Jacob Rees-Mogg calling Covid regulations ‘unkind and inhuman’ says it all: following the rules is strictly for other people
Another day, another tranche of Partygate fines from the police. You’ll have heard the adage that politics is showbiz for ugly people. So let’s be real: the Conservative party’s reaction to lawbreaking in Downing Street is the Oscars slap for ugly people. Think back to what we saw on our TVs. A whole class of pretentious narcissists, so terminally in hock to a corrupt system of golden job offers and preferment that any moral code could only ever take a distant second place to the impulse to worshipfully close ranks. And Hollywood’s no better.
Every day, ministers who go on the airwaves to defend Boris Johnson over Partygate are doing the equivalent of the standing ovation in the Dolby theatre – a community of hilariously absurd people rising to their feet and applauding someone they know full well has behaved appallingly, because … because what? Because some things are more important? Bollocks. They’re applauding because they’re totally ridiculous and vain people. Those who felt slapped in the face when the multiple party stories first emerged just have to suck it up. We’re all Chris Rock now. I’m only waiting for religious wingnut Jacob Rees-Mogg to claim that the devil comes for prime ministers when they’re at their highest. Yesterday, it emerged that the government’s former ethics chief has been fined for attending a lawbreaking karaoke party at which there was apparently a drunken brawl. You laugh, but she’ll probably get a Grammy for talking about it next year.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
