Sometimes I struggle to believe how awful our government is. Then they do their best to remind me. Johnson knows that a fine and bad publicity is coming, so he heads off to Ukraine to pose as a key player in a tragic war. World-beating this, leading the way that, spending this, blah, blah, blah.

Shoring Up

The response to his visit was not as he had hoped, and the bad press kept coming. So, next up, a ludicrously expensive dog whistling attempt at shoring up the worst of British people. Why are they so scared of people fleeing war and persecution? What impact does a refugee have on any decent person?

That’s how far the Tories have sunk. They are no longer the party of conserving values and traditions via, what I would argue, is deluded nostalgia. They are now out and out right-wing populists. Everything they do is aimed at curtailing freedom and stopping democracy. Worse still they have a huge support base from the most ill-educated and nasty individuals in this country. Our lives are being dictated by lunatics.

Triggering Base Support

These people are not known for their long-term concentration levels. So, when their interest is distracted by football or Jordan’s new set of tits, Johnson does what he does best. He goes jogging dressed like the king of the village idiots, then does or says something racist. Bingo, the bar stool fascists are back in the room.

I don’t know where this all ends. In a recent post, I tried to calculate how Johnson’s populist movement could be halted. I found no answers. A socialist movement hasn’t got a prayer and Keir Starmer’s wishy-washy centrist rebranding has only made the inroads expected of it and not much more. No one seems to be able to do damage to the 35% of the vote that Johnson holds.

Socialists I know, point to the relative success of Corbyn in 2017 but we have to be realistic about it. Corbynism was a popular, dare I say it, populist movement that failed. When all is said and done, his rival was Theresa May, who was already getting stabbed in the back and front by Johnson’s boot boys in the media, notably The Telegraph (Johnson’s £250k a year employer). Without Scotland, the Labour Party is a circle that can’t be squared.

He’s Not Daft

Johnson knows what he is doing. This half-baked and unworkable immigration plan is £1.5 billion tossed out of the window. However, for him, it is a decent investment as it shores up the barstool fascists that he secretly hates but relies on for votes. He’ll probably make it worthwhile to those around him by outsourcing people trafficking to Serco Sendemback Ltd in return for a villa in Spain.

What is really tragic is that Johnson wouldn’t do these things if they didn’t shore up support. These latest actions say as much about 35% of the British voting public as they do about Johnson.

Have a good Easter.