By ’Tunji Ajibade
tunjioa@yahoo.com
One would like to believe the UK opposition Labour Party leadership has some good advisers that call its attention to what it misses. If it does it should have been told by now that it was time to step on the pedal and take it easy regarding its fixation over the 2020 matter of garden party at Number 10, Downing Street. If anyone watched the Labour leader, Keir Stammer, at a public event last week where he stood on the podium and spoke they would get this point.
The Labour leader didn’t come across like a politician who was fighting for the people; rather he came across like one who was bent on milking the utmost out of an issue for which the Prime Minister Boris Johnson had already tendered his unreserved apology. There was that distinct edge to the posture, mien, seriousness and the energy exuded by Stammer that didn’t make him come across as being sincere fighting for citizens and nation in this matter. His arguments and the intensity with which made them made him seem like he was overdoing it, and he was overdoing for very distinctly selfish and political reasons. It is possible Stammer and his partners in the witch-hunting of Johnson that this is now turning out to be haven’t thought that there might be viewers who are beginning to see a level of insincerity in the never-let-go posture they have taken on this matter. They seem to be crying more than the bereaved at this point. If they haven’t been told this before, now they are.
UK citizens have been angry over what transpired. And they have the right to. In the event, many of them would expect the PM to admit that a mistake was made. The PM has already done this. Other citizens would want to see the PM tender unreserved apology to the Queen for the party that happened at the time Her Majesty mourned the death of her late husband. The PM has done this. Citizens would expect to hear the PM say to them directly that he was sorry that the garden party took place. This too the PM has done, both in the parliament and in other public spaces. In the opinion polls, citizens have indicated to the PM that they don’t approve of a garden party, even when it has been said that no covid-19 rule was broken. The PM has acknowledged that citizens have the right to hold such view and he does agree with them.
Other angles to this include the effort being made by the Sue Gray Committee to investigate every matter that has to do with the garden parties. The Committee is still doing its job, and it is the proper body to apportion blames for garden parties that has been argued to not have broken any known rules, except the rule of conscience and morality. More than that, all cabinet ministers say they do not think the PM should be castigated and a decision made over the matter until the Gray report is out. In spite of this, the opposition goes on and on, its efforts patently geared towards carrying out a political coup against an elected leadership that citizens have placed in Number 10. This get-Johnson-at all-cost thing smells of insincerity on the part of the opposition and it is unacceptable in any political culture where no politician or political party is as sparkling clean as they want citizens to believe. As things stand, one has every reason to wonder if the opposition would soon overdo it and shoot itself in the foot.
Now, that the opposition criticizes what transpired during the lockdown is not the issue here. The opposition must criticize. It is one of the reasons it exists in a democracy, especially a parliamentary democracy. But that it has nothing else to focus on at this time except its call for the removal of a properly elected PM and one whose tenure should be determined by the electorate is a reason to be concerned. One would think the opposition should focus attention on the issues it has as plan for citizens and nation, rather than attacking the person of the leader of the party in power.
For as long as it continues to focus its energy on Johnson, the opposition may inadvertently be sowing ideas in the head of clear-minded citizens that it provides no real alternatives to what the current leadership has achieved and will continue to achieve. In the event, even if it succeeds in removing a PM, which in this case is highly unlikely, the opposition may have whittled down its own image as a better alternative to the ruling party. That Stammer personally does well in the polls doesn’t automatically mean his party would be considered anything better where issues that matter to citizens across constituencies are concerned. One should think this is where the opposition needs to be careful. An outgone Johnson does not mean electoral success for the opposition in the next round of elections. In fact, the opposition might be placing itself in a deeper ditch in the end, and that if the reality dawns across the UK that the only card it offers is this fixation to get Johnson out and nothing else.
