At the beginning of each week there are reasons for us to try to achieve a good outcome for ourselves and our family, our friends, neighbours and for other people around us. The results or challenges are of course much less evident from most of us than is the case for people in high profile situations in our communities and in our Nation and beyond. Last week proved to be very disturbing in the context of our Nations Politics and the Royal Family than many of us may had appreciated at the beginning of that week. There were of course also issues such as in Australia with their response to a Tennis event and China in its challenge to our political setting. No doubt there are challenges from many other Nations. During last week our current Prime Minister, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and Prince Andrew who is now known as simply Andrew Albert Christian Edward both reached a place in their public roles that appears to be at the end of their positions. The response by the Queen and her office to her son was very clear and very public after several months of public uncertainty. If Andrew Albert Christian is not guilty as he claims, then his position will be very difficult after the Court case as he is no longer a formal member of the Royal Family. It was certainly very clear that the actions and claims from people at senior levels in the Conservative Party within the Government was very different. The very clear admission by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel last week of his activity 20 months ago should have led to his own resignation arguably many months ago but certainly last Wednesday. However, he is currently calling for the formal assessment to be completed before he is willing to stand up again and make a decision. He stated at the beginning of his Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday

“All I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others, so that the full facts can be established. I will of course come back to this House and make a statement.”

If he does not act before the Sue Gray inquiry is published, the Prime Minister will clearly need to resign after his statement based on what he has already admitted he has done. Perhaps if he had stood up in May 2020 and admitted what had happened and apologised for his mistake he could have committed for him and all of us to adopt those rules from that point forward. The fact that he has only just admitted about it now and yet is still not acknowledging that he broke those rules which he demanded everyone else to adopt is deeply disturbing. Indeed, the news that arose at the end of last week of an event that took place last April inside his same building needs to be added to the list of serious mistakes carried out by him and his team. It is deeply disturbing how people like Priti Patel who is responsible for Police Services and Jacob Rees-Mogg who is responsible for Parliament have both spoken up to support the Prime Minister in the last few days. In the case of the Police Service, a great deal of activity is now needed for Number 10 Downing Street to be held to account for the laws they have made and then broken. In the case of Parliament, for the leader to criticise a few senior Conservatives who have spoken out against the Prime Minister, given his bad decisions is very disturbing. It is of course very positive that a few Conservatives have called for Johnson to resign. These people are primarily Northern based Council Leaders and Scottish MPs or MSPs. Let us hope that in due course other MPs and Councillors and eventually Ministers will add to that call.

It is very hard to know who will be the next Conservative Prime Minister, and of course under the current system it will be a few thousand members of the Conservative Party that will have the power to decide who will be their next leader. In the meantime, perhaps all of our nation can reflect on how they would vote at the next Council election that is due in many locations to take place in May this year. In due course there will be more Council elections and then currently in December 2024, so less than three years away there will be a General Election. It may get organised more quickly, if the law gets changed as the current Government had proposed, or indeed if the Parliament agrees to an earlier election which many of us would hope will happen given the behaviour of our current Government.