"Planet Boris is the strangest place in the world - no rules apply," a cabinet minister told me a few days ago as they marvelled at the strangeness of the current political universe. 

Events had been disastrous, they admitted, yet they seemed sure at that moment that the prime minister's ability to defy any normal political gravity would see him through. 

But then, on Tuesday night, a video emerged showing aides joking about a Downing Street event last Christmas as Britain was in lockdown. The humiliating leak engulfed No 10 in a fresh crisis that shows no sign of easing. 

So this weekend it is worth asking if "Planet Boris" might actually, finally implode?

One senior official summed up the state of play simply: "It's a disaster." 

Day after day, for more than a month, Downing Street has been struggling to keep hold of events. 

There have been miscalculations and missteps - attempts to change the rules to protect one of their own, Owen Paterson; the disastrous efforts to close down stories about Christmas parties last year, and most recently, a fine for the Conservative Party over the financing of Mr and Mrs Johnson's lavish renovation of the No 10 flat. 

The mistakes have been all the worse because they were miscalculations of Downing Street's own making. Almost nothing riles MPs and ministers outside the clique at the top of government more than No 10 making mistakes for which they all have to answer. 

Each incident fuelled the opposition's main argument they had been making for months - that Mr Johnson behaves as if he's exempt from following the rules. 

Whether it's the Christmas parties or the cash for the flat, the mess has highlighted this prime minister's complicated relationship with the truth, which we've discussed here before.

There has been little sense that No 10 has been able to, you might say, take back control. In fact, as pressure has cranked up in recent days it's been hard sometimes to get any sense of what is going on at all.

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-59615564

https://journal-neo.org/2021/12/15/a-drug-addled-parliament-rules-the-uk/

See also:

https://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/38958

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/37333

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/39792

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!