The phoney UK leadership contest

My prediction for 2022: Boris Johnson will still be prime minister by the time the year comes to an end in 12 months and two days. All this nonsense about his leading rivals for Number 10 Downing Street lining up and making moves is just that: nonsense. The two ahead in this phoney game are Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Liz Truss is said to be leading the field because of some obscure insider Conservative survey which showed more Tory MPs like Liz than they do Dishy Rishi. But this is all Whitehall bubble drivel to stir up poor old Boris and make him feel he is about to be ousted. If it was August it would be dismissed as a silly season story, but it's appearing most days in bold headlines and even the US press has cottoned on to the story and has joined the rumour foray. I suspect Truss is delighted and Sunak is embarrassed. I don't know Truss but have followed her career and she IS Foreign Secretary so presumably Boris thinks she has something going for her. But the other day she gave a speech about the UK building a "network of liberty" around the world. Did she write that or did some flunkey with nothing else to do come up with that dreadful phrase? It's the sort of phrase which means pretty much nothing. UK diplomats are supposed to spread abroad the values of freedom and democracy as part of their job. So what's with the Truss liberty doctrine? It's a phrase which people with ambitions to be leader of his or her party and the country produce out of a hat to sound grand. It fell flat. Just on appearances alone and ministerial achievement I would have thought Rishi Sunak would make a better prime minister. But, sorry, Rishi and Liz, Boris ain't going nowhere and if you are not careful you'll be going nowhere as well.