Statements supportive of Cummings have now been issued by Sunak, Raab, Patel,  Gove and Johnson.  And yet his is widely seen as a lost cause.

Why bring the government into direct conflict with public opinion, why damage the authority of the message to stay at home to save lives, why rally round an incompetent leader ?

I say again, why, why, why ?

There is no doubt that Dominic Cummings is the key man in the Flatulent Leader’s government: the organ-grinder to whose tune the monkey dances.  It seems his influence can hardly be overstated.  He it is who has set the direction of government, and he who has selected the team, a process which included the defenestration of the FL’s first pick as chancellor.  But his departure will be at a terrible for Johnson:  if he goes the FL will flounder even further out of his depth.

Go he should.   The clamour is increasing.   Those ministers  and MPs who have defended him have demeaned themselves.  A  situation in which there is one rule for those in government and another for the rest is distasteful and untenable.  And the fact is that Cummings has been, for some time, a disaster waiting to happen.

Johnson would be wise to recognise the situation and take charge instead of issuing denials that simply serve to make him look weak and needy.  If Cummings has to go it would be better to  make that look like a decision of government rather than one forced on it.  We were given ample warning that the FL was not up to the job, that he would preside over shambles and chaos with no thought for anything but his own self-interest.  Now we begin to see the cost.

Here are a few comments taken from social media:

That I have contempt for those who lead us into Brexit is no secret.  I have precious little regard for those gullible, culpable or simply stupid enough to vote for it: but I did not expect them to pay with their lives.  And, shameful as it is, that is exactly what is happening.

Diehard (word fits theme precisely),  diehard Brexiteers were for the most part ill-educated,  elderly, men; men with little sympathy for face masks, nurses, sanitation or sense. Diehard they were, and die hard they do.

Ours is a government that looks after nobody, absolutely nobody, but itself.  The runt of the litter is little Jake Mogg, who emerged this week,  from wherever he has been hiding,  to insist that MPS should abandon the electronic measures that enabled them to perform outside “the chamber” and return to the benches.  Why ?  Because the Flatulent Leader – to whose apron strings little Mogg clings with the all tenacity of an Etonian threated with loss of privilege, is not only flailing, but failing,  to control his party.   Not content with one disastrous U-turn, the FL has made so many that he is more like a whirling dervish – in performance and appearance – than a sober statesman.  By forcing MPs back into the Commons Mogg and his minders hope that tribal politics can be restored, and quick.  Is this plan medically dangerous for MPS, their families and staff ?: yes;  does it go against stated government policy ?: yes;  do Mogg and the FL care: no, not one bit !

There is just one fly in the ointment: astute readers will have realised that Mogg has been oddly silent of late.  There is a reason: every time he opens his mouth he puts his foot in it.  Nobody has the ability to antagonise like little Mogg, nobody is better at getting every point of judgement absolutely, diametrically, wrong than little Mogg.  I can’t do better than quote from a review of what is – we can only hope – his last – in every sense – published ‘work.’   Here goes: “his own pretensions [as they] are repeatedly dashed on the rocks of his incoherent thoughts before sinking under the dead weight of his lifeless language.”  The full review can be read here – I commend it.

As a postscript, I may add that while writing today’s blog, I corrected one of my myriad typo’s: instead of Mogg I wrote Moff, which seems rather apt.  Moff he is and Moff henceforth will be.  Back to the prologue: One of two outcomes seem likely: either MPs do, indeed, make their return, in which case many of them are likely to become ill, and some to die – “Moff balls up” as you might say; or the whole plan will be quietly ditched,  his latest Moff-balled suggestion.

Enough !  Are you sick to death of bad news, deaths, lies and politics ?

Well, here’s a little game anybody can play: see how many brand names you can wreck by just changing one letter.  For example, try replacing the T in Boots (the chemist), and see what you get.

Good luck

“Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air.”   I do not know why reference to the witches in the Scottish play brings to mind Pee-pee Patel, but there it is.  She is certainly poisonous enough.

Earlier this week Pee-Pee announced a policy (I said she announced it, not that she spelt it, 3 syllables is a lot to ask).  She was going to charge NHS staff from overseas for accessing the service themselves – not even accessing actually, simply for being here with the right to use it, whether they did so or not.    And when questioned, the Flatulent Leader – who claimed to have “thought long and hard” – that’s a novelty – over the issue, decided she was quite right.  We’re through the worst, let the buggers pay.

Yesterday, in Prime Minister’s questions Neddy Star-Goon* raised the issue again, and again Johnson offered his support to the Home Secretary.  Today he backed down.  3 cheers for Neddy.

* when  the BBC received the first scripts for The Goon Show, they not only turned it down, but thought it was in fact called “the Go On Show.” That shows you something.

** much as I like and admire Keir Starmer, I find reference to his mother’s donkey sanctuary utterly irresistible.

We are learning to live – those of us that have not succumbed to the virus – with a government that is pathologically incompetent.  But coming to terms with the lies is another matter.   I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.

A few days ago Hancock, the Health Secretary (he might as well be renamed Minister for Contagion and done with it) assured us that the government had placed its gloved hand around care homes from the outset of the crisis.  There have been deaths, he said, but they are down to bad luck as much as anything.  “Alas, that is not quite as I recall,” the Justice Secrtary, Robt. Buckland – a slippery individual if ever I saw one – announced this morning, adding “we concentrated on the NHS.”   They can’t both be right.  One of them is lying.

PM or scarecrow ?

In the following 2 graphs (first for the UK, second for France) the bars show the number of cases of the virus – against the scale on the left – and the lines show the number of deaths from it (scale on the right):

No international comparisons ?

A internal report has described the LibDem campaign in last year’s general election as a “high speed car crash.”   It is indisputable that the result was not one they would have wished for.   And not just them.

Hard hitting as it is, I am not sure the report goes far enough.  It is true that Jo Swinson was fresh in her post, and that she may have encountered a gender bias, but the fact is that her claim to be a prime minister in waiting was not credible.  She simply did not have the chutzpah.

The report says that the LibDem’s decision to go all out to fight Brexit was a mistake, and that it was an issue over which many voters simply did not care much either way.  I’m not so sure;  the outcry against Brexit had been loud and clear: if demonstrations mean anything they are a gauge of public feeling and the anti-Brexit demonstrations were gigantic.  But the policy of repealing Article 50 or, if that could not be achieved holding a second referendum,  was confusing.  It did not take account of the strong anti-Europe feeling which persisted – and persists – and threatened to replace one undemocratic process (a vote based on ignorance and lies) with another,  because a general election is not a straw poll on a single issue, no matter how important.

That takes me to the core of the problem: the general election itself.  The decision by opposition parties – and the LibDems were as responsible as any other – to rise to Johnson’s bait and fight the Tories in a general election was crazy.  Comrade Corbyn was widely seen as unelectable, and with the best will in the world Ms Swinson had only been leader for 5 months and although she did have ministerial experience it was hardly headline stuff.  Not only did they not stand a chance, but they brought down with them any serious opposition Johnson might have faced.  Gone are the noble band; defectors of left and right,  who put principle before power.

The decision  – and, let me be clear, prime responsibility for it rests squarely on the shoulders of the good Comrade – to enter the fray, has resulted in an extremist government bereft of talent and experience, but with a majority of 80.  In practical terms unassailable for another 4.5 years. All political careers, said Powell, end in failure.  As failures go the legacy of this one is a humdinger.