James O'Brien's clinical takedown of No10 double standards

10 December 2021, 11:01

By Seán Hickey

This is James O'Brien's ferocious assessment of the double standards scandal engulfing the government and Boris Johnson.

"Why should I obey the rules if they do not?

"By they we obviously mean the people in charge, we mean most obviously Boris Johnson, we mean Jacob Rees-Mogg who was laughing about it this week, we mean Allegra Stratton who was laughing about it a year ago surrounded by all the lord high panjandrums of Downing Street's media operation, we mean his director of communications who was handing out awards at one of these shindigs, we mean pretty much everybody in the politbureau of the UK government."

James O'Brien was reflecting on another day of crisis at Number 10, as more rule-breaking parties are now alleged to have happened.

"They make the rules but they don't obey them."

"Hard to think of a more damning indictment of a government than that, never mind an individual Prime Minister, an entire governmental machine dedicated to protecting the nation from a coronavirus by imposing rules and regulations that the population is required and expected to follow, but they don't follow the rules themselves."

James went on to note that he has been flagging issues of the government's lack of clarity and leadership since the first months of the pandemic. He feared that the nation has gotten to a point where they are no longer surprised by the scandals swirling around Westminster.

"Seems like, almost a nursery rhyme now, clarity and leadership."

Offering an answer to his earlier question, James explained why listeners should still pay heed to coronavirus regulations: "You care about your friends, your family and your neighbours more than they care about their friends, their families and their neighbours."

"Remember when they were dropping like flies with the virus? Now we have a slightly better indication of why that might have been than we had before."