In my last column, I took aim at the Blob and hopefully landed a few punches into the guts of the self-perpetuating oligarchy that is the Civil Service.
Events since then have prompted me to have another swing at this unaccountable, controlling collection of public sector 'leaders' who make the rules but seem unwilling or unable to abide by them themselves.
Yes, I'm talking about Partygate, Doggygate and any of the other 'gates' - incidences of appalling hypocrisy - that have come to light over the last four weeks or so.
And, whilst my anger and frustration is targeted about the various highly paid administrators, advisers and some scientists on the Government payroll, don't worry: I'm not giving the Prime Minister a clear bill of health.
I'm writing this in the week following the clumsy and politically motivated intervention by Cressida Dick, Commander of the Metropolitan Police, and a few days after Sue Gray released her heavily edited initial findings. The further delay in releasing the full Sue Gray report could be weeks, probably months, while the Police work their way through the continually mounting pile of evidence.
We are currently seeing resignations aplenty, most of which appear to be a clear out of those whose judgement failed them and who landed a distracted Prime Minister in the proverbial. However, rather foolish and unevidenced statements made by him in the House of Commons last week and his stubborn failure to apologise or withdraw those remarks have led to the loss of loyal lieutenants, most notably Munira Mirza.
However, it's clear that Boris Johnson's usually very astute political compass has been progressively neutered during the pressures of the COVID19 pandemic. For his long-term trust in people making up their own minds, for themselves and others, on the basis of the evidence seems to have been compromised time and time again.
Throughout his long journalistic career, both as a regular columnist on The Daily Telegraph and the editor of The Spectator, he has been an avowed libertarian. During his political stints: as an MP, the Mayor of London, a leading Brexit campaigner and as Prime Minister, he has vocalised the deep-seated English distrust of unnecessary controls and restrictions imposed by officialdom looking to justify their roles.
Yet, Boris has been forced to compromise time and time again, especially on the matter of blanket lockdowns.
How ironic, then, that he has been caught out by the very illogical and anti-freedom restrictions that he was persuaded to impose.
What was needed, prior to the successful rollout of the vaccines, a political call that Johnson correctly made, was 'focussed protection'. This is a term used in The Great Barrington Declaration, a statement written by leading epidemiologists and public health experts, who advocate an approach of targeted support for the most vulnerable.
NHS data for England bears out this contention. Of the 104,000 deaths linked to COVID19, over 91% were aged 60 and above. The most vulnerable and the elderly could have been protected without the lives and livelihoods of everyone else being enchained and curtailed.
The British people know how to adapt their behaviours when treated like adults. In a recent Guardian article, Raghib Ali analysed more recent data and discovered that English death rates were lowering per head faster than those in Scotland and Wales, even though the latter two had imposed Plan B restrictions months before.
Why? The author contends - correctly in my view - that this is due to individuals adapting the number and types of contacts in light of the evidence around the Omicron variant.
As he says: "There is evidence that household mixing in England rose and fell along with perceptions of risk rather than necessarily because of the rules in place at the time."
Which could be said to be what happened with Partygate et al. Here were adults making a reasoned judgement call in light of the science. Well done them.
Of course, these adults, though, weren't just any collection of over-worked folks looking to unwind in a large garden. They were the lot who had imposed a blanket lockdown on the rest of us.
Hence the furore.
At its heart, this issue is yet another example of the Blob's contempt for the rest of us. The May 2020 party wasn't Johnson's idea: rather it was a wheeze dreamt up by the Prime Minister's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds.
In her redacted account, Ms Gray criticises the "failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office", which would suggest there is a systemic problem within the civil service.
Incidentally, we didn’t have to wait long for another example of public sector arrogance to justify our anti-Blob sentiments.
As the Taliban's conquest of Afghanistan unfolded and evacuations, both canine and human, out of Kabul began, how was Boris's chief of staff, one Dan Rosenfield, giving the matter the required level of his attention? By attending the England v India test match at Lord's.
If Boris survives Sue Gray's report, and the eventual findings of Commander Dick, the first thing he should do is to hack away at the Blob and get shot of anyone who lacked the common sense to obey the rules that they themselves had created.
At the time of writing Messers Reynolds and Rosenfield are among those leaving. Others must surely follow.
First published www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk
& www.dissexpress.co.uk on Thursday, February 10, 2022
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