Invading the Netherlands and other stories

I have just spent a very enjoyable ten days in southern Spain where the high speed train network is cheap, clean, comfortable and very, very fast. Heaven alone knows what Spanish tourists think of the British rail network but we can all get a very good idea of what the rest of Europe now thinks of Boris Johnson and as a consequence the UK.

The idea that he thinks that asylum seekers reaching our shores are the result of President Macron and that he was planning to invade the Netherlands during the Covid pandemic, says it all.

It would really have been a measure of the competence and seriousness of the British state if we had been told this at the time and the PM had been defenestrated as a result. But the UK polity is not working and has not been functioning properly for decades now. A PM who is so stupid and crass that he thinks invading one of our NATO allies is a good idea, should have been removed from office.

But to sell some books and make more money he is willing to write this utter bullshit, spread conspiracy theories about not just the French President but also Chinese laboratories, demean his country and his former office, and his own reputation too.

The last one is the least of our problems since he has no reputation worth saving. But if he could just limit himself to pathetic acts of self harm rather than damaging the country that would be nice.

It is increasing hard not to agree with Sir Antony Seldon, who concluded that Mr. Johnson did more damage to the country and the office of PM than even Liz Truss, and he is still hard at work providing us with more evidence of that truth.

Apparently there are still Tories who want Mr. Johnson back as leader, but that is never going to happen. He is too old, obviously letting himself go, desperately needs huge amounts of money and is willing to dump on his own party, his friends, former colleagues and his country to get what he wants and to stay in the public eye.

Like the embarrassing drunk uncle who has to be invited to family weddings he is now sitting in the corner crying and loudly lamenting his fate, spreading lies about family secrets far and wide, making false claims, ruining the special day, and making himself the centre of attention.

Except unlike a wedding this embarrassment is going to go on and on, with books and articles, doubtless TV shows and “documentaries”, conspiracy theories and self publicising stunts.

The man was never worthy of high office, he should never have been trusted with running a whelk stall, let alone leading a country. We are now living with the consequences of not a drunk uncle but a lazy, incompetent, delusional, stupid, bullying, lying, and massively inadequate self-entitled ego.

We can only apologise to the Dutch and the French and the rest of the people he is going to slander and slur in order to sell a few more books. We will have to try to repair the damage he has caused.

Brexit alone has done more permanent damage to this country than anything else since 1945, that would be a bad enough legacy for any total failure let alone one who never believed in leaving the EU, but supported it to get to the top of the greasy pole.

We can never afford that level of ambition again, but the Johnson ego can never let go, never retire, never admit inadequacy or failure.

This is what you get if you let totally unscrupulous, pathetic liars near power, let us use Johnson as a warning to the future, we cannot afford another PM like Johnson, ever again.

Jonty’s Jottings

Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.

By Jonty Bloom Media