A vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Monday evening, returned Britain to a naked political struggle after a non-political weekend, when the British celebrated the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, and her unifying role as a popular and symbolic head of state.
but through Celebration of four days During the seventy years the King had been on the throne, Johnson’s troubles were all too apparent, highlighting national discontent with the prime minister, and putting his public persona at ease with that of the Queen.
Over the weekend, as Mr. Johnson took part in the jubilee festivities, members of the public – and even the participants – expressed their disdain.
Mr Johnson and his wife, Carrie Johnson, were booed as they climbed the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday before Thanksgiving Mass. Videos circulating showing a similar response while attending a concert Saturday night outside Buckingham Palace. During the ceremony two actors, Lee Mack and Stephen Fry, digs into Mr. Johnson on the National Stage.
But it was the revelers who thronged the streets of London over the long weekend who remarked – unmovingly and often – about their distrust of the government, even as they reflected their admiration for the Queen, and provided insight into the general public’s view of their leader. .
Marianne Argent, 77, who gathered with three generations of her family in the mall outside Buckingham Palace for a parade of the Colored Forces on Thursday, noted that the Queen was a unifying force, “unlike politicians”.
She rolled her eyes as she sighed at Boris before quickly turning her focus to the celebrations.
In Hyde Park on Friday, Marina Burns, 60, said of the Queen’s festivities: “Everything is apolitical, which is why it’s so unified.”
“Meanwhile, politics is a mess,” Ms Burns added. “It’s so awful at the moment with Boris and Partigate.”
She said she considered the jubilee celebrations as one of the first post-Covid moments in which the nation can find joy, amid “the agony and gloom” of failed leaders, economic hardship and pandemic losses.
A few benches in the park, Erwin Koenen, 60, who was visiting from the Netherlands and awaiting his departure to fly home, cited “mess with the prime minister” as one of the many difficulties Britain is currently facing, and why so many people were excited about the positivity of Jubilee .
Catherine Cook, 48, who works for the National Health Service, put an angry comment about the government’s failures into a glowing account of the festivities.
Mrs Cook, reflecting on the Queen’s “great respect” for her sense of duty to the country, added, “Our politicians, like Boris, are not so much.”
Comments on the streets of London may indicate a greater patriotic feeling, with Mr Johnson’s approval rating in a YouGov poll dropping to Only 26 percent by the beginning of May. In the wake of a Sue Gray report late last month that highlighted the government’s failure to lead during the coronavirus-related lockdowns, About 60 percent of people surveyed by YouGov He said Mr Johnson should not be the leader of the Conservative Party.
Monday morning Opinium pollHours after the vote was announced, it found that 28 percent of voters think Conservative MPs should vote to keep Mr Johnson, while 59 percent think they should vote to dismiss him.
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