[imagesource: PA]

Boris Johnson is under the cosh at present.

That’s mainly due to the latest scandal to illustrate how unsuited to the job of prime minister he really is, Partygate.

While Britons were forced to lock down and isolate and denied the chance to say farewell to friends and relatives who passed away, BoJo and his pals at 10 Downing Street enjoyed a number of parties which broke the rules they themselves had set.

How best does one try and deflect attention elsewhere in times of crisis? You turn to your pals at The Mail on Sunday and get them to write a total and utter stinker bound to cause outrage.

Which it did – here’s the front page of yesterday’s rag paper:

This disgustingly misogynistic piece was written by Glen Owen, political editor of the Mail on Sunday. But subs, designers & editor David Dillon all thought it just fine to print shockingly, repulsively misogynistic trash about a senior political figure in 2022. Shame on you all. pic.twitter.com/IwaeAWTvTh

— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) April 24, 2022

I’m sure you recall the interrogation scene from Basic Instinct when Sharon Stone crosses and uncrosses her legs.

Imagine giving the prime minister so little credit that you think he’s incapable of functioning under such circumstances? Mindboggling.

Also, if you’re going to smear somebody for their sexual past and antics you might want to look at the man running the show:

Imagine if Angela Rayner
had maybe 6, 7 or 8 children by different men, cavorted with a male pole dancer, left her husband when he was ill, shacked up with a chap 20 odd years younger and then had two more children? Now, there’s a story.#mailonsunday

— Babs Horton (@BabsHorton) April 24, 2022

A summary of The Mail on Sunday’s story via the BBC:

The newspaper article said: “Tory MPs have mischievously suggested that Ms Rayner likes to distract the PM when he is in the dispatch box by deploying a fully-clothed Parliamentary equivalent of Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 film Basic Instinct.”

…The piece quotes one MP as saying: “She knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks.

“She has admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the [Commons] terrace.”

Rayner responded with a thread on Twitter:

Women in politics face sexism and misogyny every day – and I’m no different.

This morning’s is the latest dose of gutter journalism courtesy of @MoS_Politics

🧵👇🏻1/9

— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) April 24, 2022

Boris himself took to social media to defend Rayner.

Cool, but his message was less impactful when you realise that it was, word for word, the exact same message sent out by Nadine Dorries, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the UK:

As much as I disagree with @AngelaRayner on almost every political issue I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 24, 2022

As much as I disagree with @AngelaRayner on almost every political issue I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.

— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) April 24, 2022

Really heartfelt.

He has apparently also contacted Rayner privately via text message. I hope he didn’t copy and paste the above statement.

[source:bbc]