Boris has offered his heart-felt apology to the nation for inadvertently breaking lockdown rules, for which he has been fined, but that is not enough for his political enemies unsurprisingly.
Wednesday's PMQs were marked by a tiresome repetition by Opposition MPs demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, using up precious parliamentary time in seemingly endless reruns of what they appear to regard as the Norway Debate of 1940. Except that the Prime Minister is far from an appeaser as demonstrated by his recent visit to Kyiv in support of Ukraine.
That wasted time could have been spent on real political issues relating to the concerns of real people about the cost of living and the global events that affect goods and prices, but imagination and positive policy ideas are in short supply.
Any excuse-gate
The spectre of partygate has returned, as if it ever went away, but a word of caution may be in order.
Any great beast will be brought down eventually through repeated stabbing with spears, hitting with clubs and shooting with arrows delivered by adversaries who are smaller and lesser than they. King Kong was shot by aircraft, Rasputin poisoned and then shot, Caesar stabbed repeatedly and betrayed.
The wounded animal is still considered dangerous as it flails around but, as regicides through history have found out to their cost, the victims of their execution can be more dangerous dead than when they were alive.
Often, an idea is more potent than by whom it is represented. The idea will live on and those by whom it is espoused will have their vengeance on those who brought their titan down.
The body still being dragged earthwards is the prime minister, formerly celebrated for breaking the Brexit deadlock, an impressive vaccine rollout and economic support programme and delivering a healthy majority for his party. More recently his robust response to the pleas of President Zelensky but targeted by those on his own side of the House as well as his and their political opponents.
The idea he represents is far stronger than any inability on his part to live up to it. This idea has inspired and inspires members of all classes and ethnicities. A dream, maybe, but one that was shared as a common national purpose and aspiration. That we are one people, that multinationals, globalists and supranational organisations are not necessarily on 'our' side and certainly not followers of the same dream.
There may never have been a golden age and there may never be one, but the golden dreams in people's hearts are denied at the peril of those who fire their peashooters, arrows and cannon on those who are thought (rightly or wrongly) to represent the silent majority of this country.
Any Conservative MP who is considering voting against the Prime Minister on Thursday may find their seat in more jeopardy because of that decision than otherwise, and any minister who wants to decapitate the party to become prime minister themself, stands a very good chance of becoming leader of HM Opposition sooner rather than later.
