Bad Boys, Bad Boys, What you gunna do?

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6/7/2022 2 Comments

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, What you gunna do?

“Cocaine, porn, drunkenness and rape — all the delights of the U.K parliament.”

This story is moving so fast that this blog is already behind the curve. But it may help frame events to understand what is happening. In short, when you boil it to the essence, Boris Johnson’s lies have caught up with him

So shall we begin? Cocaine, porn, drunkenness and rape — all the delights of the U.K parliament. Meanwhile, you have Nos 10 denying that Boris Johnson and his then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds were caught "in flagrante" in Mr Johnson's Commons office. But then again, they've denied many things that have turned out to be true.

On the deplorable conduct front, here's what we do know:

Neil Parish: The senior Tory backbencher resigned after he admitted to watching porn twice in the Commons. He claimed to be searching for information on tractors.

Imran Ahmad: He was found guilty in April of sexually assaulting a drunk 15-year-old. Khan had supplied the drink. Meanwhile, other' matters' are under investigation, including Khan propositioning another teenager.

David Warburton: The MP for Somerton and Frome appeared in The Sunday Times with four lines of cocaine on an adjacent table. He also stands accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour with three women. It is alleged that on one occasion, Warburton stripped naked after following a woman into her room despite her protests.

Rob Roberts: The MP admitted making inappropriate sexual advances towards young members of his staff. Roberts asked a young intern to 'fool around' with him after she confided she was suffering from mental health issues.

Andrew Griffiths: The former MP raped his wife and subjected her to coercive control, a High Court judge ruled last December. Griffiths resigned as a minister in 2018 after sending thousands of sexually explicit messages to constituents.

Charlie Elphicke: The former Tory MP was jailed in 2020 on three counts of sexual assault. The court heard how Elphicke chased a staff member around his home chanting, "I'm a naughty Tory". The sentencing judge described him as a "sexual predator".

An unnamed but known Conservative MP was arrested in May on suspicion of rape. He also faces allegations of abuse of position. This individual is believed to be part of the 'Hong Kong All Parliamentary Group' - a body of self-appointed parliamentarians, many of whom sound like the fag-end of the British imperial mindset. The arrested MP will have his day in court, and I look forward to his evidence.

But the big news is that Chris Pincher, Boris Johnson's deputy chief whip, faces a barrage of allegations. This is the man that Boris appointed to keep party discipline — which may explain the above list.

Stories emerge from as far back as 2001 that Pincher can't control his hands when around young men. The big question is how much Boris Johnson knew before he appointed Pincher? After all, Pincher has a string of allegations to his name — even on one occasion referring himself for investigation. And yet, Boris decided to place Pincer in charge of party discipline.

Pincher proved a staunch supporter of Boris during his recent troubles. Hence, the theory is that Boris turned a blind eye to Pincher's repeated inappropriate behaviour. That tells you a lot about the viper pit of politics.

At the same time, Boris can't get his story straight about what he knew and when. Last week he denied knowing about specific allegations against Pincher. In an about-turn, he today admitted knowing the details. It took a honest former senior civil servant to point out that Boris was briefed on Pincher.

This sorry saga is starting to feel like a repeat of the Covid party imbroglio when Boris repeatedly changed his versions of events. Again, like the lying about Covid parties, slippery Boris twists in the wind.

So, having had a successful week strutting the world stage, Boris has come home to questions about his cavalier attitude to upholding standards, the truth and common decency in public life.

Then the bombshell news dropped that big hitters Rishi Sunak, and Sajid Javid quit the cabinet. The BBC's chief political editor said, "You can smell the fear in Nos 10". And the resignations continue to pile in.

We may finally be witnessing the end of Boris's premiership as his lies, mismanagement and bluster catch up with him. Meanwhile, the pile of ordure he leaves behind will take years to clear.

Watch this space.

2 Comments

Chris Emmett

6/7/2022 09:43:36 pm

Back in the days of the expenses scandal, one honest MP was asked why he didn’t succumb to the trend of making inflated claims. He answered something along the lines, ‘I asked myself how it would look on the front page of the Daily Mail.’ Simple, sensible and effective advice. It’s a pity Boris and his covey of leery followers didn’t follow suit.

Gloria Bing

7/7/2022 10:26:22 am

Every few years I like to watch The Lost Continent, a great Hammer horror film starring the even greater Eric Porter. For quite some time now I have been convinced that the U.K. is like the old freighter in the movie that has drifted into a kind of moral Sargasso Sea, except this one doesn’t have as much man-eating seaweed and vaguely camp Spanish conquistadors as the original does. Anyway, the old tub is firmly lost and stranded in the weed. Certainly the captain has no compass. The passengers look on as the crew go mad trying to save themselves.

The antics of parliamentarians, politicians of all stripes, senior civil servants, clerics, “celebrities” and others in positions of “responsibility” and “status” are just the most obvious expressions of a rot that goes all the way down to the imperious jobsworth in his hi-vis vest either punishing another unreasonably or avoiding performing an obvious duty. I think this state of affairs is as a result of certain social currents meeting mid-ocean to produce this blinding miasma: the elevation of self as the most important thing starting in the 60s; the obsessive culture of safety conjured into life in the 70s; the political correctness of the 90s that has metastasized into the social justice of the 00s, and of course the incendiary effect of social media on all of them, to name but a few of the more obvious ones.

However, I think the core problem is the shift in morals, away from virtues based ethics to values based ethics. There’s an old saying (actually I think it was an advertising campaign for an insurance company in the 1990s. Whatever.) “Times change, values don’t”. This is utter bullshit. Values change all the time. They are usually changed by committee and some values are valued and others under consideration get left on the shelf. More often than not, the choice of value for that moment is based on perceived public sentiment and a desire to be seen as in tune with the times or on the right side of history. Next week, when public sentiment changes, the values will change. That’s no way to create and maintain a moral system, but it is now the sap of political and corporate life in the U.K (and elsewhere). But, if values are the product of the deliberations of functionaries why, as an individual, should I see them as integral to me? I can easily annunciate the values that I have learned from a leaflet or website, because they are essentially corporate policy, whether that corporation is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Metropolitan Police or Bert’s Tyre & Exhaust Emporium. And if they can be changed next week, next month or next year, why should I invest myself in them?

Virtues, on the other hand, don’t really change. There may be four; there may be seven, but in one form or another they tend to resolve into the Stoic virtues of wisdom, courage (most importantly, moral courage), moderation and justice. Their key feature is, of course, that they are premised on the individual’s actions and not necessarily their beliefs: a person behaves courageously, behaves with wisdom, behaves justly and acts with moderation. Reciting a laundry list entitled “Our Values” it ain’t. Values tend to be based around beliefs (“We believe it is important to meet our customers’ needs…” yeah, until you wake up in a mood and decide the next customer who phones up can go f**k him/her/zurself) and are external – directed towards other staff, customers, etc., whereas virtues are about actions and are directed inwards: what matters to the self is to act rightly. Which one of the wankstains mentioned in Walter’s article would not have benefited from being taught as a child to act according to these virtues? At least it might have helped them develop a conscience.

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