By ’Tunji Ajibade
08036683657; tunjioa@yahoo.com
Cabinet ministers in the UK government are saying they are for Prime Minister Boris Johnson moving on, they are for him getting on with his job. That says much about their view on the matter of a garden party during the 2020 covid-19 lockdown and regarding which the opposition party is holding its own large tea party. The ministers didn’t say no mistakes had been made when parties were held at 10, Downing Street in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. What they say is that the mistake has been acknowledged and apology tendered, they believe the work to be done for UK citizens and nation should be continued by the PM, and they would want to continue working with him as they have always done. That’s one stage won in the ongoing battle which Johnson faces.
Now, UK parliamentary politics is such that one knows this matter does not end in the courtroom of the cabinet ministers. The opposition parties won’t let go as yet. Johnson was of course the Conservative Party poster boy who rubbished them during the last general election. Any political party anywhere in the world would want to take such a poster off the wall. And that is what one expects the opposition parties to continue to do. But one should think that with the support he now enjoys, there is a way for the PM to handle them in collaboration with his cabinet ministers.
The fact remains that the opposition does all it does for the purpose of preparing itself to take over Number 10. Long before the covid-19 party came to the fore, it had been out with a chisel, chipping away at the credibility of the occupant of Number 10 and the party he represented. That’s normal in politics and the opposition has just seen the latest issue as the best of its chances to achieve its aim – undo the Johnson magic, make the most of the emotions of the people regarding the covid-19 lockdowns and the sacrifices everyone had had to make. Certainly, sacrifices were made by all. The only challenge now which UK citizens need to recognize is that after the PM apologized, the opposition is basically milking the sufferings of citizens for political gains. That’s what they are doing and citizens should see it for what it is.
Citizens have had to go through so much. If they feel their elected PM made a mistake and should be punished, it’s the electorate who put him there that should make that judgment, not the opposition. Meanwhile, the election time is still some distance off. Citizens should tell the opposition to not milk this matter for its advantage, rather it should wait and let the electorate decide. Citizens should indicate they want to take that decision on the fate of their PM, by making known their resentment of the manner the opposition is taking advantage of this. They shouldn’t let the opposition use them to its own advantage. This is important as it is the state of the emotions of people the opposition is counting on, it is playing on in all the drama it has mounted thus far in the parliament. Would citizens allow themselves to be used? Number 10 has a role to play in ensuring this does not happen any further; it has a counter attack to launch to ensure the opposition does not continue to kick it without a response. With the support it has now got from the cabinet ministers, Number 10 needs to go on the offensive, and cabinet ministers as well as staff of Number 10 have a huge role to play here.
In doing this, the PM needs to get both the ministers and his staff to release more information to the public. What kind of information? The state of health and burdens of members of government during the lockdown, staff of Number 10 especially, the same people who are being accused for winding down with a garden party the stress they had to endure in the course of taking care of all the needs of citizens and nation. Everyone else in the nation has been putting out there what they had to endure in the course of the lockdown. What did the hardworking, dedicated staff at Number 10 endure even as they took care of the needs of the nation? The public doesn’t seem to be pretty clear about this.
This is what should now be presented to the populace in diverse ways to get citizens to see that the staff they depended on to give direction in the hour of bleakness also had a tale to tell about what they had had to pass through. What their family members had had to pass through because their breadwinners were busy in offices taking care of the rest of the nation. The stress occasioned by the lockdown didn’t affect only others, it affected too the staff of government at Number 10 who had to think and make provisions for those others. Getting this kind of information out there could be done through different means. Members of staff can speak to, and through the platforms they feel comfortable with. They could use the TV, social media, radio as well as newspapers to tell of their own experiences.
The cabinet ministers who support Johnson should be part of this, using different platforms to give the statistics of how the lockdown has affected not just members of Number 10 but people across government, especially everyone who’s now being accused for winding down their stress at a time most citizens took it for granted that they were some superhuman. The possible positive effect of this on the view held by UK citizens must not be belittled. Citizens could be sympathetic. They would see themselves in the situation of others, even government staff who had had to take care of the needs of the nation in the course of the lockdown. When citizens get to see what the supposed superhuman officials too had had to pass through medically and mentally, and regarding their families, they would see this matter differently. That way the bottom will be taken off how the opposition party is now drawing on people’s emotion to launch its attacks for political gains. It’s one angle to this battle. Neither Johnson nor his government officials should fail to go on the attack. As they gather momentum, it’s not only the opposition that will check itself and withdraw into its shell, Johnson’s party disgruntled MPs too will take a cue.
