It's not the sleaze that will do for Boris. Christopher Furlong/Getty
Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth. How do the Seven Deadly Sins vote? Greed, lust and gluttony are Tories, surely. Collectively: sleaze. Envy is a lefty — the “politics of envy” and all that. Perhaps wrath is too. After all, wrath does love a shouty demo (although it usually disguises itself as a virtue called ‘righteous anger’). Pride — widely seen by theologians as the top sin — is evenly distributed amongst all politicians. And sloth is generally not a political sin — though this is the mood that grips me when I listen to Liberal Democrats so I’m going to let them have that one.
Tory MPs generally fall from grace in a different kind of way to their Left-wing colleagues. For Tories, it tends to be all about willies and wallets. Boris and his wallpaper. Hancock with his assistant over the photocopier. Go back a bit, and there’s Neil Hamilton trousering back handers from Mohamed Fayed, and David Mellor sucking the toes of his mistress dolled up in full Chelsea kit. And we enjoy it when they get their comeuppance, especially when it is sex related. Owen Paterson’s grubby little misdemeanours weren’t of the bedroom variety, but still get filed under sleaze.
The trouble for Labour is that we don’t fear these people, we snigger at them. Posh people doing sleaze is generally priced in when we vote Tory. We find it hilarious when the local MP is caught trussed up in the back of a respectable mock Tudor semi, slavered in goose fat wearing nothing but a gas mask. But we are not all that surprised. They went to public school, after all.
And while sins of the wallet are far less amusing, even these can be made to feel more like playing the system as opposed to hand-in-the-till theft. Likewise, covering up for your mates can be humanised as a misguided expression of personal friendship. “A tiny part of me even admires their loyalty to their friend and political ally,” admitted Chris Bryant, Labour MP and chair of the cross party Standards Committee.
We’d all like our friends to go the extra mile for us, even if that means cutting corners, cheating, whatever. After all, why did the Prime Minister not suffer any noticeable electoral consequence for conspiring with his mate Darius Guppy to beat up a reporter. It was disgraceful behaviour, yet somehow Boris keeps on getting away with it because he manages to turn his considerable moral shortcomings into a kind of human-all-too-human failing of the kind we are invited to identify with.
Interestingly, Dante — who did most to popularise the Catholic idea of the seven deadly sins — thought that lust, gluttony and greed, my Tory vices, were all disordered versions of the love of intrinsically good things: love, food, material well-being. Human imperfectability — what we might call original sin — has been a defining feature of historic conservatism. And it is a generally kinder, more forgiving, more human version of the world than the belief that human beings can be bashed into the perfect form. This could be a summary of Burke on the French Revolution.
Of course, it is infuriating. But this is why Tory sleaze presents a kind of trap for Labour.
The naughtier Boris gets, the more Keir Starmer — with whom we are not on first name terms — is transformed into some sort of lawyer/teacher authority figure whom we would secretly like to thumb our noses at. “It’s not naughtiness, it’s corruption!” Mr Starmer may scream inside with understandable frustration. Why do voters repeatedly fall for this juvenile bullshit? But they still do.
“How many more times does it need to happen? How much more proof do we need that the country is run by a man with contempt for the rule of law, who believes that he and his friends are beyond its reach?” So Jonathan Freedland begins his column in the Guardian, steam coming out of his ears. Can’t you see, can’t you see? Yet Boris Johnson remains ahead in the polls. And many voters in Owen Paterson’s constituency seem relatively unperturbed by last week’s shenanigans.
But the Prime Minister’s well-practised capacity to slip free from the weight of his own moral dodginess can only last so long on voters. Two lines of Labour criticism do cut through with the public. The first is: they think they are better than you. One rule for them, for the Old Etonians and their mates, and another for the little people. In other words, they think you are unimportant.
