From Partygate to Trussomics, the death of the Monarch, and the humiliation of Vladimir Putin, OttoEnglish’s review of the year takes us on a roller coaster of major fails and meteoric falls
On December 31st 2021, in what feels like another time, another place and another era, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered an optimistic and upbeat New Year’s Eve message to the people of the United Kingdom via his social media channels.
With the country having been able to celebrate its first Christmas in two years and with the vaccine roll-out contributing to fewer hospitalisations and deaths than in December 2020, the fight against Covid 19 seemed to be turning in humanity’s favour.
Dressed in his trademark ‘slept in’ grey suit and his signature ‘dragged through a hedge’ hair Johnson seemed to positively radiate with the thought of better days ahead:
“Whatever the challenges that fate continues to throw in our way and whatever the anxieties we may have about the weeks and months ahead particularly about omicron…. we can say one thing with certainty. Our position this December the 31st is incomparably better than last year.”
Johnson claimed that the country had the ‘fastest growth in the G7’ and that wonderful thing would be coming our way in the days and weeks and months ahead. It was his third New Year’s message to the people and was to be his last. As usual the bluster and bullshit was just that. 12 months later, on December 8th the OECD, would predict UK growth of –0.4% for 2023, the lowest of any country in the G7 and the nation would be mired in economic doldrums, strikes, chaos, spiralling inflation and interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis.
The twelve months in between would see extraordinary events. A European war, the death of a Queen, four Chancellors come and go and the fall and rise and rise and fall of three Prime Ministers. So let me take you by the hand and lead you through the days in between.
January: Mob Rule, Partygate and Prince Andrew
January 1st was the hottest on record with 16.2 Celsius being recorded in St. James’s Park, beating the previous record of 15.6 C recorded at Bude in Cornwall in 1916. The year would see environmentalists and scientists continue to warn of the greatest threat facing our planet and there were a string of high-profile protests by groups including Climate Emergency, Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. Later in the year, as Rishi Sunak headed to COP 27, the Guardian reported that more than 30 activists were behind bars as a result of trying to draw attention to the scale of the crisis.
On January 5th, Rhian Graham, 30, Milo Ponsford, 26, Jake Skuse, 33 and Sage Willoughby, 22, known as the ‘Colston 4’ who had all been accused of criminal damage when they toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in Bristol harbour seven months earlier were found not of criminal damage.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was one of many voices on the Conservative right to express their displeasure saying: “We can’t have mob rule as the way forward.”
But in a very real sense a mob was already in power, and the Johnson government itself was wobbling the plinth as they refused to take the Partygate accusations seriously. On January 10th ITV released an email from the PM’s Principle Private Secretary, Martin Reynolds, sent on May 20th the previous year during the first national Covid 19 lockdown, which invited staff:
“To make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden this evening….bring your own booze!”
Subsequent reports suggested that upwards of 30 people including Johnson and his wife Carrie had attended the event, held while millions of Britons were unable to visit dying loved ones, hold weddings, or parties of their own.
The following day the Metropolitan Police reported that it was investigating a string of events held at Downing Street during the various lockdowns and Boris Johnson began casting around for someone else to blame.
As the government rolled from crisis to crisis, things were not much better up the road. On January 12th Prince Andrew failed in his bid to dismiss a civil case brought against him in New York, by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, accusing him of: “sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” The following month his lawyers would reach an out-of-court settlement with her but in the meantime, all his official royal patronages and military affiliations were revoked.
As news of more Downing Street parties emerged and as inflation hit 5.4%, a 20-year high, Plan B ended, and it was no longer a requirement to wear face masks or carry Covid passes. On January 29th Storm Malik hit the west coast of Britain, causing tens of thousands of power outages, many of which would not be resolved for weeks. A 9-year-old boy and a 60-year-old woman were both killed by falling trees.