Can Sir Jeffrey, the Orange Order and BinLid resuce unionism/loyalism from their last 'Hurrah' with their bowler hats (kinky boots) and umbrellas!

THERE was a karaoke machine; one person drank so much they threw up, two other revellers got into a fight and someone spilt wine up the wall while another inebriate broke a child's swing in the back garden.

          Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots 

All pretty mundane stuff for any party, in any house, except this happened in 10 Downing Street, during a pandemic, while the rest of the country was in strict Covid lockdown. These revelations were part of the report by Sue Gray into 16 separate parties Boris Johnson and his cronies both oversaw and participated in, all while families were denied access to dying relatives and NHS staff, worked to exhaustion, were forced to sleep in hotels, unable to return home.

Not only is Johnson the first serving Prime Minister in history to have been convicted of breaking the law but, under his watch, 126 fines for Covid breaches were issued to 83 individuals, including his wife and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, leaving Downing Street with the ignominious record of having the most Covid breaches in the whole of the UK. 

Over the last six months, everytime Johnson was questioned about 'partygate' his stock reply was, "I cannot comment until the publication of the Sue Gray report." Yet even after its publication on Wednesday, Johnson remained seemingly impervious to its damning findings. Incapable of remorse, his new soundbite became "It's time to move on". As I watched his performance in Parliament, I was struck by his complete lack of shame at having been exposed to the world as a serial liar; God knows, like most normal people, I was embarrassed for him. And that's the crux of the problem: I don't think Boris is 'normal'. I think he's in a completely different class. 

   The British PM: Sinks to a new low just          when you thought he couldn't sink                                   any lower. 

Superficial charm, overinflated self-worth, easily bored, pathological liar, shows no remorse, lack of empathy, callousness, parasitic lifestyle and, finally, an inability to accept responsibility for their actions. Remind you of anyone (Jeffrey Donaldson)? 

While this list of personality traits could pass as a blueprint for Johnson, they're also recognised as those of a narcissistic sociopath.

I'm not saying Johnson is insane; no, he's much more dangerous. He walks among us seemingly normal but he's most definitely not, as he self-evidently lacks much of what constitutes a rounded human being. So, if we're waiting on him to accept responsibility for his actions, we'll be waiting a very, very long time. Our best hope is that the other personality disorders which constitute the Conservative party finally recognise he's more liability than asset and jettison him. 

                    ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️

EVEN with UK politics lying in the gutter, we're in no position to take the moral high ground. Having gone through a charade of an election we continue to languish in the same situation that existed before, with politicians talking a salary while providing no political representation.

While the DUP remain deaf to the concerns of all sections of our society, there seems little chance of any change despite the NHS, business, education and social care sectors warning of dire consequences if the Assembly remains dormant. Instead, Jeffery Donaldson MP continues to place his faith in Boris Johnson doing 'the right thing' by invoking Article 16 and unilaterally tearing up the NI Protocol.

I'd suggest that following the Sue Gray report and an upcoming Privileges Committee Inquiry into whether he lied to parliament, Johnson may have more pressing worries than the whinging of what he probably views as a bunch of inconsequential 'plastic Paddies'.

According to the Department of Education, one disgraceful consequence of the DUP's inaction is that 98,000 of our most disadvantaged children face 'holiday hunger'.

Without Executive agreement, £22 million won't be released to provide families with payments of £27 every fortnight in lieu of free school meals during the summer. When you consider hundreds of millions lie unspent in Assembly coffers, the injustice of this situation is galling.

Worse, as our children face going hungry over the summer, our MLAs will continue to eat in a subsidised canteen. It was reported in 2020 that the cost of catering at the Assembly over five years was £1m, with £700k having been spent during the three years it wasn't sitting.

With an MLA salary sitting at £55k, I'd suggest they're capable of paying for their own dinners. So, instead of feasting on the public purse, they should release those monies to help cover the shortfall for free school meals over the summer. If they don't, I hope they choke on every unearned mouthful of food they're served.

With many thanks to: The Irish News and Jake O'Kane for the original publication.

Follow these links to find out more on this story and more information on what's going on 'up on the hill': The British Government's top law officer Attorney General Suella Braverman who advised Boris Johnson to rip up the NI Protocol

NIESR have poured cold water on claims made by the Conservative and Unionist Party that the NI Protocol is damaging trade with the UK.

Reality matters very little to the DUP or Johnson

Westminster 'pushing disingenuous claim protocol is incompatible with the Good Friday Agreement'

Jimbo Allister: announces that red and green customs lanes will no satisfy unionist unrest concerning the NI Protocol