Sympathy for the Grinch

[shewhomust]

I could almost - almost - feel sorry for Boris. He wants people to like him, and he wants his own way (that's what being World King means, right?) and he can't choose between the two, and ends up getting neither. He tries to negotiate with the virus, and it won't agree to his deal.

So Christmas has just been cancelled. This does not affect my plans in the slightest, and doesn't affect most of those close to me (and most of those whose plans I know through DW, too). I would sympathise with people who made plans, booked tickets, had hopes on the basis of Boris's promised five day release - but seriously, if you are still, a year into his premiership, believing Boris's promises, then this is not the last disappointment in store for you.

Likewise, I could almost feel sorry for Boris. Yet again, he has been forced into doing the right thing when it is too late to get any credit for it: he gets neither the warm glow of virtue nor the satisfaction of getting his own way. Again.

And that 'again' is what destroys any sympathy I might feel. To misread the pandemic once, Mr Johnson, might be regarded as a misfortune; to misread it twice begins to look like carelessness. And how many times is this?

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to do, ahead of a virtual date at the virtual panto.

Comments

[sovay]

To misread the pandemic once, Mr Johnson, might be regarded as a misfortune; to misread it twice begins to look like carelessness. And how many times is this?

I am sorry it was done in the most disruptive, last-minute fashion possible, but I am glad at least that Christmas will not be celebrated with unrestricted infectious travel. Plague should be automatically barred from the list of things one could give for the season.

[shewhomust]

My sentiments precisely!

[athenais]

Christ, his fuckery is as infuriating as our own idiot-in-charge. Though I do not have much sympathy for anyone whose plans have now changed because they can't, after all, travel freely to spread Covid for five days. I really do want to scream at (waves hand vaguely) people.

[shewhomust]

Christ, his fuckery is as infuriating as our own idiot-in-charge.

They have much in common - but at least you get rid of your blond bombshell in the New Year, while ours is just one year into a five year term.

I get exasperated with people who appear to think that government rules control what the virus is allowed to do, but I have some sympathy for people who made quite modest plans and are now caught out by things like the clisure of the border between England and Scotland. Not to mention - but I could fill another whole post with things I'm not going to mention!

[athenais]

I will say I am sorry for anyone who was hoping to take advantage of getting something official done, like getting married in a civil ceremony, during that five day gap. Or simply having an opportunity to move house, or yes, cross borders. But in general, the planning of the five day break was positively criminal.