Yet even here, there is danger for Labour. After all, the intensification of a class-based critique of this government’s behaviour can easily be turned on its head to remind voters of the natural affinity between Labour and envy. And envy is a particularly wizened up mean-spirited vice in the way lust and gluttony are not. The hard left are Boris Johnson’s greatest electoral asset. With one magic word – Corbyn – all is forgiven.
But the most effective line is surely this: you don’t know what you’re doing. This is what Spurs fans sang at their manager the other week, just before he got the sack. And this is what Labour should be singing more. To paraphrase a French wit: its worse than a sin, it’s a mistake. Which is exactly the word John Major used when interviewed by the BBC. Well, he could hardly have called him out on sleaze, what with him and Edwina.
But Major was right. For all the cries of moral outrage, it’s not the sleaze that will do for him, but his political cack-handedness. Last week he frogmarched his own reluctant backbenchers into supporting an attack on the standards system that had judged Owen Paterson guilty, only to immediately reverse his position, leaving many on his own side fuming and embarrassed.
Today, there is an emergency debate in the Commons. I suspect this may well help the Prime Minister, as tribal loyalties kick in when he is attacked by the Opposition. But as Johnson faces Starmer across the dispatch box, the real danger is not in front of him, but behind him. Tories might store it up and do it silently — but they too do wrath. And as a scholar of Roman history, the Prime Minister knows full well what a thwarted mishandled Senate is capable of. Boris beware, beware the ides of March.
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SubscribeThe main reason why people keep supporting Boris Johnson is not because they are forgiving of his sins; it is because there is no practical alternative. That is very much the fault of the Labour party for not acting as a viable opposition.
It makes me laugh to hear Sir Kier and Sir John talk about corruption and treating the public with contempt. They tried to swindle the British public by overturning the referendum result. And colluded with a foreign power against the government to do so.
Not sure “laugh” is the word i would use. Despair, perhaps – at their complete lack of self-awareness. Unbelievable.
It was a despairing, hollow laugh. 🙂
The referendum under the direction of Dominic Cummings was itself the most contemptable swindle ever perpetrated on the people of the UK! To overturn the referendum result would be to restore justice! A 2nd referendum when the facts (and lies) became clearer, and without the wizard like distortions of DC would have been a much fairer result. Still, you are where you are and God help you all! Enjoy the slide…
Dominic Cummings is a competent strategist and pollster but to believe he is a “wizard” able to “distort” reality and make the British people mistake “lies” for “facts” is a bit much.
If this is the kind of conspiracy theory peddled in Remain circles, no wonder Kier Starmer lost the plot and tried to overturn the result. If you believe in all-powerful Svengalis you could swallow any countermeasure.
But if you believe the British people can be brainwashed by a few stump speeches and adverts, maybe you are unsuitable for the job of PM.
I fear you underestimate the naughty DC and grossly overestimate the intelligence of the average voter.. perpetrating myths using social media is child’s play to these wizards and the gullible punters putty in their hands. Look at all the garbage perpetrated on Covid and it gives you some idea of the power of persuasion especially when the other side fell fast asleep! ..the other side being 75% (min.) of politicians.. like taking candy from a baby!
Read the article on Sweden before pontificating on covid responses. You do appear to either be a troll, or the most unhinged and un-self aware Remainiac elitist imaginable, with an utter contempt for democracy unless it gives you the answer you approve of. Recall that over 500 MPs including Caroline Lucas and most of the Lib Dems voted for the referendum.
Your arrogant attitude demonstrates more clearly than anything why national populism has been a rising force across Europe for some while now, whatever the shortcomings of some of its protagonists. ‘Freedom of movement’ is good for you, no well, it isn’t actually all that good for the working class, but never mind, we are all internationalists now! (Although actually we are against helping the developing world through free trade because those primitive people can’t be expected to meet our exacting standards).
The single currency was another obviously ‘good thing’ to impose across the widely differing economies across Europe, which has, as would be expected from a cursory understanding of economics, resulted in economic stagnation in Southern Europe for decades.
