This is looking bad for Boris Johnson: “A senior minister [Liz Truss] has insisted Boris Johnson did pay for the refurbishment of his official Downing Street flat out of his own pocket but could not confirm where he had got the money.” He’s going to have to come up with an account of where the money came from, and fast. Who knows, we may find Dominic Cummings was carrying a wire.
That said, one has to notice that the spotlight has been taken away from David Cameron’s corruption.
In another recent instance of stage magician-style misdirection, the top all-boys private schools in Britain had the spotlight taken off of THEM, as the whole “boys molest girls in all co-ed schools” story was conjured into existence. Senior police officers and eckshpurts confidently predicted it would be the biggest and longest-running distraction from Eton and Winchester story ever. Bigger than Harvey Weinstein, Bigger than the sexual abuse of boys in organised football. Etc. This is a classic case of media misdirection by powerful interests – and yes, Winchester College have said they’re rethinking their supposed decision to admit girls as boarders within a few years.