'Partygate' is a rather weakly comic representation of the events that brought down Boris Johnson; but also, quite literally, a deadly serious one. Right from the start it gets to one key point, when a caller to a radio-phone in offers a defence of the then Prime Minister, accused of hosting "parties" during the COVID-19 lockdowns. For sure, all social gatherings were banned, and if the makers of the laws don't follow them, how can anyone else be expected to. But if people working long hours gathered briefly to wish each other happy birthday, or had a quick drink in the garden after work, was that really so terrible? Even if wrong, you could understand how it had happened. Only, of course, it didn't happen like that. The Downing Street staff, from the top man downwards, acted with complete and reckless disregard for the law they were imposing on other people. Johnson has continued to insist that nothing occured you could really call a party; but that man is a serial liar. 'Partygate' suggests that the reason it all happened lies in the insufferable arrogance of a ruling class who take it for granted that no-one actually gets to tell them what to do, even themselves! It may still not be the worst thing that a British government has ever done; but the story speaks volumes of the contempt of our governors for the governed.