I have to credit the EU though of being the world champion of virtue signalling, while actually being a nice little racket for Germany, and to a lesser extent France! Ask the Greeks.
And of course there were no lies at all on the Remain side, the biggest one, there since Britain first joined in the 1970s, that the EEC /EU was not a political project with the ultimate aim of erecting a European super state (that the majority of the population in many European nations do not want).
The people are so gullible, we require extremely competent officials such as Ursula van de Leyen to govern them!
You do like your exclamation marks, don’t you.
Hes not a wizard. Hes a very naughty boy.
The author forgets the 8th deadly sin…which is probably the top one for many British voters and that is hypocrisy. The issue is touched upon when he highlights that people react badly to the notion of “one rule for us, one for the little people”. But I wouldn’t say this is the Tories thinking they are better than everyone else. It’s because it is hypocritical.
Whatever Boris’ moral shortcomings (which are as extensive as they are varied), I wouldn’t really say he has been a hypocrite until recently. Until the transformation into Britain’s no. 1 blonde eco-warrior, he never presented himself as anything other than a rogue and a risk-taker with a weakness for the ladies. That’s why it has been easier for him to brush off his frequent moral car crashes without sustaining too much damage.
Hypocrisy is, for me, a rather leftist sin. By pretending that the world and human beings can be perfected, they set themselves up for the biggest falls. By moral grandstanding and demonising anyone who falls below the impossibly high standards they set, their own failures become all the more damaging. And all the more delicious for their enemies.
That is why, in this latest parable of sleaze, John Major actually comes off looking worse than Johnson – the instant reaction to his outburst is “who are you to talk about loose morals? Who hopped into the sack with Edwina Curry?”
And it’s the moral grandstanding (particularly over climate protection) that will do for Boris in the end. Even though I am personally in favour of going green, reducing emissions, reducing the use of plastics etc., it bugs me when politicians present themselves as greener than green for their own political gain but completely fail to walk the walk. By taking private jets for example. Both Boris and Ursula von der Leyen fell into that trap this week and Ginge and Cringe will never be able to crawl out of it again.
This will all take a while to bite though…because the opposition tends to be just as guilty of hypocrisy, if not more so. It’s really hard for them to land blows with a sustained effect.
The point when the wheels fall off the green bandwagon will be the first winter when people’s parents start dying of the cold because their gas boiler has packed up, and they can’t afford the £20,000 for a heat pump.
It’s hard to say how this will play out, but a rush of otherwise healthy 60ish people into care homes, whose houses can no longer provide hot baths or heating, seems one possibility. Care homes will then collapse.
Care homes are already on the brink of collapse due to mandatory vaccines, domiciliary care too.
Tricky choice: Covid rampant in a well staffed care home vs Covid controlled in a poorly staffed care home! If it was me (I’m 71 but fit TG) I’d opt for the latter I think?
The notion of adding hypocrisy to the 7 deadly sins was a revelation to me. Insightful, relevant, and logical. Upon reflection, however, I think it it one outworking of pride, which afflicts most politicians, and I dare say some other people as well. People are hypocrites when they consider themselves better than others; one rule for you and one for me; my power allows me to tell you what to do and not to do it myself. Pride.
Thanks for the compliment. I’m not sure if I deserve it though, as, in truth, I was being a bit glib. If not a sin, I would definitely class hypocrisy as a failing. The degree of moral turpitude attached to it seems to vary from culture to culture.
..and from profession to profession I’ll wager! In politics it’s expected at least in lose dose measures. But like all toxic substsnces, in high doses it can be fatal!
The 8th deadly sin is actually cruelty.
Not as accurate with the facts as usual Giles. Boris was asked for an address by his erstwhile friend Guppy. He didn’t conspire, and he didn’t give him the address, there were no consequences. It was over 30 years ago, when Boris was in his twenties.
