Boris Johnson looks like a scarecrow come to life and sounds like a privately-educated Jabba the Hutt. Somehow, through dark and mysterious forces of the universe, he is also the Prime Minister of the UK.
In fact, the bumbling, non-sequitur style of address and the scruffy look is all an act. Johnson is infamous for messing up his hair right before interviews, even after the makeup team have smoothed it down, in order to appear like a jovial, non-threatening man of the people instead of the type of person who once tried to arrange the assault of a journalist.
While he’s always been fairly well-liked by certain sections of the British population, and absolutely loathed by others, it appears that Johnson’s social credit may well have reached its limit. The UK population is collectively furious with him and his government for actions that they see as fundamentally at odds with national solidarity in the face of a global pandemic.
News emerged this week that while the UK was in lockdown in December 2020, separating families from their loved ones and denying people the chance to say goodbye to those in the overflowing intensive care units of hospitals up and down the country, Number 10 Downing Street, the home of the British Prime Minister, was partying it up.
The Times has reported that the Number 10 party included a Secret Santa and a “proper spread” of food and alcohol while attendees wore Christmas jumpers. A gathering of any kind with members from different households would have absolutely been against COVID restrictions in place at the time.
To put this in context, this was occurring at the same time that people gathering to mourn the death of Sarah Everard, a woman kidnapped and killed by a police officer on her walk to the pub in London last year, were being arrested and fined ÂŁ10,000 ($18,500) for being in breach of public health orders.
The Number 10 Christmas Party has become the source of the nation’s collective rage as it was first denied to have happened, then claimed that no rules were broken, then revealed to have been the source of private jokes between members of government in a leaked video.
The Brits reacted to the news in much the same way that they react to everything: with a mixture of biting satire and barely concealed fury. Currently, 1.1 million people have clicked attending on a Facebook event called “Christmas Rave – 10 Downing Street” that is planned for Christmas Day this year, with the “line up” including “Boris and chums”, no social distancing required.
Reality TV show hosts Ant & Dec, who you may remember as interviewing the rockstar Billy Mack in Love, Actually, called the Prime Minister out on live television on Wednesday while hosting the UK’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. Not your usual subject for casual evening viewing.
Good evening, Prime Minister! đź‘€đź¤@antanddec #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/cekIFiwx8N
— I'm A Celebrity… (@imacelebrity) December 7, 2021
Amongst the jokes were heartfelt stories and outpourings of anguish from people who had followed the rules and declined to see loved ones during the Christmas period last year.
You know, I couldn’t be with my mum last Christmas because of restrictions in place. None of us could see my dad, who spent his last Christmas in hospital alone, because of restrictions. Boris Johnson and his lot had a party and are LAUGHING at us about it. Fuck. The. Tories.
— Chris F (@GeordieChris_F) December 7, 2021
When I think that my Grandma died with none of us able to properly visit her and that I didn’t go to her funeral to follow the rules. That I had to cancel my Christmas plans and leave mum in tears to follow the rules. And these absolute fuckers were partying & laughing about it.
— Tom (@tomilo) December 7, 2021
This was taken in the early hours of Christmas morning last year. It was relentless and distressing. I cried because I couldn’t see my family. We ate toasties and I was so exhausted I was asleep by 5pm. Glad the MPs enjoyed their party, while we worked ourselves into the ground. pic.twitter.com/0gAVK4OXOs
— Jade (@JadeJHouston) December 9, 2021
Boris Johnson was forced to make a formal apology in Parliament and Allegra Stratton, the UK government advisor who was filmed making the jokes about the party, was made to give a tearful resignation as a token gesture of just how ‘seriously’ the government are taking the issue.
Now it’s clear that this may not be enough. Calls for Johnson to resign have echoed up and down the country and the Scottish National Party have said in no uncertain terms that it’s time for the PM to go, calling it a “moment of moral reckoning”.
The leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, noted that the Queen sat by herself in Westminster Abbey at the funeral of her late husband Prince Philip and asked whether the Prime Minister has the moral authority to lead the nation.
Johnson has ordered an investigation into the allegations of the party that didn’t happen while new reports emerge that a further six parties may have also been hosted at the time. We await to see what new fantasy they are able to come up with to cover their tracks here. Whether or not it will wash with the British public is another thing.
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