Boris Johnson appeared before the liaison committee yesterday afternoon. This is the commons committee made up of senior MPs and chairs of select committees. I didn't watch it all but the part that I did see was quite enough. He was, as usual, dishevelled, as if he had arrived via a wind tunnel or a centrifuge and had become totally disorientated. Whereas previous prime ministers under questioning were able to defend government policy you got the impression he didn't even know what it was.
I marvelled at how right Cummings has been about him. He can’t tell truth from lies, he doesn't read background papers, behind each mask lies another mask, there’s no masterplan, he doesn't know or care how Whitehall works and so on. It was all on display in the Wilson room yesterday. If you've a couple of hours to waste, watch it HERE.
Cummings also once said Johnson can’t chair meetings and instead tells “rambling stories” and this came across in spades. I don’t think he answered any question well and most he didn’t answer at all but took an age to do it. His tactic was to either restate his own misunderstanding of the problem at length or literally pluck some numbers out of the air and prattle about how much the government had spent in the past or intend to spend in future.
Even when an MP tried to interrupt, he just steamed on like a driverless freight train, with his interminable, meandering non-answers looking terribly pleased with himself. You felt like hitting him at the back of the head with a baseball bat. No wonder nothing ever gets done.
Some occupants of No 10 were masters at not giving away details that they didn't want to reveal but at least they knew the details. With Johnson, it seemed his mind was a series of blank sheets, there was nothing to reveal. Even if the FSB had taken him into one of those rooms beneath the Lubyanka, forced matchsticks under his fingernails, pumped him full of truth serum and deprived him of sleep for months they wouldn't have learned anything about government policy.
He wasn't a sphinx, more like an amnesiac with early onset dementia, very early in his case.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant tried to pin him down on the register of ministers interests and the money spent on his flat refurbishment but got nowhere. The register was published belatedly with a reference to there having been a conflict of interest over the money for his flat but said the conflict had now lapsed without giving any details. He just kept repeating that people could check the register and everything had been done properly. It was infuriating.
Watch the exchange here:
I repeatedly pushed the PM about a minister’s obligation to correct the record at todays Liaison Committee meeting ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/WXbMqg5ysF
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) July 7, 2021
The Daily Mirror has the best summary with various clips of Johnson wittering on.
Asked about green homes and when a plan to get all British houses to be using green energy by 2030 might be ready, after a lot of pressing he said it would be 'long before COP26' in October. That could mean anything from tomorrow to never. None of his long rambling answers were at all convincing, as they never can be from a dedicated liar.
In fact the whole exercise was pointless. He didn't know anything, his answers didn't mean anything and he couldn't be relied on anyway.
I watched the football match last night with a sense of dread. The euphoria immediately afterwards and this morning is sickening, and this was just the semi final! If we beat Italy in the final, god help us all. It will be insufferable, and I speak as a lapsed football fan.
Viva L'Italia!!
