The scandals under Johnson are a far greater threat than the accusations of hypocrisy that felled John Major’s government
To repurpose the old saw about the 60s, if you think you can remember 90s politics, particularly if you plan to turn them into a parable for today, you’re remembering the wrong thing. Relax, I’m lecturing myself more than anyone else: as the waves of Matt Hancock’s share ownership crashed over the fetid waters of David Cameron’s Greensill involvement, with the Arcuri affair standing unresolved and Robert Jenrick walking round like a human hyperlink (if only you could click on him, to find out more), my first thought was “here we go again”. More Tory sleaze, because leopards, spots etc.
In fact, John Major’s government and the scandals it produced could not have been more different to those of Boris Johnson’s government. It was backbenchers who were taking the backhanders – MPs Graham Riddick and David Tredinnick, who did the world’s memory that tremendous favour of rhyming like a riddle, were caught out in a newspaper sting in which they agreed to ask a parliamentary question for £1,000. No need to translate that into today’s money; it suffices to say that if a newspaper, a broadsheet at that, can afford to float it for a story, it is not huge beans.
