As part of the Spectator’s live coverage of the Boris Johnson trial, the magazine’s editor Fraser Nelson has written a comment that is worth reproducing in full as it highlights the absurdity of the spectacle but also the important lesson political leaders may hopefully take from it.
So the trial of Boris Johnson has finished its first act, and it comes across as theatrical nonsense. Boris Johnson has already admitted that he misled the Commons by falsely denying that parties took place in No. 10: his defence is that he thought he was telling the truth at the time. As he said, in 10 months the parliamentary investigation has seen or heard no evidence to the contrary. The seven-member committee, four of them Tories, need to work out not what he did but what was in his mind. A hard task, especially without any evidence. And four hours of Johnson commentary is unlikely to change that.
I find this irritating because lying to parliament – which he did – would not even make the top 50 of his lockdown mistakes. We learn today that 140,000 kids never properly came back to school: how many minutes will that get on the BBC Six O’Clock News? This is the Boris effect: he holds more interest than the fate of tens of thousands of children who ended up casualty to his policies. But parliament is not dictated by ratings. So what’s to stop the MPs actually uncovering something new and important, rather than play lockdown Cluedo? Where’s the parliamentary inquiry into why the police were ever used in lockdown when voluntary guidance would suffice? What about the way he collapsed our democratic architecture during lockdown? What about the rule by WhatsApp that he allowed, as disclosed in such devastating detail by the Daily Telegraph’s investigation? But these are hard questions: far easier to poke Boris’s political corpse – laying on a circus for the cameras.
But then again, there is one way the public is certainly served by this spectacle. He did draw up these laws; he did needlessly send the police after tens of thousands of people. So it’s not just right but important that politicians end up ensnared in the traps they set for others. So next time a Prime Minister intends to abridge the liberty of millions, they may remember the scenes of the Boris trial and pause.
Fraser later adds:
Listening to the ridiculous wrangling over the minutiae of the rules almost provokes sympathy for Boris Johnson – until you remember those caught up in just-as-ridiculous laws which he imposed and decided to criminalise.
- The woman handcuffed for queuing for a coffee shop.
- The young woman from Pontypool fined £2,000 after visiting a home to support a friend who had fled an abusive relationship.
- The man fined for having driven too far to go fishing.
- Parents in Broxborne fined for letting their child have a sleepover with a friend.
- The Horncastle pensioners fined for eating a bag of chips in a laundrette.
The Spectator was arguing for some time that the Covid rules should be decriminalised and reduced to guidance. No. 10 had very little to lose by calling off the cops. I wonder if, by now, Johnson is starting to wish that he had done so.
Follow the Spectator’s live coverage here.
Stop Press: Watch Toby join Dan Wootton on GB News to react to the grilling: “Boris wouldn’t be in this pickle if he hadn’t imposed these absolutely absurd rules in the first place.”
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Don’t know about anyone else but I become a bit pensive when I hear some ‘champion of liberty’ say, “I believe in free speech, but …”
Free speech is precisely that – no caveats, no weasel words, no qualifications. If I don’t approve of what someone is saying, I ignore it. It really could not be simpler.
Yes I agree. And when somebody says they intend to kill you (or similar) they should be prosecuted for the intent to harm, as perhaps evidenced by the speech, and more importantly, any other evidence that points to that intent. The speech itself should never be the crime and should never be enough to prosecute. This is important with respect to social media because usually the speech exists in isolation, and without any other evidence is inadequate to prove intent.
It’s all so flipping obvious, because, for instance, 300 WhatsApp messages in one day, saying, “I love you” may be useful evidence to prosecute a stalker whereas a tweet explaining that it would be a great plan to kill everybody in Greece, in isolation, is evidence of stupidity alone.
What’s wrong with hate anyhow? Isn’t it morally justified to hate bad things?
Thank you for that thoughtful reply, Jay. As you say, the speech itself is not harmful – it’s rather like someone saying “guns kill people”. Well, no they don’t. the gun is not dangerous until someone picks it up.
As for hate; I was always advised that hate is born of fear and, having reached a very advanced age, I can confide that I fear nothing these days. The strongest feeling I can find within me is distaste or loathing for the fools who live amongst us.
And that is why I turned off all msm four yrs ago. The lies, the lack of honesty, truth was unbearable.
Yes, now that free speech is apparently illegal and legit criminals are being released early ( or not being sent to prison at all ) so that non-criminals who dare to dissent and oppose government policies can take their place, let’s take a look at how that’s working out for the government in Scotland, because that’s bound to help with the continuing issue of overcrowding, surely?
”The ”soft-touch” justice SNP Government has been accused of “fuelling crime” after releasing almost 500 inmates early from prison despite a high reoffending rate. Angela Constance secured enough support at Holyrood from the Nats and Scottish Greens to allow the initiative to go ahead due to overcrowding fears.
She confirmed on Wednesday that 477 cons were let out of jail before the end of their sentence, with them being freed in batches since June. Concerns have been raised by victims’ groups about the potential for these criminals to commit more crimes.
And now the Scottish Daily Express can reveal that the re-conviction rate for offenders who were released early during the Covid pandemic was worryingly high, with 70% of them returning to prison. The Scottish Prison Service confirmed that out of the 348 individuals released under emergency Covid powers in 2021, 250 had returned to custody at some point as of April 11, 2024.
The Scottish Tories blasted the Scottish Government for allowing a second batch of cons out early despite the risk to victims. Deputy Justice Spokeswoman Sharon Dowey told the Scottish Daily Express: “The SNP appear to have learned nothing from the early release of prisoners during the pandemic.”
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-fuelling-crime-70-prisoners-33555894
Next: Trans Man becomes Trans Woman
And it comes on top of Pixie Balls Cooper allowing the use of the word ‘criminals’ for people being arrested on suspicion of committing a crime as yet unproven.
I joined the Free Speech Union yesterday ….. just in time to feel that I’m contributing to this pushback in a very small way
Best £29.99 (I’m retired) I’ve spent this month.
4000 new members recently, according to the latest newsletter.
Good news indeed.
That is wonderful news!
You cannot be in two places at once. At least not unless you are light beam. While the copper in this photo is writing up his little hate incident, an unfortunate person is having a knife or a machete thrust into their ribs. Perhaps if Starmer exercised the same excessive zeal in stop and search and fast tracking the court appearance for those found with knives, then sending them down for 5 years instead of policing sentences on social media we might actually be a safer country for people to walk the streets.
It is mind boggling that the Police force are being used to such an extent of stupidity, how and what is the point of a “non crime”, other than to force control onto others?, its difficult to believe how far society has fallen in the last decade or so.
So this is what it will take to stop this incompetent government. Block up the courts with lawsuits against the gov’t. Another horrible waste of taxpayers money, but if the Labour gov’t continues to wreak havoc on we the people, what choice do the taxpayers have. Cutting winter fuel allowance for the elderly was one of the most despicable actions I have seen the Uk gov’t take in my 27 yrs here. Now they want to ban smoking in outside venues. How about tackling the real issues…..like lack of access to GP’s, a 7 million person waiting list for operations, young people being stabbed, few police visible anywhere, continually handing a billion pounds to ukraine despite nothing improving, and never speaking out or making plans to get able bodied adults into work.
Yvette ‘Allo ‘Allo Cooper is playing one of the parts in Keir Starmfuhrer’s comedy about the racist anti-semitic national socialist occupation of the UK.
And why is the Health Secretary Wes Streeting not fronting the ban on smoking in public places?
Will Wes be playing an active part in the comedy soon.
Not bloody likely.
They are keeping him warm and dry to take over.
So Starmer makes the announcement even though it is not his job.