Morbid symptoms- the last days of the Johnson regime & Old Corruption
The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci wrote of the morbid symptoms that arise when an old political order is dying but a new one can’t be born. The parallel is not exact but there is a relation to the final days of Johnson as PM.
Johnson is reported to be looking to write a column for the Daily Mail in return for which its long time editor Paul Dacre will receive a Peerage. The Mail is currently full of drivel about unfairly Johnson is being treated.
Meanwhile on the right-wing talk radio station LBC Johnson’s sister Rachel has been speaking to Johnson’s father Stanley (who is in Greece) about how hard done by his son and her brother is.
There is a term for all this: Old Corruption. It describes the pre-democratic politics of England before the 1832 Reform Act where positions and titles were often handed out not on the basis of merit or work done but as personal favours. It is not a new development in British politics but with Johnson it has reached new levels of depravity
What would you call a country that gives the sister of a prime minister a regular slot in which she interviews the PM’s father about his Govt, having previously used the slot to argue the PM should not be removed & why her other brother deserved a peerage?
Nazir Afzal (Twitter 21st August)
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