The British prime minister is by no means the first politician to seize on a deadly serious matter as a distraction from his woes
What’s a worse sign of weakness – going on TV to terrify the nation to distract from your illicit cheese and wine parties, or bombing an aspirin factory to distract from a grand jury investigation into your illicit blowjobs?
In strictly limited terms, there are some similarities between Boris Johnson’s address to the nation on Sunday, and Bill Clinton’s 1998 announcement of the bombing of a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant, three days after the then US president had testified – and lied – in the Monica Lewinsky hearings. Both Clinton and Johnson are men of various “appetites”, of course, and Clinton was widely believed to be leaning in to a helpful distraction with his solemn live appearance on America’s TV screens. Given the total cynicism Johnson inspires, some might say the same of the PM, with Sunday’s decision to reannounce his booster drive in the face of the Omicron variant feeling at least conveniently timed to draw attention away from the multiple rule-breaking allegations now dogging his entire No 10 operation. But the key difference is that while the threat of the Omicron is not yet fully quantified, it is certainly real, and could well be disastrous for the already teetering NHS. Clinton’s chemical weapons factory, meanwhile, turned out not to be one at all, but a facility that produced more than half Sudan’s vital medicines, from malaria drugs to TB medication.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
