29 April 2021

Diary of a Corbynista

Piles of Bodies

by Don Urquhart

22 April

The former veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer either resigned or was fired yesterday. His view of Boris Johnson’s government – a “cesspit” and “the most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in”.

God help us!

23 April

39 former postmasters had their names cleared yesterday in the High Court.  Their prosecutions had been based on data provided by the bug-ridden Horizon system installed in 1999.  Well-paid senior executives at Post Office Ltd have known about the Horizon problems for many years and nevertheless allowed the postmasters to be bullied and imprisoned.  I have been following the saga in Private Eye since 2011.

Clearly Boris Johnson’s is not the only cesspit in our fair land.

24 April

Message Board responses to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 276:

Sunlounger:

It would appear that the entire British political and media infrastructure has a single purpose. To protect Johnson and keep him in power for as long as possible.

I include all opposition parties in the infrastructure as well because until they unite, their impotence as an opposition protects Johnson.

Smoothie:

Not sure what media you look at, all I’ve been able to watch this week has been wall to wall D of E funeral coverage (which was quite moving TBH) followed by the Rise and Fall of the ESL in rapid time. Not sure how those billionaire foreign owners misunderstood the true fans of the beautiful game whose true love is not watching the same few teams on TV week in week out, but following their team around the country for 8 months of the year, drinking warm beer with their mates for a few hours before the game, a pie at half time and on a really good week rounding it off with a good punch up with the opposition fans. Not sure how the Glazers, Henry et al didn’t understand that.

Flyboy:

It’s a very unfortunate state of affairs that sport has become (and increasingly so) a commercial enterprise, the world knows this was an attempt to create a business entity to further line the pockets of the already very wealthy.

Perhaps, this will turn out to be a good thing and inspire fans etc to bring things back from the brink.

I’m not reading all of the press so maybe I missed this, but how come we are not hearing from footballers, is it because they are also just in it for the money too? Why have they not spoken up in greater numbers?

In the tennis world, the top players have all voted to make prize money fairer, spread across each round so the players lower down can make a decent living, it’s still very elitist but I get the impression the players are in it primarily because they love playing tennis.

Corbynista:

We will see more Premier League owners obtaining the mobile phone number of our PM.

Bath Bun:

Did no-one feel that Keir Starmer’s ejection from a Bath pub demonstrated that he is providing a robust and credible opposition to what appears to be a never to be removed Tory leadership of this nation?

No, me neither.

Crafty Cockney:

Agreed Bath Bun…. terrible optics, and humiliating for Starmer at a personal level. I admire him as an individual, but to counter Tory lies, deceit, sleaze and xenophobia , and to provide a principle based alternative … a different person is required… an English Nicola Sturgeon, if you like !

Here’s hoping!

25 April

I picked up on Twitter that there had been a major demonstration in Hyde Park yesterday.  YouTube had it.  It looked like a few coppers being encircled by a large mob of hooligans.  Their causes seemed to be anti-vax, mask and lockdown.  They were undoubtedly violent – 8 police officers were injured.  The police operation was I think driven by the rules on gatherings and social distancing but they might have been better off turning a blind eye.

Only the Sunday Express had it on the front page.  No mention at all on Sophy Ridge and Andrew Marr.

26 April

What is in it for Dominic Cummings? His blog attacks the Prime Minister on a number of fronts but I suggest that none of this has seriously cut through with voters.  If they cared about Johnson’s ethics he would be long gone.  It looks like a dead cat thrown by Johnson, Cummings or both. The follow-up question is:

What are they trying to keep off the media by offering some old cobblers as highly important and newsworthy?

Perhaps it is his alleged a la Marie Antoinette utterance:

No more f*cking lockdowns – let the Bodies Pile High in Their Thousands.

If it turned out that he said it, this could signal a swift end for Johnson.

27 April

The Telegraph and Robert Peston have it that there are three people prepared to testify on oath that Johnson said:

No more f*cking lockdowns – let the Bodies Pile High in Their Thousands.

Who are these three people?  One assumes that they are government ministers, medical and epidemiological experts or senior civil servants.

28 April

Yesterday Caroline Lucas raised in the Commons the Prime Minister’s habitual lying in the House and referred to the video on this topic by Peter Stefanovic which until that point had been viewed 13 million times.

I am desperately keen that he be asked at PMQ’s whether he made the statement:

No more f*cking lockdowns – let the Bodies Pile High in Their Thousands.

Instead I expect the Leader of the Opposition to go in hard on the financing arrangements for Carrie’s refurbishments, a subject which has zero impact on those outside the bubble.