Battered and bruised, Boris Johnson’s bluster is that of a bloke with a bloody nose who picked the wrong fight.
Tonight’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Labour, other parties and Tory rebels who refused to be intimidated, marked the end of the shortest Downing Street honeymoon ever.
The conceited Johnson stirred up a hornets’ nest, with his contempt for a sovereign Parliament provoking a democratic reaction.
Without a mandate or a majority, he is struggling to persuade MPs who want to see the back of him to grant a General Election.
An election we must have and soon. But it can’t be a contest dictated by a tinpot tyrant itching to Britain over his Brexit cliff edge.
We the people must be the masters now with untrustworthy, double-dealing Johnson sacked in the national interest.
Web of deceit
Cleaners and cabbies paying a higher tax rate than an arm of Amazon’s retail empire shows our financial system is working for the wealthy corporate few instead of the hardworking many.
The £1million the US-based online giant paid in corporation tax on a juicy £75.4million profit is peanuts – and even that paltry contribution is lower than last year.
It benefits from public spending on the education and health of its workers and customers, from investment in transport and the maintaining of law and order. So it should be paying a fair and decent contribution.
Attempted justifications from a multinational totting up tax from a dozen operations in the UK will cut little ice with grafters who feel huge multinationals are not taxed enough.
Private doubts
Eco warrior Prince Harry will struggle to convince many Britons that he flies in private jets to keep his family safe.
Commercial flights which taxpayers funding his lifestyle use are not dangerously rowdy, particularly in first class where royals sit.
