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  • Walter's Blog.
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  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
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    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
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    • The Big Game
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you wh at life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

13/4/2022 3 Comments

The Criminal in Nos 10.

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"The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love, he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continually lying to other men and himself."
​

Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Finally, after months of denials that anything illegal happened at Nos 10, the truth is out. Boris Johnson now enters the record books as the first serving British Prime Minister to face a criminal fine. 

Most people who get caught in a lie feel intense guilt and seek to atone. Yet, for all his professed apology, Johnson displays no genuine remorse, no shame or guilt because only a resignation is enough. Thus, one can conclude that the man cannot accept responsibility for his actions, which is a dangerous trait in a national leader.

Let us recall what happened. In simple terms, Boris banned people from gathering, yet, he partied. Boris had the police break up weddings, yet, he partied. Boris banned people from holding the hand of a dying relative, yet, he partied.

Johnson loves to trumpet the 'rules-based world-order,' a stance he uttered many times in recent weeks as he seeks a Churchillian aura in dealing with the Ukraine crisis. But, that veil of deceit looks threadbare when Johnson doesn't himself stick to the rules. Moreover, he hides behind Putin's actions to hang on as PM,  taking this dissonance to new heights.

That Johnson broke the rules and norms of democracy with such flagrant arrogance speaks to the core of the man. So we shouldn't be surprised that he's undermined Britain's democracy by lying to parliament; his many previous lies and deceits are legend.

We know all politicians lie, fudge and dissemble — by default, they play fast and loose with the truth and loath to admit mistakes. Yet when caught in the full glare of the truth, any man with an ounce of decency would go. 

In the final analysis, Boris Johnson has done significant damage. He's damaged the moral fabric of Britain, leaving the country weaker at home and on the international stage. That will be his legacy. 

3 Comments
Gloria Bing
13/4/2022 12:02:35 pm

I think Walter's gone a bit hyperbolic (like hypersonic, only with slippers and a pipe) on this one. Nobody much cares about this from what I can tell: they might care if he had lied about molesting little boys or driving while high on Crack, but slipping out for a bit if cheese and wine in a back garden on what must have been a freezing night seems more likely to elicit a truly Churchillian "makes you proud to be British" response from many, who undoubtedly must know they also broke a rule or two at some point. Anyway, the irony is, just as Boris is actually starting to look like a national leader, Walter wants him gone.

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Jeremy Stone
13/4/2022 12:27:23 pm

Yawn. I really don’t think so many people really care about this party gate, or should I say Perry gate, nonsense. People love to get on their moral high horse but I think this horse has been flogged to death. It’s trivial and it’s not even criminal. Time to move on.

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Chris Emmett
14/4/2022 08:39:37 pm

In normal times, the ambitious Tory elite would be circling. But these are unusual times: energy crisis, inflation driving the underprivileged into deeper poverty, Covid peaking at new highs, the NHS in meltdown, and a war in Ukraine threatening to destabilise Europe. If Boris goes, then so must the chancellor and no doubt a fair proportion (if not all) of his cabinet. Once the various crises ease (which in time they must) I’m sure we’ll see the knives poised over Boris’s back. For now, like all comedians, Boris knows that timing is on his side.

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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