In Britain everybody knew BoJo would not be attending India’s Republic Day

Bo Jo never meant to visit India

Now that it is official that Boris Johnson wouldn’t after all be going to India, it can be revealed that nobody in Britain really ever seriously believed that the visit would happen even as New Delhi continued to claim that it was on. It seems only the Indian government didn’t know this open secret. So, was it played by the British foreign office? Or did it choose to keep up the pretence for its own reasons? Take your pick.

The fact is that from the moment the visit was announced Johnson faced intense pressure to stay home and be seen to be leading the fight against an out-of-control pandemic ripping through the country. He was warned that leaving the “post” at this juncture when the crisis here required his full attention would send out a negative message to voters who are already critical of his messy handling of the crisis.

Johnson’s credibility is so low that according to a series of new polls, if an election were to be held “tomorrow”, not only will the Conservatives lose their majority in Parliament but Johnson will lose his own London seat.

Vaccine scepticism

Vaccine scepticism is not confined to far-right groups, “mad mullahs” and the Trump supporters. Many seemingly rational people say they are wary of vaccination in a climate where governments appear to be rushing out vaccines in what seems to be an unseemly “vaccine nationalism” race to the bottom.

The public trust in official claims is at an all-time low in most Western countries. In France, more than 60 per cent people told an opinion poll that they will refuse vaccination although coronavirus has claimed more than 65,000 lives. In America, 60 per cent of nursing home staff in Ohio declined to be vaccinated.

The Indian government, meanwhile, is not helping the cause of vaccination by attempting to rush out a vaccine which is still in trial stage simply to assert national pride. Scientific temper anyone?

Plus ça change

This year marks 300 years of the office of British prime ministers. Ahead of the anniversary in April, Times radio is broadcasting profiles of the 53 men and two women who have held the post.

The first profile by writer Andrew Gimson described his first subject as “fat, affable and shrewd”, a man often accused of lying, who hid his intelligence behind a façade and married a woman 25 years his junior.

Many listeners thought he was referring to Boris Johnson who fits the description down to the fact that his fiancee is “25 years his junior”. But he was actually describing someone who occupied the office some 300 years ago: Robert Walpole (1725 and 1742) regarded as Britain’s first prime minister.

And, lastly, more and more Britons are reportedly taking the idea of working from home a notch further by resorting to Working from Bed (WFB) with social media buzzing with hashtag #workingfrombed accompanied by photographs of their “laid-back new office”, according to The Times.