I THOUGHT it was fake news, but Boris is really bringing back pounds and ounces – possibly feet and inches as well, I suppose. I wonder what will be next. Possibly reversing the 1971 change to decimal currency. It would be welcome back guineas, shillings, ten bob notes and the like. Jacob Rees-Mogg would be overjoyed as the clock is turned back more than 50 years.
All this seems very appropriate as the UK standard of living is heading back to the 1970s. Are we expected to forget all about Partygate, Covid, Brexit and the like and enjoy the experience of buying what food we can still afford in pounds and ounces?
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon leads mockery as Tories re-reveal imperial measures plan
One day Boris told us he was sorry and humbled the next he changed the ministerial code to make sure he will never need to be sorry or humbled ever again.
You do begin to wonder just how far back in time the UK is prepared to go. As food banks struggle to meet greatly increased demand, could we see the reopening of something resembling workhouses?
It’s a shame prices for food and energy will not be going back to 1970’s levels that would have been something to really celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
Brian Lawson
Paisley
IN this year of Her Majesty’s platinum jubilee, only Boris Johnson and his jolly chums of Brexiteers would think it’s a good idea to bring back imperial measures. How quaint, how jolly, how British.
Just how much would this step backwards cost, to builders, fabricators, education authorities and publicans?
READ MORE: Tory councillor mocked for saying no major Glasgow jubilee celebrations is 'shameful'
With the cost of living increases – electricity, gas, mortgages, petrol and food all going skywards –Boris and his chums may soon have some of the less fortunate going back to the old-fashioned existence of cave-dwelling and foraging.
God may well save the Queen, but the Metropolitan Police certainly saved Boris.
Please in this time of uncertainty and hardship, remember to buy your Union Jack and wave with gusto.
Robert McCaw
Renfrew
IT’S bad enough the Boris Johnson has rewritten the ministerial code to allow ministers who breach it not to have to resign just to get himself off the hook for his appalling conduct, but what does it say about parliamentary standards and accountability that he is allowed to do so? And what does it say about the standards of the Conservative party that they have allowed him to do so?
It is shameful that there seems no means for this parliament, elected by and supposedly accountable to voters, to hold this aberrant Prime Minister to account, and he is allowed to swagger through British politics like a thug and spiv, casting aside every shred of political decency and accountability in parliament’s long history.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson waters down ministerial code, but Douglas Ross stays silent
Rendered powerless by the majority enjoyed by the Tories, the only imperative now is for the opposition to create a constitutional crisis and to a man and a woman withdraw from active participation in all all its forms until this miscreant Prime Minister falls on his sword.
In the absence of conscience within the Tory party, and their failure to go to the country for its verdict at the ballot box, there is no other option if we want to regain any degree of respect for democracy. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh
BORIS Johnson seems to be of the mind that he has weathered the worst of the Partygate scandal and he has emerged relatively unscathed.
His depredations on the standards of British public life have, for the most part, gone unpunished. This hubristic, narcissistic and shameless showman has brazenly confronted and confounded his critics and parliamentary opposition. His ploy of fronting up with his multifarious character defects for all to see and his continuous delusional denial of any wrongdoing is, for the time being, serving him well.
READ MORE: Andrew Tickell: Narcissism of a gaslighting PM who believes rules are for others
In order to consolidate his position, Johnson has now changed the rules of the ministerial code. Now politicians are allowed to apologise rather than resign if they break it, potentially further undermining standards in British public life. Johnson has also removed the words honesty and integrity from the code. He obviously finds both words abhorrent and embarrassing.
One thing is for sure, Johnson will certainly not go of his own volition no matter how copious and damning his misdemeanours are. He is essentially saying “I am who I am, get used to it”. It’s up to Conservative politicians and their constituents to bring Johnson down and restore some semblance of decency in British public life.
Sandy Gordon
Edinburgh
MINISTERS no longer have to resign if they breach the ministerial code. This, along with other laws being enacted or proposed by this Johnson government such as restricting voting rights (trying to rig the election), bans on demonstrations, clawing back devolved matters etc etc points to dictatorship in the making.
Mike Underwood
Linlithgow
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