For a PM who likes to pose as the new Winston Churchill, waffling Boris Johnson sounded like Neville Chamberlain.
His dangerous casualness and incompetence were ruthlessly exposed in Parliament over the loss of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
Speech after speech hammered Johnson’s failure of leadership – particularly the assessments of predecessor Theresa May and Tom Tugendhat, one of the soldier MPs who risked their lives fighting in the country.
A stranger watching on TV might have thought Labour’s Keir Starmer rather than Johnson was the nation’s leader, his tone that of a credible alternative Prime Minister.
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The overwhelming judgment that Johnson should have done better over Afghanistan, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, another ex-soldier suggesting he’d have lost a vote in the House of Commons, was damning.
Afghanistan is once again in the grip of a brutal cult and the Prime Minister’s credibility is in tatters. Johnson’s abandonment of Afghans also leaves him severely weakened.
Elderly cheated
Cheating the elderly of a decent pension rise, dropping an election promise would be another betrayal by Boris Johnson.
If he does not think the retired are worth a potential increase of 7-8% under the triple lock mechanism, the Tories should put it in their next manifesto and let the voters decide.
Axing the system because an award linked to wages would be unusually high after Covid is a severe breach of faith.
Those who backed aid cuts believing charity begins at home are discovering the Tories squeeze everybody except a few of their privileged own.
A good sole
Ex-MP Austin Mitchell was so committed to his Great Grimsby constituency he once temporarily changed his surname to Haddock to back local fisherman.
The Labour politician who has died aged 86 said what he liked and liked what he said even when it got him into trouble. RIP.
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