And so Boris is gone, sulking, in a spray of adjectives and grievances.
In the USA, justice is chasing down President Trump, suspected of hiding documents in his toilet.
The populist First Minister of Scotland has fallen, with the cops sniffing around her house and looking for (among other things) a motorhome and a wheelbarrow. The suspicion (still unproven and hotly denied) is that the Caledonian Cabal made off with party funds to buy a wheelbarrow. This is a misuse of the misuse of funds. If you’re going to misuse funds, I mean, don’t do it at B & Q.
Over in Russia, let us hope, the authority of the president is pouring away like the water from a (former) Ukrainian dam.
Let us play populist bingo. Cross off the words when your favourite populist departs:
Witch-hunt
Kangaroo court
I did not lie
Not a shred of evidence
I am innocent
I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true
I take my responsibilities seriously
They have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth
I am now being forced out of Parliament by a tiny handful of people
A political hit job
I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out
Anti-democratically
Egregious bias
A phrase book for your convenience
I’m also providing a phrase book since language means a different thing on whatever planet the populists’ heads reside:
‘Tiny handful of people’ = A majority of the House of Commons, of the consituency, and of the whole country.
‘Egregrious bias’ = fact-based
‘Anti democratically’ = democratically
‘I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out’ = I am bewildered and appalled that I have to obey the rules
‘They have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth’ = They have wilfully chosen to follow the evidence
‘Not a shred of evidence’ = pants round ankles, hand in the cookie jar