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And so, another one bites the dust!
Another British prime minister has fallen on his sword and succumbed to the combined attack of social media, a rampant right-wing Press and the cappuccino socialists.
Poor old Sir Keir Starmer hardly seemed to get into his stride when he was brought down, mainly by his actions in appointing Peter Mandelson to be the UK ambassador to the US. Not only did he ignore disquiet from his staff, but he waved away an objection from the security vetting office.
Now, since he did not actually break any laws by doing this, normally a PM could ride out the storm and get on with running the country. However, in the past decade British politics has taken a turn to the dark side and when the media, of all descriptions, get their teeth into something, they will not let it go.
Boris Johnson, a darling of the right-wing knitting circles and coffee mornings, could do no wrong as far as the blue rinse brigade were concerned and since they make up the majority of the Conservative party you would have thought we would have had Boris ensconced in number 10 for many years.
But no. Boris liked to party and was not going to let a little thing such as restricted gathering rules for Covid get in his way, after all these rules were for the good of the common man.
So, the uncommon man could party to their hearts desire.
Afraid not, you see, when you are as abrasive as Boris you leave behind persons who feel aggrieved and they are the ones who will send the selfies and piccies to the aforementioned rabid Press who will think nothing of attacking their own party if it sells papers. These are the newspapers that got rid of Liz Truss after 44 days by comparing her to a lettuce.
Back in the time of Maggie Thatcher, and even Tony Blair, the media was more respectful of the position of prime minister and even though Maggie and Tony gave them plenty of ammunition to go wild, it was just not done and would be unseemly to disrespect them.
But we live in a different age now and respect for anything is a rare commodity.
The unrestricted Internet has given each and every keyboard warrior a platform that they have turned into a belief that everything they espouse is correct and anything else is biased, corrupt or paid for by big business or the illuminati.
This is the environment in which well meaning people who start off with a zeal to run the country in a beneficial way for all its citizens end up being forced out of office before they have even got going.
I’m not going to endorse any one of the UK’s governing parties, but I would like to see it giving someone the decency of giving their policies time to get going to see if they work.
Bear in mind that UK opinion polls all put Keir Starmer’s government down below the opposition but if a government has got their policies correct then that’s exactly where they should be halfway through a governing period.
Jackie@JBeedie.com
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