PartyGate - Genuine outrage, or hypocrisy of the highest order?
PartyGate is in full swing, it's dominating the media and some will say quite rightly so, but is it really the ONLY thing that should be on everyone’s mind right now?
They say a week is a long time in politics, and boy it has been this week.
PartyGate is in full swing, it's dominating the media and some will say quite rightly so, but is it really the ONLY thing that should be on everyone’s mind right now? Having gone through a range of feelings this week I am going to be honest and say this is a total opinion piece that might get a bit ranty at times, you have been warned!
For starters, there is the "party" at number 10 that the PM attended for 25 minutes. Was it a party? do we need Sue Gray to investigate? I totally get the frustration of the nation here, if it looks like a dog, and it barks like a dog, it's more than likely a dog. It's completely natural that people relate to their own situation at the time, and when your situation is that your loved one passed away alone and isolated, or you missed your grandson's funeral, or couldn't have all your friends around you when you got married, there is no way you aren't going to be pissed off!
There is the complication that the number 10 garden is both a workplace and part of a residence, the rules have always been ridiculously complex and in some cases plain illogical, but we are talking about the people making the rules, they should have known better! As far as I am concerned, the rules were idiotic, after the first lockdown I never supported them, but to find out those that made them went on to break them, Yes, I am pretty pissed off too.
I am just as pissed off with Jenny, Labour’s alleged NHS nurse, who denied a Husband the last moments with his wife “for the greater good”. That was cold and inhumane, I have to ask who in good conscience could actually do that to another Human Being? It was established at Nuremberg that only following orders is no defense. Now, I happen to think that Jenny is a figment of Labour’s imagination, but for sure this narrative played out somewhere to someone. It’s easy to say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one, but in a truly compassionate society, there are times that the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. If ever there was a time, this was it!
I am just as pissed off, as I was when the Mayor of Blackburn, Iftikar Hussain, was caught breaking lockdown rules. He may not have made the rules, but he did support and endorse them, as did his party (Labour). The story first broke in the local paper, who gave him a free ride, accepting his feeble excuse that he was just at someone else’s property (where there happened to be a wedding celebration) to accept a food delivery. The excuse was so lame it was untrue, (in fact if you believed it drop me a line as I have a bridge to sell you), but our local paper bought it and accepted it. Larger outlets ignored the story, until Jay Beecher at VoteWatch called it out. Larger outlets like the BBC were then forced to cover the story they wanted to ignore, and Cllr Hussain resigned as Mayor while the Labour Party withdrew the whip. That sounds reasonable, after all, he broke the rules he was responsible for endorsing locally. But within weeks, he had been quietly readmitted into The Labour Party, and stood for re-election.
So for me either we are going to forgive errors in judgment, or we aren't. There are plenty of people complaining about one rule for us, another for them when it comes to Boris Johnson, and I draw particular attention to Kate Hollern MP for Blackburn here, who took to twitter recently condemning the PM for breaking restrictions. But when you look back it seems she only has a problem with that when it isn't one of her own. When the Mayor of Blackburn was caught breaking restrictions there was silence from her, when several Labour councilors were caught breaking social distancing rules, and when called out told a volunteer who had been helping with funerals to “F*** Off”, again silence.
I have a word for that, its rank, it stinks of dishonesty, and it’s Hypocrisy.
If we aren't forgiving, then anyone who broke the rules needs to answer, with their position if need be, if we are forgiving then everyone gets a free pass and this farce of trying to contain a virus through social restrictions needs to end NOW. All those fines need to be repaid (with interest) and apologies need to be made. If we aren't forgiving, then every single public figure who broke the rules they imposed needs to go. Their position is no longer tenable.
On the face of it, I don't care much which way people think, I understand both opinions, just pick one and apply it to your opinion of everyone regardless of Left or Right, Red or Blue. Enough with the sanctimonious judgments of who is worthy of forgiveness and who isn't for the same crime under the same circumstances, which let’s face it is based on who you support politically.
This brings me to the media witch hunt that's going on right now. There seems to be total non-acknowledgment as to Sir Keir Starmer breaking the rules, yet when it comes to Boris Johnson it's another matter and “lynch mob” is the best description I can find. In comparison, it seems to me that all the journalists and media outlets that are going all out to destroy Boris, on the whole, also went all out to help the Remain side. When Remoaner in chief Lord Andrew Adonis is tweeting "If Boris goes, Brexit goes" it's perhaps obvious that there is an ulterior motive here, with those dodgers of democracy once again seeing a possible opportunity to scupper Brexit.
Certainly, if the zeal that is being used by the media against the PM now, was used against grooming gangs, many, many young girls would not have had their lives destroyed, Jimmy Saville would have spent time behind bars, and the BBC would not have gotten away so lightly imposing the TV license on the over 75’s. There would also be far more questions being asked about the hundreds of thousands of pounds being funneled into the Labour Party from the Chinese Communist Party and to Beijing Barry. Questions would be being asked as to whether Barry Gardener was complicit in CCP spying or was he just a useful idiot? If so whose useful idiot was he anyway? No matter how angry I am at parties at number 10, it pales in comparison to how concerned I am about CCP interference in our parliament. Given how reluctant it seems many Labour MPs are to criticise the CCP, questions have to be asked about how far this influence goes?
When I stood for The Brexit Party in 2019 there were several unfounded allegations, some from the Labour Party, of Russian Money funding the party. All the while The Labour Party and Barry Gardiner were being funded by the CCP! While some people may take note of the adage "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" Labour were as oblivious to that in 2019 as they are now.
It doesn’t matter if it's Russian Money or Chinese Money, Boris or Kier breaking restrictions. Either you’re standing for what you believe in, or who you believe in, and there is an important difference between the two. So it's a first a question of forgiveness. Are we forgiving all or none when it comes to being fallible and breaking lockdown restrictions? Then it's a question of priorities, what's more important, a glass of wine at a party that shouldn’t have taken place, or foreign influence in our democracy?
However you feel about these issues, to avoid hypocrisy, you have to be fairly absolutist about your position. If breaking lockdown restrictions was wrong, then it was wrong for everyone. If foreign money coming into a political party is dodgy then it matters not which foreign power or political party.
For me, I’m unhappy that anyone who made the rules, broke the rules, especially when the rules were so inhumane and unforgiving. But let’s not pretend this is all about breaking the rules, this is about political ideology and posturing in an attempt to overthrow a government. Because if it really was about the rules, the same people calling for the head of Boris Johnson, would be calling for the head of Kier Starmer, and EVERY other politician who broke the rules.
So enough with the sanctimonious bull shit already, by all means choose your moral high ground, but choose it carefully, because today it might be someone you don’t like that’s made a mistake and that’s OK (for you), but tomorrow it might be someone you do like and support and once you’re up that hill and planted your flag, we can all see you skulk down again quietly. Just bear in mind that there are people that WILL call out that kind of double standard.