Thursday 15 June 2023
The political news of the day is the report of the enquiry finding the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson guilty of misleading Parliament, misleading the enquiry, and compounding his errors by vigorous denial of the legitimacy of the enquiry.
In earlier podcasts, I noted the difficulties that politicians have in changing their minds.
Maybe they persist irrationally in a belief when the evidence builds up against it. Politicians hate admitting they have changed their mind for fear of being accused of flip-flopping.
To deal with such an accusation may lead the politician to produce even less convincing arguments.
Both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have resorted to this.
Since losing the presidential election Trump has insisted he has been victim of the big lie, effectively robbing him of his rightful reelection.
This week, Boris Johnson echoed the victim cry of ‘we was robbed’, blaming a conspiracy including the inquiry into his unparliamentary behaviour. The enquiry had with a majority of members from his own party. furthermore, it was appointed by Parliament with an even higher proportion of MPs in his own party at a time when he was leader.
