WHY is Boris Johnson making such a... I was going to say ‘such a fuss’ but it’s more than that. It’s a national emergency he’s making (or describing) regarding the Omicron virus.

In a direct TV appeal to the English people, the British PM urged them to get the booster vaccine into them, because there is “a tidal wave” of the Omicron virus headed towards Britain, and if action is not taken immediately there could a huge loss of life by the end of January.
 
With that in mind, he’s called in the British Army to help, and jabs will be available right through the festive season. (“No, Mother, no plum pud for me. I have to join the mile-long queue to get a booster jab. I should be back by St Stephen’s Day.”)
 
Unfortunately, if the Tories had wanted to create doubts in the British mind, they couldn’t have chosen a worse messenger boy than the tousle-headed one. The British people have heard so many lies from Johnson  many believe he  has lost (if he ever had) any understanding of the word ‘truth’.
 
 For example:
• Boris Johnson promised 40 ‘new hospitals’ to show how much he cares about the NHS. In fact, he will deliver just six new hospitals, the others will get only ‘seed funding’, that is, some money to get started. After that, another source of revenue will have to be found somewhere. He also included in his 40 ‘new’ hospitals any existing hospital that was having renovation done.
VERDICT: PM pants on fire.
 
• The British PM has claimed that his government will see the biggest spending rise on the NHS “in modern memory”. Johnson has pledged £34 billion for 2023/24. But the Institute of Fiscal Studies says that’s still less than Labour invested.
VERDICT: PM pants on fire.
 
• “There will be no checks on goods going from GB to NI and NI to GB because we are going to come out of the EU whole and entire. That was the objective we secured.” If Johnson was speaking the truth, why were loyalists burning buses and unionist politicians taking court cases, arguing that Johnson had breached the 1801 Act of Union?
VERDICT: PM pants on fire.
 
 And so it continues, with smoke rising from his rear. To vary the metaphor, this is the classic case of the boy who cried wolf.  Now when it looks as though a real crisis is coming and he warns the nation, many will roll their eyes and  groan “Not him again! The fat fraud is making it all up!”
 
On Thursday of this week, the people of North Shropshire will take part in a by-election for the seat left vacant by Owen Paterson, late of this parish. Paterson was elected last time out with a 22,949 majority. But If the bookies are right, this Conservative stronghold may well be seized by the Lib Dems. If the Lib Dems are successful, it will be an important battle won. But winning one battle doesn’t mean you’ve won the war.  The electorate very often like to give the government of the day a bloody nose in by-elections – it’s a safe way of telling them to mind their manners. 
 
 They say that when a comedian tells joke after joke and they all fall flat, the comedian “dies” onstage. Boris Johnson has been cracking jokes and telling lies since he was the Mayor of London and earlier.  Now that people have stopped seeing him as even remotely funny, he had better brace himself and pray that  his political demise does not begin this Thursday in North Shropshire.