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Over recent days, leading up to the terrible news that the Prime Minister’s Covid-19 illness had become so severe he had been moved into intensive care, his detractors performed a handbrake turn on their intimations of laziness. Their new idea, theme and meme is that Boris Johnson is in fact a workaholic whose determination to keep directing the Government’s coronavirus battle from a hospital bed was detracting from his personal battle against the disease.
In fact, this later assessment is much closer to the truth. It is a difficult one for media operatives who have become obsessively hostile to the PM because it is based on the idea of selflessness – that in his determination to deploy his talents in the interests of the British people he has put himself in danger.
But the general public instinctively knows it to be true. They understood the bravery and grace under fire which he exhibited in the run-up to December’s decisive, logjam-breaking general election and saw that he would take any number of blows in order to keep his Brexit promise to them.
This explains the sledgehammer impact that news of Mr Johnson’s ailing health has had on so many people. The electorate knows that Boris Johnson has flaws, just as they have flaws. But they appreciate his courage and political genius. They are calling him “The People’s Prime Minister” now.
A sad and sour codicil has meanwhile emerged from within the British political class that so despises him. Numerous figures, from Alastair Campbell to former Guardian political editor Michael White, have put out messages wishing him better that are laced with superfluous and inappropriate reiterations of their basic hostility towards him. It is as if they are saying: “Aren’t I noble that I do not wish my adversary dead?”
No chaps, you really aren’t.
In fact, this later assessment is much closer to the truth. It is a difficult one for media operatives who have become obsessively hostile to the PM because it is based on the idea of selflessness – that in his determination to deploy his talents in the interests of the British people he has put himself in danger.
But the general public instinctively knows it to be true. They understood the bravery and grace under fire which he exhibited in the run-up to December’s decisive, logjam-breaking general election and saw that he would take any number of blows in order to keep his Brexit promise to them.
This explains the sledgehammer impact that news of Mr Johnson’s ailing health has had on so many people. The electorate knows that Boris Johnson has flaws, just as they have flaws. But they appreciate his courage and political genius. They are calling him “The People’s Prime Minister” now.
A sad and sour codicil has meanwhile emerged from within the British political class that so despises him. Numerous figures, from Alastair Campbell to former Guardian political editor Michael White, have put out messages wishing him better that are laced with superfluous and inappropriate reiterations of their basic hostility towards him. It is as if they are saying: “Aren’t I noble that I do not wish my adversary dead?”
No chaps, you really aren’t.
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