The moment you learn you are about to become a dad is an incredible one that stays with you for ever.
Credit Boris Johnson for wanting to experience it with as many women as possible. I’m sure his other family is delighted.
His supporters (and some neutrals) are chastising anyone not delirious for the Prime Minister on this, as well as his engagement.
The trouble is, I’d be more enthusiastic if it didn’t carry the stench of being timed to wipe Sir Philip Putnam’s evisceration of Home Secretary Priti Patel, and the bullying allegations mounting against her, from the news agenda.
I’d be a bit more considerate towards Johnson’s new(est) family if he could care less about the families of the many men and women risking their jobs to complain about Patel’s supposed conduct.
I’d be pleased for the Johnson family if he was actually bothered about the families wrecked by his government’s ongoing hostile environment campaign or if he’d shown any kind of leadership over the coronavirus crisis.
I’d be delighted for Johnson if I thought he could give a flying fleece about the hundreds of families in the north who trusted him with their votes only to be abandoned as the floods continue to wreck their homes.
Or if he actually cared about the thousands of families using food banks or the relatives of the men and women declared fit for work while seeking benefits, only to drop down dead.
I’d be happy for Johnson’s family if the news hadn’t emerged over the past few days that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family are now in fear that she too has contracted the coronavirus.
The British-Iranian woman detained in Iran, remember, remains inside Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after Johnson bungled what should have been a simple process to free her.
So yes, best wishes to Johnson’s partner Carrie Symonds.
But we all have families too. Johnson doesn’t care about ours. Why should we get excited about his?
