50 The Times Magazine
OCTOBER
14.10 Fiddling
while home burns
“Johnson was on
holiday in Marbella
and doing some
painting à la
Churchill. I think he
does actually paint
every now and again
- his mother, who
died recently, was a
painter – but I can’t
imagine he does it
very seriously. I just
had visions of him
painting some
beautiful scene while
back home it was
‘crisis this, crisis that’.”
27.10 Ordure!
Ordure!
“Ministers finally
bowed to pressure
to clean up rivers
and the sea after
facing a rebellion
by its backbenchers.
Campaigners had
accused Boris
Johnson of hypocrisy
for hosting Cop26
while failing to
protect rivers from
pollution. Here’s
Lindsay Hoyle, the
Speaker, trying to rise
above the situation.”