Sometimes people do things that are so unutterably stupid, so determinedly idiotic, so spectacularly self-sabotaging and counterproductive one is lost for words.
When all you can do is stare, open-mouthed and aghast, at the catastrophe unfolding in front of you.
This is precisely how I feel about this latest ‘partygate’ revelation, an email – there it is, in black and white – from Boris Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting No 10 staff to a booze-up in the grounds of Downing Street on May 20, 2020.
It makes me want to bang my entire head against the nearest wall in fury and frustration. And, frankly, bang all their stupid heads together while I’m at it.
On a visit to his constituency today, Boris Johnson ducked questions about whether he attended the May 20 garden party, merely insisting it was a matter for Sue Gray, the senior official leading an investigation into allegations of lockdown-busting parties across Whitehall
I don’t need to point out what kind of a state the country was in at the time. We all know, we all remember.
Families divided, businesses on the brink of collapse, children stuck at home, parents juggling work and home-schooling, the elderly locked up in care homes.
There was a kind of insanity in the air, brought about by fear and worry and not knowing what was going to happen next.
I remember a woman in Waitrose screaming at me because I accidentally got too close to her while reaching for some tomatoes.
A policeman in the park came up to me while I rested for a few moments on a bench and bellowed into my ear with his megaphone that if I didn’t get up I could be arrested.
Boris Johnson and staff pictured with wine in Downing Street garden on May 15, 2020, five days before the email was sent. At the time, only two people were allowed to socialise outside while at least two metres apart under national Covid curbs
My friend, whose mother died of Covid, was not allowed to see her after she had passed away. His own beloved mother.
An experience shared
