Like many idioms and
sayings, the old adage about rats and sinking ships has an underlying truth to
it. Because rats, in the good old days at least, tended to live in the lowest
part of ships, they were often the first to notice an ingress of water and
reacted by running upwards. They are, apparently, accomplished swimmers but
stand a better chance of surviving in the open sea than in the bilge of a boat en route to the bottom, although whether they have the mental
capacity to assess their choices that carefully before running from the
encroaching wet stuff is less certain.
Unsurprisingly, the
Conservative ship – a sinking vessel if ever there was one – is currently
experiencing a rash
of sudden departures as well, as the crew eye the direction that their ship is
taking under current leadership. Today, they’ve been joined by John Redwood,
who entirely coincidentally was once compared to a rat
sandwich by Ieuan Wyn Jones, although some
have suggested that he’s heading for a different universe rather than a watery
grave. He’s long been on a different planet certainly. What is rather less
expected is the way in which Sunak’s party is actively welcoming
other rats back on board, so that they can go down as members of the crew
rather than outcasts and renegades. It’s probably the nearest thing UK politics
has to the presidential pardons which some US leaders issue to their mates
before leaving office. It’s the sort of thing which only a PM on his political deathbed
would consider. He has little reason not to do so, given that the possibility of salvaging anything of his political
reputation took to the lifeboat in despair a long time ago.
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