As we watch Britain in general, and the British economy in particular, implode, it is time to ask, how does a great nation commit suicide? Only three years ago, Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, bringing a Conservative majority of 80 seats. Truly astonishing.
Now, The Daily Star, a British tabloid, is asking the question (and is running a contest) Can Liz Trust Outlast A Head of Lettuce? Most people are voting for the lettuce. Meanwhile, the £, once a very solid currency, is headed for parity with the US dollar — a drop of nearly 20% in a few weeks.
What happened?
This was precipitated by an unrelenting drive to attack Boris Johnson, the then Prime Minister, in the press. The “crime’ went under the umbrella term Partygate.
During the lockdown, Boris behaved in less-than-perfect ways. OK. Who did not? Who did not transgress a bit? He had a staff party. He ate a piece of his birthday cake. He had a beer the day of Prince Philip’s funeral?
In Russia, Putin was breaking every norm of society and singlehandedly starting the biggest European war since 1945, but Boris ate a piece of cake.
In any normal society, people would say, ‘well, having staff parties during lockdown was probably not the best of ideas, but really, we have more important things to deal with than this.’ But the press is not normal people. The press is in the business of selling eyeballs — that’s their product. You are not the client of the press. The client is the advertiser. That’s who pays for commercial time or ads in the paper. And what are the press selling to the advertiser? They are selling you — your attention, your eyeballs. You are the product. The more eyeballs, the more money. So what drives decisions on whom to attack and how is not really based on the benefit of the nation. More often than not, it is based on the benefit of the advertiser, that is, ratings. Partygate was the perfect device for driving ratings. It was the gift that kept giving — an almost entirely media-created event. But how to keep it going? I mean. eating a piece of birthday cake or having a beer during lockdown is not exactly high crimes and misdemeanors. So you have to create outrage. Outrage today is the best product we have. Outrage sells. Get people mad.
And how do you get people mad about someone eating a piece of birthday cake? Well, this was after all, at the height of lockdown, so you find someone whose father died the same day that Boris ate the cake, and you have them cry. “My father was dying while the Prime Minister was eating cake with his staff.” Hard to argue with that one. Makes great ratings. So let’s do it again. Many people’s loved ones died of Covid while Boris was eating a piece of birthday cake. Find more. So they did. Now we have a scandal. Shared a few bottles of wine with the staff during Prince Philip’s funeral? OUTRAGE! I don’t know about you, but we were all wearing black and rending our garments at our house.
And so Boris died the death of a thousand cuts. One mini-scandal after the next. It’s how we kill public figures these days- for ratings. The media got a great scandal and great ratings. It was so good that the press forced Boris to resign. Not since Richard Nixon! What an achievement.
And what did the British people get out of it? Liz Truss. Don’t ask too hard for something — you might just get it.