Breaking Lockdown - "Only Half a Sausage"

The other day, a friend whom I shall name "Mr T" sent me an article from the online edition of "The New European", which is a rewarding paper to read, and I recommend it. The article dealt with the fact that the Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, Bob Seely, seen above, and the Brexit Party chairperson, Richard Tice, had attended a lockdown-busting barbecue on the Isle of Wight on May 22nd. As, on that date, we were all meant to meet only one person from another household out of doors, it was clear that these two political luminaries were in breach of the lockdown.

Tice admitted his presence at the event, which was held by his partner's deputy editor at the Spectator. Seely, on the other hand, tried to explain away his attendance. As well he might, as he at the time:
"... had been spearheading the efforts to promote a new government contact-tracing apps on the island"

Oh dear, what a clanger to drop! Seely claimed that he was unaware that a barbecue was being held, and had dropped in to discuss an article of his that The Spectator had published. He told his local paper that to leave would have been over-reacting. Besides apologising for his conduct, he stated that he had only eaten "half a sausage" (!).

Any right-thinking person would be displeased to learn about this event; what surprised me was the degree of anger expressed by Mr T. I have known this gentleman for about 45 years, and I have never known him to become angry over any political issue before. And angry he is! He wrote:

"... Richard Tice has always been at the spearhead of those pushing for Brexit; his partner is a journalist for the Daily Mail and was staying in her second home. They chose to ignore lockdown rules...Seems to me that everyone who was in favour of Brexit is incapable of dealing with serious problems and happy to ignore rules that they find inconvenient.
Bye bye liberal democracy run by educated, fair-minded people. Hello get what you can for yourself and cronies".
Well said! I am sure that most sane people agree with Mr T, but, unfortunately, some others vote Tory or for the Brexit Party. What these "patriots" do not seem to understand is the fact that the calibre of the people they vote for - Tory or Brexit Party - is very poor and making us a laughing stock around the world. One questionable Tory activist is Ryan Houghton, a Conservative councillor in Aberdeen. 

Mr Houghton was suspended from the Tory party last year after allegedly making a number of anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic remarks on his blog. He has been re-instated recently, and insists that the remarks were made ten years ago and taken out of context. The BBC quotes him as saying:

"The comments which led to my suspension were isolated and took place nearly a decade ago. They in no way reflect my political or professional record and I find prejudice of any kind abhorrent."

All well and good, but he is on record as saying that while there was:

"no credible evidence to suggest the Holocaust did not happen...I do find some of the events fabricated."
It is not clear what he meant by these "fabricated events", but the very suggestion that any of the painstakingly chronicled crimes of the Holocaust have been falsified, is itself a form of Holocaust denial. 

That will take some living down, both by Mr Houghton and the Conservative Party.

The Dominic Cummings fiasco will take even more living down. Attempts by BoJo to dismiss the whole affair have been a dismal failure. Cummings himself gave a very strange explanation of his condust to the media. As Ian Hislop said on "Have I Got News For You":

“He (Cummings) gave an hour and a half of utter twaddle. It’s absolutely clear he did break regulations. He found one tiny clause which he said made an exception, but that didn’t cover the journey to Barnard Castle, it was nonsense, absolute nonsense."

The events of Cummings' lockdown-busting trip are well enough known, and there is little point in repeating them here.  What is becoming clearer by the day, though, is that this government is failing in just about everything, whether it be in response to Covid-19 or to Brexit, in the quality of its candidates and ministers, and even by the breaking of its own rules. As the LibDem MP, Alistair Carmichael wrote in The Independent:

"Angela Eagle called Jacob Rees-Mogg the worst leader of the House of Commons “in living memory”. There is a palpable frustration about a leader of the house – and a government – that appears more interested in wielding its parliamentary majority than in accepting accountability for how it wields that power."

The one positive sign on the horizon is the growing anger of so many - even those with no firm political convictions - with this government which is growing increasingly unaccountable.

Ian Duncan Smith once said: "Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man"; the Tories would do well not to underestimate the anger of politically-quiet men like Mr T.