The floods got Jeremy Corbyn into a pickle at PMQs. The Labour leader started off by out-virtuing Boris. The PM had expressed sympathy with the victims of Storms Chiara and Dennis. Corbyn stood up.
‘My thoughts are with those suffering across the world with the corona-virus,’ he said tartly.
He accused the PM of responding sluggishly to the inundations. Referring to an earlier crisis, he said, ‘I demanded that a Cobra meeting be called and [the Prime Minister] very reluctantly agreed.’ With the latest floods, Corbyn went on, he had once again ordered Boris to summon Cobra. But the PM had ignored the call. Why? Corbyn had his answer:
‘He doesn’t really care at all because there are no votes on the line at the moment.’
The question is, would another meeting of Cobra, (more properly Cobr ‘A’), have made any difference? An odd term, Cobra, full of mysterious glamour and potency, like the James Bond brand.
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