There’s a lot of stuff going on at the moment about Boris Johnson. The poor man could probably do with a holiday. If only he knew someone who could help him out with that…

I haven’t made it a habit to get political on my blog. To be fair, in recent months, I haven’t made it a habit to do much at all on my blog. Still, there’s no harm in changing tack now and then. Especially when there’s something bugging you and you want to get it off your chest.

Depending on your point of view, reporting on Boris’s activities (those currently in the spotlight, anyway) has been well-researched, fake news or pretty much all points in between. In practice, I suspect some journalists are better informed than we might give them credit for. Even so, there’s also a lot of emphasis on generating ‘shock’ headlines.

Of course, the opposition parties also have their own agenda, and are bound to want Boris to seem like the devil incarnate. It’s in their interests to blow things out of proportion. Oddly enough, the reality is that, if proven, what’s been reported is sufficiently shocking without the need to sex things up.

A case in point is the so-called birthday party. I can only assume the fact that it was Boris’s birthday triggered some word association linking it to the other alleged parties that went on. But, in the reports about the ‘birthday party’, none have actually described much in the way of a party. Depending on which account you listen to, there were between 10 and 30 people in attendance, there was a cake – even by Boris’s own admission – and those present apparently sang Happy Birthday to him (presumably twice while they washed their hands). To call this gathering a party, though, is over-egging it.

The thing is, regardless of whether it was a party or not, rules were broken. Rules set by people who were there.

At the time, we were not allowed to gather indoors unless we were from the same household. It could be argued that this was held at work and those colleagues might have been working in the same place anyway. However, if it’s true that Carrie Johnson was present and, as far as I’m aware, she’s not on the staff, I’m not sure how that argument stands up.

Then we have the singing. No real fuss has been made about this, but I seem to recall singing being banned in churches, the argument being that it would project Covid (other similarly transmitted infections are available) further than talking. To the best of my knowledge (and I am willing to be corrected here), Happy Birthday isn’t generally sung with any less vigour than Jerusalem or Abide With Me, so that alone flies in the face of Government policy.

I suppose my point here is simple. There is no need to overstate what has happened. While most members of the public followed the rules and, in the process, missed out on key events – births, deaths, marriages and a whole host of other landmarks with their families and friends – it was the duty of those setting the rules to lead by example.

Most – if not all – of what I’ve written here has been said elsewhere. I won’t claim even my fiction is totally original. But I needed to get it off my chest, and I suspect there’ll be a few of you who feel the same.

Politics does need to change. And I don’t mean we need to vote for Labour instead of Conservative when we get the chance. Frankly, there are elements in the Labour party that are no better than Johnson and his cronies. For now, though, let’s see what happens over the next few days as Boris tries to demonstrate how much we can trust him. And remember to look past the headlines and consider the details. Make your own judgements, not those foisted on you by the media or politicians. Christ knows, it’s all horrific enough without the hyperbole.