By Shyam Bhatia
Farnborough, July 19. Disgraced British PM Boris Johnson has been criticised for attending Monday’s opening of the Farnborough air show, despite the need to attend to more urgent issues at home.
Top of the current agenda is the soaring Europe-wide heat wave that continues to threaten lives in the UK and beyond.
On Monday Mr Johnson was due to attend a COBRA (cabinet office briefing) about the heat wave, but chose instead to visit Farnborough where he cracked jokes about ‘loop the loop’
And a barrel roll in a Typhoon fighter jet. This is the second COBRA meeting that Johnson has missed in recent days.
His infantile sense of humour was on show when he told an audience at Farnborough, ““I want you to know that after three happy years in the cockpit, and after performing some pretty difficult, if not astonishing feats, getting Brexit done, restoring this country’s ability to make its own laws in Parliament.
“Have I told you this before? Never mind.”
Johnson then added, ““I am now going to hand over the controls seamlessly to someone else.
“I don’t know who, but whoever it is, I can tell you this, I can reassure you of this, that the great Rolls-Royce twin engines of this Conservative Government will roar on.”
Earlier this month Johnson was forced to resign following a revolt from MPs of his own ruling Conservative party who said they were appalled by his dishonesty and lack of judgment, including permitting lavish parties during the height of the Covid pandemic at his official Downing Street residence.
One of those documented parties included drunken officials vomiting on the floor and then criticising cleaners forced to subsequently clear up the mess. Question marks have been also raised about Johnson’s personal life, including his many affairs as a married man and at least one unnamed child he has fathered. Critics say he alone is responsible for making the UK the laughing stock of the international community.
Johnson will formally step down as PM on September 5 when the Conservatives choose a new political leader.