The story about David Mellor in a Chelsea strip is also a fabrication, also happened 30 years ago.
Why have you left out all the examples of Labour sleaze, including the MPs who have faced criminal prosecution in the last ten years?
If you are casting stones, at least make sure the aim is accurate!
The sole source for which was the convicted paedophile rapist Max Clifford.
It’s nice to see a man of the church repeating leftist lies about people he hates because of their politics. It reminds us both of how Christianity got big in the first place, yet how modern it still remains.
Any party that had Claudia webbe and Keith bar as it’s standards is in no position to criticise
Yup – Keith Vaz
And Labour’s Councils that failed many groomed, drugged, raped girls in their care.
To the Labour Party, every single one of them is a virtue to be commended and subsidised.
Pride: leftist moral narcissism
Greed: you’ve got more than me and I want the state to rob you and give it to me
Wrath: I hate whites, Jews, farmers, people with better houses etc
Envy: see greed
Lust: 194,000 abortions a year in the UK
Gluttony: the dole
Sloth: see gluttony
Well done Giles for keeping Chris Bryant back until the 4th paragraph. And why does the hilarious ex member for Leicester East not even get a walk on part. Acording to you he could be a Tory grandee with his wide ranging interests. Come off it Giles, both parties are as bad as each other. You urge 2 clarion calls upon Labour – that Tories think they are better than you and me, and they don’t know what they are doing, both fall flat. Have you ventured north of South London or Islington to hear what voters really think and have you seen Rayner, Starmer, Abbott et al being interviewed?
“Both parties are as bad as each other”. However at least the Tories didn’t promise to respect a vote by the electorate and then work to overturn it. That is a new low.
The answer to the headline question is “probably not”. On the other hand their green policies will eventually cost them seats.
The classic double whammy for Labour was, of course, the Kray twins. A Conservative peer Lord Boothby was literally in bed with the infamous gangsters. Unfortunately Labour could hardly exploit this scandal. A Labour politician, that glorious old rogue Tom Driberg, was similarly enjoying the thugs’ company.
https://thekraytwins.fandom.com/wiki/Tom_Driberg
I think they might pay for their sins. What we have seen over the last few days is a multi-faceted omnishambles of epic proportions. Soon to be further exacerbated by the enoblement of Owen Paterson I fear.
I suspect that parents send their children to Eton to have the last vestiges of good sense beaten out of them.
And Corbyn & Co – who Starmer worked to put into office and would have served under – weren’t a shambles?
Rest assured Roger, I wouldn’t vote for them either.
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Excellent article and so true. It’s his incompetence that will do for him, and the sooner the better.
I think he’ll be forgiven even that as long as the alternatives are so weak.
Were “Owen Paterson’s grubby little misdemeanours” grubby? Judgement was reached without his case being heard. His wife committed suicide. He claims to have acted in the interests of patients. I wasn’t aware that British justice was akin to Stalin’s. But then these days, we learn something new every day.
Giles, I think you’ll find Keith Vaz under the “willies and wallets” category and as for Claudia Webb – well just plain nasty.
I could go on(there are plenty more) but I’m sure you get the point. “Don’t focus on the speck in your brother’s eye while ignoring the log in your own.”
Sleaze is a given in the case of all politicians (unfairly in a few cases) and so exposing it will always result in a ho hum reaction.. broken promises, lies and hypocrisy are another matter!
Thank you Giles, I could not have said it better.
You could possibly add ‘let those without sin cast the first stone’ -but that might be over egging the pudding, because they are not all the same.
Short answer – No
I use Tweetdeck and rarely log on to Twitter – I remembered the reason this morning when I strayed onto the main Twitter app.
There were no fewer than 15 “promoted” Tweets lecturing me on the evils of the Conservative Government, all expressing identical outrage on Sleazegate. Despite me showing zero interest about the issue, as it is at least 135th on my list of political concerns right now.
How very strange.
An article in search of a point.
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