TEFLON : The great bull in the china shop of British politics, your leader Boris Johnson, is said to be planning a good romp among the aisles in the aforementioned china shop today, just like every other day.
Lesser politicians would have fallen long before now in the aftermath of any of the scandals Mr Johnson has been involved in. Indeed lesser politicians would never have risen to be prime minister. Mr Johnson thus displays a political skill that is rare indeed.
“He’s having a cracking time over this Dom text business,” a 10 Downing Street insider told LCD Views. “He’s overseen one of the world’s worst CV-19 responses and no one is suggesting he leaves office. A few texts back and forth with a billionaire offering to fix tax rates aren’t going to slow him down.”
And one particular source of comfort and merriment in the current feeding frenzy over the text messages is knowing that Mr Johnson’s reputation will not be damaged by it.
“This is where his genius lies. He shed any pretence to credibility long, long ago and the people went for it. So who cares? What are you going to do about it? If anything this current furore just shows how much more powerful than you he is. So deal with it.”
Presumably Mr Cummings won’t lose any credibility either, having also completely incinerated his own last summer when he chose to destroy the pandemic public health message.
“Just think yourself grateful that you get to witness the deeds of the mighty. Governance as entertainment. Entertainment as diversion as the state’s coffers are looted. It’s what the people voted for.”
But what about rumours that the release of the text messages are actually part of coordinated plan between Gove and Cummings to bring Johnson down?
“Barely credible. Gove is a patriot.”