Boris Johnson's media spin cannot hide how nasty Conservatives are

Indeed, I doubt there is a single National reader who has not already sussed that out about our entitled PM a long time ago. Nor will any be voting for a man with such little feeling for the human condition or the plight of UK children.

So, let’s look beyond the media circus that has exploded around “photograph-gate” and “punch-gate” this past Monday. Let us even ignore the Tories’ spinning of a web of deceit around a wholly fictitious assault on Matt Hancock’s adviser in order to distract from their leader’s woeful lack of decency in the face of a child’s illness and the failure to treat him properly.

Let’s not focus on that, because we have not been deceived. We already see Johnson for what he is – a narcissistic opportunist who cares little for the fate of some of our most vulnerable citizens in the UK. He just wants the power, and he doesn’t care what he has to do to get it or who he has to lie to in order to clear his path.

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Let’s focus instead on truth and facts, which have been in short supply from Tory HQ this election and squandered needlessly by Labour and the LibDems in their respective campaigns, and listen instead to a politician who knows what she is talking about from real lived experience as a doctor and breast surgeon both at home and abroad.

On the Channel 4 debate Everything But Brexit last Sunday night, Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNP health spokesperson and current candidate in the Central Ayrshire constituency, cut through the fantasies and falsehoods on investing in the NHS being pedalled by the Tories in this election. She blew their myths out of the water and if you missed it, be sure to find it on catch up, because it is one of the few memorable performances by any politician in this dismal election.

Philippa Whitford

Rising above the headlines, the soundbites and the pithy slogans, Dr Whitford spoke with authority about the challenges faced by our children because of the damage caused by Tory austerity.

Alongside politicians from all the other major parties, except, of course, the Conservatives and the Brexit Party, who were conspicuous by their absence, she reminded the audience that the rise in child poverty started not after the financial crash in 2008, but in 2012, when the Conservatives were in coalition with the LibDems and deliberately voted in their austerity measures through parliament. This poverty negatively impacts every single part of a child’s life and life expectancy.

The responsibility for the 4.1 million children living in poverty in this country lies at their respective doors, as does the equally shocking rise in infant mortality – linked to these welfare cuts in a recent study. And while the NHS is at breaking point, with many more than just four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr treated on the floor for his suspected pneumonia by over-stretched staff and services, child homelessness this Christmas will be at its highest level in the 10 years since the Conservatives came to power. Astonishing and disgraceful in equal measure in the boasted fifth-largest economy in the world.

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Dr Whitford went on to talk with great compassion and clarity about attending a health inquiry where she learnt that the UK loses 1400 children a year before their 15th birthday due to a whole range of factors, including infant mortality, house fires, road traffic accidents, suicide, drugs and alcohol. This devastating statistic was delivered by a politician who speaks for Scotland and knows that the Scottish Parliament has done everything in its power to mitigate this cruelty, this inhumane abandonment of our children and our vulnerable in society. But with Johnson and the Tories back at Westminster, Brexit in process, devolution dismantled and power redistributed, these children would lose what little protection they have left.

This is the reality of Britain in 2019 – it’s a damning legacy for Johnson and his party and no amount of distraction and spin can hide it. So, this Thursday don’t think about the nonsense spewed forth from right-wing think tanks and campaign offices and staged photo ops, think about these 1400 kids that Dr Whitford highlighted, lost to life and love and opportunity, sacrificed to a greedy political creed that cares nought for our children’s future.

Think about the wee ones who’ll be in a hostel over Christmas, the families at the food banks, the babies that won’t make it to their first birthday, the children without Christmas dinner or presents, the seriously sick kids waiting for hospital beds. Think about them. And think about how, outside this stupid, pointless Brexit bubble, this Rule Britannia fantasy of “getting it done”, the real world is a harsh and unkind place for these children.

It is not within the Johnson compass, indeed not even in his universe. He has not a drop of empathy for their plight. And that it is the real reason he is unfit to be Prime Minister and, if there is a single ounce of justice in this world, he will now be removed from his office.