and you have no memory of it the next day. Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, now happens to both: the Metropolitan Police announced on Tuesday that they will investigate some of the drinks that were held in his official residence during the coronalockdown.
Parties that Johnson initially said he didn’t know were held, and shared the anger of the British. During the lockdown in 2020 they were obliged to stay at home and for some time it was forbidden to get together with more than two people. It was strictly enforced.
Then the prime minister said he knew parties had been held, but that he was not there himself – photos showed otherwise. He then acknowledged that there may have been parties, but that they were “work-related gatherings.” An email that reads “bring a bottle” suggests otherwise. Then Johnson said no one had told him that such meetings were against the corona rules. Rules he is responsible for as prime minister. And he’d only been ten minutes at his own birthday party – a Conservative MP compared Thursday to “a coffee break” at the official residence.
The British know that Johnson’s moral compass is not as calibrated as that of others. Lies cost him his job as a journalist, his mandate as a parliamentarian, his marriage. His charm, eloquence and studied disorder mean that he gets away with much that would stick to other politicians.
But the way he’s twisting himself now is ludicrous. It confirms the image of an English upper middle class who believes that rules are for others. From the Eton-Oxford Guard that still runs the United Kingdom, from the Bullingdon Club of super-rich students who smashed restaurants – to which Johnson belonged.
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Worse: it means that should he have to impose corona rules again, his authority has been undermined. Whatever comes from research. Because the fact that the Metropolitan Police now decides to investigate is already telling. The chief of police initially did not want to waste police time investigating past parties because she wanted to focus on “violent crime and terror.” Now she says that “not investigating would significantly undermine the legitimacy of the law.”
The fact that Johnson no longer seems to be in control of his destiny – it’s up to the Conservative faction to decide if and when they’ve had enough of him – also hurts his premiership. When domestic policy choices are perceived as populist attempts to rescue the prime minister, whether that be plans to reform the BBC or asylum policies, he is tipsy wild.
And that at a time when a strong United Kingdom is also needed internationally, with a prime minister who is taken seriously. It is a problem when one of the few military superpowers in Europe is so preoccupied with itself, when there is a threat of war on its external borders.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 26, 2022
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