’Tunji Ajibade (tunjioa@yahoo.com)
Some persons are bent on making the official residence of the British Prime Minister, 10, Downing Street a mourning spot at Christmas when the rest of the world celebrates (in spite of the lockdown, that is). That impression is given in the decision of some officials to place a wreath there, the wreath of a mourner, much similar to what dignitaries placed at the foot of the Cenotaph in London last month. As such if these officials, with this wreath, meant to reflect the current situation in which the UK Prime Minister found himself , embattled on all sides, then they got it right. But I think only those who do not wish the British PM well would come up with that kind of metaphor.
When this wreath was hung on the door, with the famous 10 up there, in 2020, I was surprised and made the observation that this was lacking in vision. The sense of nuance of the people involved was also nil. I had stated that since the PM was alive and kicking, a wreath that immediately conveyed to one’s mind the idea of mourning wasn’t the right kind of Christmas decoration that should be found at the official residence of the nation’s leader. We’ve always known the doorway of Number 10 to be graced with a proper and giant Christmas tree. If any official thought of coming up with something different, at least they could have been more innovative, more ingenious. But, no, what someone came up with it was an inconsequential wreath, one that one could walk past without even noticing that it is there. That’s the size of the innovativeness of some highly paid official or overpaid government contractor. Worthy of note is that this year again, the same Christmas mourning wreath is back on the door of Number 10, and the first thought is, Uh, the mourning period continues.
This matter of a Christmas mourning wreath that is at Number 10 is not funny at all. For I don’t recall any particular one month since December 2020 when that wreath first appeared that the government didn’t have one disaster or the other. In fact, as a result of those occurrences the PM’s standing in public opinion has been ebbing. His standing hasn’t been the same as the pre-election period when the public liked his messages that conveyed optimism of a post-Brexit UK. The excitement of Brexit is gradually receding and people are more concerned about other issues but it seems Johnson has not. Some of his miscalculations regarding those issues are hurting him. In the latest bye election, the Conservative Party lost a seat it had owned for decades. Yet this constituency, a rural setting, had been strongly pro-Brexit. That means people are focusing on something else. The economy, the inflationary trend, has become an issue. People feel the pinch in their pockets. There has come along since Brexit the covid-19 challenge, and now even the PM’s party is in internal rebellion regarding this. It is a matter of time before it becomes more open. Meanwhile, general elections will come up in about two years.
The current situation in which the Conservative Party’s poster boy in the last election finds himself is a tough one. Not many PMs who got here really did recover. Unfortunately, Johnson contributed to it himself. There are those scandals and sleazes which the opposition party has made a party out of. The effort to change the rule and make a Conservative Party member who breaks it escape has the print of the PM all over it, and in fact he has had to offer his apologies. There is another about the MP who is collecting wages for some consultancy using the time he should be in the Parliament.
There is another about the Christmas party that held at Number 10 in 2020, and even in the PM’s flat at a time when the rest of the nation was instructed to lock down at Christmas. There is the face-off with France over fishing rights and migrants crossing the British Channel. The PM had thought a fight over it would boost his standing but the UK public didn’t want a fight with Europe and France. It has been a loss for him, not a boost to his standing in the polls. Lately his Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, resigned from the cabinet and it was because Frost didn’t like the direction of Johnson’s government. That too doesn’t make the PM come out looking good.
But did the PM hope to reverse his fortune with the giant Christmas tree he welcomed to the front of Number 10 lately? He did along with some children who paid him a visit, and everyone had applauded the tree’s arrival, all looking up at it as though they were relieved it returned. This happened, even as the initial Christmas mourning wreath still hung on the door of Number 10. What does that mean? I mean the continued presence of that wreath on the door. Does it mean the mourning, the many problems of the PM, continue? I wonder if when this eyesore of a Christmas wreath is removed the fortune of the PM would change. Even at that this would require the PM himself recalibrating, ensuring he doesn’t back measures that will continue to assist in chipping away at his personal popularity. At least he has personal control over that.
