Charles Moore Charles Moore

The curious case of Barry Gardiner

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issue 22 January 2022

In May 2020, in the wake of the Barnard Castle story, Emily Maitlis delivered her famous Newsnight address to the nation: ‘Dominic Cummings broke the rules. The country can see that, and it’s shocked the government cannot.’ The public felt ‘fury, contempt and anguish’ at what had happened. The Prime Minister was showing ‘blind loyalty’ to a colleague, etc. Now Mr Cummings is chief witness for the prosecution of Boris Johnson of which Ms Maitlis was an early forerunner. It is time for Emily to speak to us via Newsnight once more and, in the interests of the BBC’s Impartiality Action Plan, declare: ‘Dominic Cummings is a brave whistle-blower. Shocked that the Prime Minister has broken Covid rules, he has now spoken out’, etc.

Operation Save Big Dog is the plan to keep Boris in office. Press reports say that the rebels have called their counter-plan Operation Rinka. It is one of those jokes that makes you smile only for a moment: then you realise it does not work. Firstly, it is an odd form of propaganda to link your campaign with the cruel shooting of an innocent dog. Secondly, the shooting achieved nothing. It was, allegedly, an attempt by a hired killer to frighten off Rinka’s owner, Norman Scott, from repeating his claims against his former lover Jeremy Thorpe, the then Liberal leader. The killing of Rinka was a useless substitute for the intended killing — if the story is true — of Scott himself. Operation Rinka therefore seems an ill-omened name for a political assassination.

The phrase ‘Dance with the one that brung ya’ is invoked by ‘Red Wall’ Tories critical of the Prime Minister. It is a good principle, first enunciated in a political context by Ronald Reagan.

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