Good Riddance – for now – to a lying, cheating, racist.

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By the time you read this, the Privileges Committee on Partygate will have either published their findings or will be very close to doing so. Most people won’t read their report. Many won’t even know it’s been published.

One person who does know what it contains is Boris Johnson, who – despite stridently claiming the findings are wrong – quit as an MP on Friday.

Why care? And why read about it on a film blog?

Well, because we’re tired of people laughing Johnson off, of saying things like, ‘Oh it’s just Boris being Boris,’ usually with a faintly sad smile. We’ve had enough of people making excuses for this epitome of entitled British privilege, a man who found it so impossible to survive on his Prime Minister’s salary of £164,000 that he felt he needed an £800,000 loan. We’ve had enough of intelligent people making excuses for him.

The next time someone says something like this to you, please remind them of a few facts:

• He is a liar:
  • He has lied to Parliament (and therefore the country) about Partygate. That’s why he’s quit. He’s been found to lie by the (majority Tory) Privileges Committee and is leaving rather than face the consequences. How brave.
  • He was sacked from The Times because he allegedly invented a quote in an article
  • The Supreme Court ruled – unanimously – that his advice to the Queen to suspend Parliament was unlawful. So not only were he and his chums allegedly partying away while she buried her husband alone, he had lied to her face.
  • In 2012 he was forced to apologise for adding to the cacophony of vile lies told about Liverpool fans at the Hillsborough disaster.
  • In the 2019 election, he said his “government” would build 40 new hospitals by 2030. The cost to do so would be around £20 billion. His “government” provided less than a quarter of that, mainly used for rebuilding and consolidation.
• He is a cheat:
  • He was fired from his shadow cabinet job in 2004 for lying about an extramarital affair. The man cheated on at least one of his wives. Not to mention this was the second time he was sacked for lying.
• He is a racist:
  • You don’t have to go far for a list of his bigoted statements, most of which I won’t repeat here. However:
  • This is a quote from a column he wrote in 2000:
    • “When I shamble round the park in my running gear late at night, and I come across that bunch of black kids, shrieking in the spooky corner by the disused gents, I would love to pretend that I don’t turn a hair… And if that is racial prejudice, then I am guilty.”
  • His argument that everyone suffers from racial prejudice to a degree would be easier to accept were it not for the litany of racial slurs he’s been happy to use elsewhere.
• Judge him by his friends:
  • His most fervent supporters are Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg. I mean… Jesus H Christ.
• Yes, he won the biggest Tory majority since 1983. But…
  • The Labour leader in 1983 was Michael Foot.
  • The Labour leader in 2019 was Jeremy Corbyn.
  • Are we seeing a pattern yet? For those of you that don’t, Foot and Corbyn were the most left-wing leaders of their respective generations. Like it or not, this is a small c conservative country. Both victories were more a reflection of the opposition than the victor. Johnson isn’t a ‘natural winner’. Shergar could have stood against Corbyn and won, even if he’s an out-of-date tin of mouldy dog food by now.

The Tory media is already working hard to make excuses for Johnson. He’ll be back in some form for sure, like a fat, shitty Terminator.

If you have any time for Johnson, you’ll no longer be reading. But if you’re sick of the lies and the nonsense and the excuses, then when the next person defends him, take a discreet breath, smile, and – politely and kindly – remind the person that ‘Boris being Boris’ is being a liar, a cheat, and a racist.

Image credit: Brett Jordan on Unsplash