These are dangerous days.  You have only to look at any UK newspaper (for the sake of clarity, and to their shame, that group does not include political apologists The Daily Mail and The Telegraph) to see the depth of despair over the antics of the British government.  A seemingly endless stream of lies, threats, exceptions and evasions flows forth from No. 10 – they are responsible for everything, and nothing.  The prime minister lies (to Queen and country), acts illegally, fails to attend key meetings, hides and blusters; and yet he continues to be.

The job of Leader of the Opposition is never easy – far harder to hold a party together when it is out of office, to get headlines when you are not the decision maker and to be heard above the clamour of parliament when facing an overwhelming government majority.   It takes time to turn the fortunes of a political party.

But consider this: how many of those who voted Tory at the last general election expected to see this overweight tatterdemalion scarecrow sacrifice his chancellor to a bullying unelected henchman, offer support to a US President widely regarded as off the rails, preside (whether he accepts the responsibility or not, his it is) over the deaths of something around 50,000 of his fellow citizens, and mumble and bluster as the economy heads towards disaster?

New government policy initiative to be announced by our Flatulent Leader, titled “Defending Shame.”

Ever heard the expression “don’t spoil the ship for a ha’ppoth of tar?” Well, how’s this for an example:

Talks with the EU are stalled on the “vexed” question of fishing.  In 2018 the UK employed 9,600 full-time and 2,400 part-time workers in the fishing industry, the total value of their catch was around £990m.

In the same year, financial services, an employer of around1.1m employees, contributed around £132bn to the British economy. Exports of financial services (of which 43% went to the EU) were valued at around £60bn, and the sector contributed tax revenue of around £29bn.

The very idea that talks with the EU could flounder [sic] over fishing is total codswallop.

Apparently the UK government are considering spending God knows how many spondulicks on  a new royal yacht.  Exactly what the country needs to take us out of our misery.

Just one problem, with their track record, they might as well name it HMS Royal Titanic.

Just think what that could do to Johnson’s legacy: the man who lied to the country,  destroyed public health, illegally suspended Parliament, smashed the economy, and drowned the Queen.

The trail of incompetence left by the UK government is appalling. They have lied, avoided, evaded and prevaricated. About 40,000 people have died – that is not entirely attributable to action – or non-action – by the government, but that it is certainly a major contributory factor. Yesterday, there more deaths were reported from the UK than the other 27 countries in Europe combined.

It is hard to imagine how the government could sink in public esteem. But nothing is beyond Jake Mogg; when you think they’ve hit rock bottom, he goes lower. He has demanded that the Commons is re-called – that meant MPs queuing to vote in a crocodile hat stretched for around 1km – what a sight, and what a waste of time. Worse, a government minister became ill yesterday while on his feet in the Commons. That provides a graphic desciption – as if one was required of the recklessness – sheer stupidity of little moggie. If it transpires that the minister in question does, indeed, have the virus, heaven only knows how many other ministers and MPs may have been infected.

The honourable thing would be for little Moggie to resign, but honour, like sense, like integrity, has long since departed from the government benches.

Is it just me, or do others too think that Dominic Cummings bears a strong resemblance to a tadpole?

Actually, that is a digression, because the “Cummings affair” has moved on, it is no longer about Cummings.  The stakes could not be higher.  It is now prime minister v. the country – if Johnson wins, he has carte blanche for anything he cares to do for the next 4.5 years.  If he loses – and I pray to God that he does – he is finished, spent, a busted flush.

It should not have come to this: the very idea of PM v. the nation, far less at a time of crisis.  That it has tells us all what kind of a man Johnson is, as if we needed telling: a chancer, a scoundrel, a braggard inflated with (his own) hot air.

Dominic Cummings has done enough, more than enough, to merit his departure from Downing St.   He broke the rules that he himself had helped introduce, designed to keep us all safe.  But some safer than others.  Not only did he break them – the manner of his breaches. for there was more than one, is astonishing – eg taking his wife and child for a 30 mile drive to a renowned beauty spot “to test his eyesight”…  Not only did he break the rules, but he showed no contrition whatsoever for having done so. No apology, no regret.

So why is he still in situ in Downing St?  For one reason and one reason only: the Flatulent Leader wants him there –  so crucial is he to government that the PM cannot do without his services.   That tells you something about Cummings, but more about the prime minister, a lazy coward, a liar and a  scoundrel.

Opposition leaders are meeting today to discuss what can be done; but the answer, I fear, will be little or nothing, a government with a majority of 80 is pretty much unassailable.  Nevertheless the day will come when they can be hounded from office, when gentlemen in England now abed will think themselves accursed no more and join with me to cry “Enough !  Be gone !”

The covid crisis is one we would all like to forget. If there is one member of the government who has come out of least badly that person is probably Rishi Sunak, the chancellor.  So why he finds it necessary to issue statements such as this is beyond me: “Dominic Cummings has made clear he was motivated by trying to protect his son and he took steps to be safe. I understand people had serious questions about his actions – indeed many of you have made huge sacrifices – but I do believe today he explained himself. “

Let me remind you:

Max Hastings: I was Boris Johnson’s boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister. “He is also a far more ruthless, and frankly nastier, figure than the public appreciates.”

Until yesterday the story of Dominic Cummings and his drive to Durham was small beer.  An unelected adviser, known for his arrogance and aggression broke the lock down rules: true he had participated (wrongly in my view) in meetings of SAGE, true he has the ear of the prime minister, but at the end of the day he was just an adviser; and advisers are dispensable.

That was the case until yesterday when the Flatulent Leader, the prime minister himself, took to the podium to defend Cummings and his actions.  At that point the affair took on a significance and a gravity far beyond the actions of one man.  This was a government condoning the breaking of its own rules, placing the interest of one man above the welfare of the entire nation, a prime minister no longer bothering to disguise his contempt for the public.  It could hardly be more serious.