Now you all know by now that I love a good ride on the bandwagon, so shove up, I’m jumping on with my ukulele in hand! There is a lot to have opinions on this week!
After this week, you would be forgiven to think that the most common thing in the House of Commons is lying. And don’t get me wrong they do… to paraphrase dear old Dennis Skinner: “Half of them are liars” and when told to retract: “Fine – half of them are not liars”.
From an early age, my dear old granny hammered her maxim she lived by into me… No matter how fast a lie travels, the truth will catch up with it. And it is very true, it is just so much easier telling the truth. I have a dreadful memory and can never remember the back story when I am being “creative” with the facts. And of course, therein lies the whole problem. Facts. They can so very easily prove lies.
If we look back at Prime Ministers who had torpedoed their tenure in office with lies, we should start with poor dear old Anthony Eden. Within a year of taking the top job, the Suez crisis broke, Eden “misled” Parliament about the degree of “collusion with France and Israel” and when the Americans got stroppy, Eden resigned before he could be sanctioned.
Then in 1963 his successor, Super Mac (Harold MacMillan) had the Profumo affair where the Secretary of War shared a mistress with a Soviet spy and the allegations of their pillow-talk ending up in Moscow led to Profumo repeatedly telling lies and Super Mac steadfastly stood by him. When it was then discovered that Profumo had indeed had the affair, Super Mac fell on his sword (admirable really).
Fast forward to Tony Blair and the “Dodgy Dossier” about the WMD and 45 minutes that left Blair’s reputation in tatters. Blair was a good Prime Minister, but the lies is what left his legacy despite being the most successful Labour PM ever.
The truth is with Boris (and frankly his personal life makes the Profumo affair look like a fairy tale) is that he is a known liar… He lied when he was a journalist in the 90s (and got fired), he lied when he was a shadow minister in the early 00s (and got fired), so there really should be no surprise that he lied when he became PM. It is his natural fall-back.
And it was such bad lies! Lord above, he must think we are stupid. Any fool could see the overwhelming evidence that they partied while we were locked up in in our own homes. To then tell us otherwise was just idiotic. And if you think Parliament is angry, boy, are you in for a surprise at the next election (yes Rishi, go look at Super Mac and Profumo).
Lies really undermine trust and when the trust goes, it is game over. This is an important lesson for many newly elected Councillors: Don’t lie! The facts are, we need more new homes, and you should stop lying and telling your electorate we don’t. Remember, the next generation will need somewhere to live.
Until next week!
Henry