In which the reader is invited to consider the A-Z of charges laid at the door of Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, setting them against the oft-repeated claim that he is doing his best. Please tick all answers that apply.
a) failing to act like a statesman
b) shamelessly feathering his nest
c) hopelessly mired in corruption
make a mark by those things he does best
d) indecisive, inept, and in trouble
e) evasive and shifty when pressed
f) locking down late and reluctant
at which is he doing his best?
g) lying as easy as breathing
h) a clown gone awry, a bad jest
i) mumbling something in Latin
would these be the things he does best?
j) putting borders where borders weren’t needed
k) watching Belfast slide into unrest
l) promising bridges, and tunnels, and airports
any clue as to which he does best?
m) writing huge lies on the side of a bus
n) selling you horseshit with zest
o) setting the bar low, and missing
which one of these is his best?
p) hopeless, and hapless, and heartless
q) a caricature, badly dressed
r) telling lie after lie after untruth
but remember, he’s doing his best
s) spaffing money up walls without counting the cost
t) sending forty-five billion pounds west
u) for a track and trace system that doesn’t
tell me now, how he’s doing his best
v) sidling away with a lover
w) pinning the flag to his chest
x) going absent whenever he’s needed
would these be the things he does best?
y) an end-of-pier Churchill, history as farce
z) the wrong answer, whatever the test
who’d rather bodies pile high in their thousands
while he lies that he’s doing his best.
© Steve Pottinger 27 April 2021