Trust no one, especially Boris Johnson

Trust. The very foundation of childhood development. In our helpless nature as a baby, we depend on our more experienced counterparts for our continued existence - with our nutrition, personal and emotional care all hanging in the balance of an authoritative figure. We form our first connection between trust, reliance and guidance, a bondage we continuously reform at multiple stages in our lives.

As we get older, more cognisant and learn from experiences, we begin to see a shift in trust in that it no longer serves as a mandatory part of our survival but becomes a choice. A choice in where and/or whom we choose to place our belief to guide us through the murky paths of life.

In 2020, the British public made that choice to trust in Boris Johnson and the Conservative party to lead us through the undefined charters of Brexit and quell our unnerving state of worry over its potential economic damage.

The public voted for a familiar face in Boris, after all he had introduced the popular “Boris bike” cycle scheme, increased ‘affordable’ housing in London and was the poster boy of Brexit, which the majority supported.

But in focusing on his resumé, we neglected to ruminate on his well documented lack of integrity in his personal and professional life.

Not long into his premiership we were affronted with further turmoil in the country, arising from a serious health crisis, rising inflation, taxes and fiscal debt all enveloped in an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty.

In light of this, we reverted to our innate dependency on an authoritative figure, as we did as a child. Herein lies the problem for Boris Johnson and the Conservative party…

With ongoing chaos and very few success stories for the government to parade, its citizens became acutely aware of every action, word and deed.

The most recent example circulating in the media, is whether or not Boris held, attended and/or approved illegal parties during the government imposed lockdown.

Much like many citizens, I truly couldn’t care less what Boris gets up to in his free time. But, for the premier to set such restrictive rules, instilling fear, guilt and punitive financial punishments for any breaches, it beggars belief how he couldn’t remember or abide by the very rules he set and preached on an almost weekly basis.

Not only that, but to be effectively caught with his hand in the cookie jar, by way of photographic evidence (on multiple occasions), he chose to perpetuate contradictory untruths:

December 1 2021, “What I can tell the right hon and learned gentleman is that all guidance was followed completely in No 10.”

December 7 2021, “I am satisfied myself that the guidelines were followed at all times.”

December 8 2021, “…. I repeat that I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken.”

December 13 2021, “I can tell you once again that I certainly broke no rules.”

December 20 2021, (in reference to the now infamous garden photo)

“Those were people at work, talking about work. I have said what I have to say about that.”

January 18 2022, “Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules, that the event in question was something that ... was not a work event, and as I said in the House of Commons when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.”

January 2022, “I'm saying categorically that nobody told me, nobody said this was something that was against the rules…frankly, I can't imagine why it would have gone ahead, or it would have been allowed to go ahead if it was against the rules.”

For his cronies to further the nonsensical narrative, the gaslighting the British public has endured would have you think you’ve gone absolutely mad or completely detach from what you perceive to be reality altogether.

So as we’ve come to find out over the last couple of years, trust, which serves as the bedrock of governance in a democratic country like the UK can no longer be relied upon. And if the fish rots from the head, it remains only a short while until the trust in wider society fails.