This is a very interesting and important question.Here's my tuppence worth:1 "A lie is half way around the World before the truth has got its trousers on". Proven by the Brexit debate. Johnson is perhaps unique as a politician in the way he takes obvious delight in lying. You can see it in his eyes: “I know I am lying. You know I am lying. I known that you know that I am lying. You know that I know that you know I am lying”. Duper’s delight. But it has worked for him. Brexit. 80 seat majority. Ahead in the polls. Or Johnson was unique – he has surrounded himself with acolytes who also shamelessly lie (Patel, Handcock, Raab, Gove, Jenrick, Truss, Eustice, Williamson), and those who lie but look embarrassed when they do so (Sunak, Buckland, Sharma), and those who never say anything of substance (Shapps, and Truss when she is not lying or just looking completely gormless).2 Populism. It worked for Trump (up to a point). A bit of rabble rousing can go a long way. You only need to get about 35% - 40% of the vote in the UK “first past the post” system to get a crushing majority.3 Emotion trumps reason (as someone pointed out on this forum, the emotional argument even if false will win over the rational argument).4 Labour still fighting its internal battle (whereas the Tories’ internal battle has been won by the UKIP arrivistes).5 Starmer is intellectually able, but has failed to set out any vision for the country. He lacks charisma, or any message. He has not confronted the Tories on the main issues of the day (the disaster of Brexit, which Labour see as too hot to handle) or the mismanagement of the Covid crises (where I think he was genuinely trying to be constructive and supportive (the “adult in the room”) at a time of national crises).6 There is not a single national politician (like them or loath them, with the possible exception of Sturgeon) of any capability at all. We only have showmen and women. Look back just a couple of decades and there were people of some quality who gave the impression that they were in it for the good of the nation and not for their own vanity or to line their own pockets. The saying that “politics is just showbusiness for ugly people” has never been more true.7 That the popular press will demonise any Labour leader, and in particular any Labour leader with social policies (rather than centralists like Blair – and look where he took us to).With regard to Cummings: “Just because the fool says that the sun is shining does not mean that it is raining outside” (and vice versa). His sole professional ability appears to be mendacity, i.e. an ability to deceive. The very reason Johnson recruited him (apparently to run the country whilst Johnson variously (a) wrote his book; (b) went on holiday; (c) decorated his flat. Etc.).He is also a self-promoter and known to be a revisionist (he revised and backdated his blog, to try and show he "anticipated" the Covid crises). His unconvincing mea culpa is just part of his act.Most of what he said on Wednesday was already a matter of public record. He just gave some salacious garnish to Johnson’s incompetence and callousness (“it’s only killing the 80 year olds” - “let the bodies pile high in their thousands”). So, objectively, it seems that much of what he said is likely to be true. It is to a great extent corroborated by the known facts. But that does not make him truthful. It just serves his purposes to tell some truths now (about a year too late), to try to disassociate himself from the disaster in which he played an instrumental part.
T P Howell ● 1977d