Who breaks a Boris Johnson on a wheel?

We don't vote for Boris Johnson - or any Briton apart from Liam Gallagher. But here we must step out of the shadows and come to the Wispy-Haired One's defence. A tonne of bricks has fallen on the British PM for hosting a gathering at 10 Downing Street. While being seen to have plonk and merrymake can seem insensitive as many Britons continue to suffer the consequences of Covid, to have an 'outing' in one's backyard with some 17 members of his staff isn't quite a Nero fiddle recital or a 'flagrant disregard of lockdown rules' - especially when events like Premier League football, with more than 17 (vaccinated) people congregating, is still on, albeit with increasing game cancellations. What's sauce for, say, Karan Johar is sauce for the British gander.

A clue for the anger against Johnson can be gauged by folks more cheesed off by a 'garden party' trying to pass off as a 'work meeting' on a terrace and lawn. Breaking Covid protocol - vaccination, social distancing, not spitting on a guest when he or she mentions the words 'toupee cushion' - does not include having a decent time under these trying times. Johnson didn't go on a pub crawl or take a holy dip in the Thames, and kept a Conservative distance. So, to blame him for a hybrid garden party-work meeting is to be too wobbly-lipped even by contemporary English standards.