Lawbreaking, rich lists and yet another ‘shakeup’: it’s a normal week at Tory HQ

theguardian.com:

News that the Partygate investigation has concluded with no further fines for Boris Johnson is arguably a setback for long-game prime ministerial assassin Dominic Cummings. The stop-Boris movement’s trackie-bummed antihero now has to regather, regroup and confront his own reflection in the bathroom mirror with the timeworn war cry: “We go again.” At this point, I don’t even know what you’d call this movie. Day 396 of the Jackal?

Anyway, signs of a healthy politics: an MP from the governing party is arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in a public office – but it’s basically been forgotten about by Friday on account of the police confirming the end of their investigation into pandemic lawbreaking by the people who made those laws. The cops confirm the most-fined address in the entire country is No 10 Downing Street.

MPs cheerily tell reporters that all that is now “priced in” to their continued support for the PM, with the next big test being two byelections – one held because the previous MP repeatedly watched porn in the Commons chamber, and the other held because the previous MP was recently convicted of child sexual assault. The justice secretary goes on telly this morning – hey, it’s crime week! – to claim that people just want to see the government get on with the job.

I don’t mean to have lost focus, but remind us what “the job” was again? It feels a bit like we’ve passed the tipping point, and that all this other stuff is now so prevalent as to effectively constitute “the job”. You clock in for a shift of lawbreaking or defending lawbreaking. But if you want to do frivolous things like solve ordinary people’s problems, then, I’m sorry –