Don't You Know There's a War On?

Don't you know there's a war on?  Actually no, I didn't.  Sure Ukraine is at war with Russia, but the UK isn't directly involved.  I mean, I know that Ukraine begins with 'UK', but that still doesn't mean that Boris Johnson is a war leader and therefore shouldn't be kicked out of office for minor stuff like breaking the law and lying to parliament, despite what the right-wing press might want us to believe.  It isn't just the usual suspects like the Daily Mail and Daily Express trotting out this sort of nonsense - the other day I saw some Tory MP blathering on about how while we might not actually be at war, we're damn close to being.  Again, we're not.  He was trying to make the case not so much for Johnson to stay in office, but for the Tories to cling to power, suggesting that if Johnson did resign, then there should be a 'war cabinet' set up.  Not a cross-party national war cabinet, mind you, but a Tory 'war cabinet' to see us through this 'crisis'.  Once more, why would we need a 'war cabinet' when we are not - nor are we likely to be - at war?  The only crisis facing the UK is the constitutional one Johnson and his cronies are creating by his effective tearing up of the ministerial code and ignoring all of the established norms for behaviour in public office.  

These attempts by Johnson and the Tories to use the war in Ukraine as, first a distraction from his law-breaking and incompetence and secondly as a spurious excuse for him to cling to power, hugely offensive.  It also looks so desperate - the eagerness to get those photo opportunities in Kiev as soon as the Russian siege had been lifted, the attempts, at every juncture, to try and 'big up' the UK's role in supplying Ukraine with weapons, the deluded claims of how Johnson has 'led' the rest of Europe in supporting Ukraine.  All the while hoping that this will somehow divert attention from the fact that he is now a convicted criminal, not to mention all the increasingly repressive legislation, (most of which, ironically, puts on a par with Putin's Russia when it comes to suppressing the right to protest), his government is enacting, not to mention morally bankrupt (and possibly illegal under international law), measures against refugees, (basically outsourcing them to Rwanda).  I keep hoping against hope that Johnson and company might finally have committed one transgression too many, that a line might finally have been crossed where even their most ardent supporters can no no longer stomach them.  Yet I'm constantly disappointed - their tenacity and desperation to stay in power sadly continues to defeat the forces of decency.