The incident yesterday where Johnson refused to look at the picture of a boy laying on a pile of coats, in what looked like a war zone but was in fact Leeds General Infirmary, because a bed could not be found for him, was highly damaging and is all over the press. The reporter tries to get him to look at a picture on his phone. Johnson studiously refuses to even acknowledge the phone is being held up to him but eventually takes it and puts it in his own pocket - without looking at it.
It was a PR disaster but no more than we expect from the PM. He is a sociopath, impervious to the needs or suffering of others, cannot think on his feet or offer even the slightest empathy and falls back on slogans when confronted with real issues. He talks in rehearsed sound bites and nothing more.
Worse even than this, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, was dispatched at high speed to the LGI to smooth things over after Johnson's clumsy gaffe and the Tory press office then put out a story that his adviser had been punched in the face. Fortunately, there was video footage showing no such assault took place. It appears one of his acolytes walked softly into the arm of a protester as he was pointing in the direction of Hancock scuttling away in a Vauxhall Corsa. The story was totally untrue.
This morning on the Today programme, the Justice Secretary, a decent man who has thrown in his lot with a bad crowd, was shoved on to defend the PM. He was asked if there was "no untruth that could not be told". I am afraid when the PM is an incorrigible, serial, compulsive, habitual and pathological liar all those around him must also be complicit, otherwise they will find themselves constantly at loggerheads with him. Like Buckland, they find themselves drawn into the lie with attempts to spin it as the truth or something like the truth. It is not pretty.
The interview took place while Johnson was on a tour of Labour held marginals including Grimsby where he met members of the fishing community and was said by The Grimsby Telegraph to have hit it off with seafood business leaders. The local paper reports, "his personality shone through for those who found themselves alongside him, as he shook hands, posed for selfies, held fish and even tallied the bought boxes as the auction was held."
This was in contrast with his later interview where something slightly difficult came up and he went to pieces and simply could not cope.
In another report by the same paper:
"A well-briefed Prime Minister told Grimsby Live in an interview that Brexit could be a 'massive boost' to the fishing industry here but that 'it's going to require a concerted strategy to get it right and it won't happen overnight' . He warned it could take 'years' for the town to feel a bit of its former glory."
What all this demonstrates to me is that Johnson is very comfortable when making people think and feel they are on the right path. Bonhomie and the promise of good news later is his forte. Unfortunately, prime ministers are not usually doing this but defending a dismal record of failure to meet any of the high-blown commitments they made earlier. He is a fresh face now as May, Cameron, Brown and Blair before him but soon he too will face the storm and will struggle to cope. A PM cannot hide from bad news.
And a sign of what's coming for Grimsby is in this report from the BBC's Katya Adler. She looks at the PM's record and makes an astute observation about his setting of deadlines and self defeating artificial urgency:
"For the prime minister, 'getting it done' seemed of greater importance when it came to the Brexit deal than keeping his word about the union and avoiding a line down the Irish Sea. So how might it be when it comes to trade negotiations?"
To get his Withdrawal deal through, he sold the DUP down the river and I am convinced he will do the same to Grimsby. She asks:
"Would Boris Johnson give up post-Brexit 'sovereignty' and 'control' to get a quick deal done with the EU by next Christmas?
"Because if you earwig on EU internal conversations these days, you'll hear that the only way he has a real chance of getting a bare-bones free trade agreement (FTA) with Brussels done and dusted by next Christmas is if he crosses his own red lines again and gives in to EU concerns. This time over so-called level playing field provisions (such as adhering to EU environmental, labour and state aid rules after Brexit) and allowing EU countries fishing rights in UK waters."
You do not need to be a genius to see this one coming. Unfortunately, Johnson is no genius and he seems to ignore the difficulties and the unpalatable truth.
Next year Grimsby will be laying on a pile of coats somewhere in the EU negotiations, the forgotten fishing community will be left to continue it's slow decline, ignored by Johnson and all the rest of them in Westminster. The fishermen were a useful photo opportunity on his journey to No 10 but no more than that. They had their fifteen minutes of fame, glad handed by a prime minister famous for lies and betrayal but in 2020 they will be very angry indeed.
