 At the start of the coronavirus pandemic Boris Johnson was asleep at the wheel as cases were mounting in countries like Italy and France were locking down Boris Johnson had already missed five Cobra meetings and a remarkable story in the Sunday times gives an incredible clue as to why. Now the article is a preview of Dominic Cummings session with the science and health committee this week and they write officials in the cabinet office are concerned that Cummings will accuse Johnson of missing key meetings on the crisis because he was working on a biography of Shakespeare. The money from which he needed to fund his divorce from Marina Wheeler his second wife Johnson missed five emergency meetings at the start of the crisis. So this is really really wild now again this is another thing we already knew he missed five Cobra meetings I'll say Cobra meetings are the most important meetings which brings together the top civil servants the top people from government the top scientific advisors emergency planning essentially. Now when the code pandemic was it was clear a pandemic was coming he missed five meetings asleep at the wheel I just assumed he was kind of lazy you know that he would just sort of didn't didn't fancy getting up in time. It turns out according to this briefing that what he was doing was writing a book about Shakespeare biography of Shakespeare to fund a divorce with his from his second wife. Ash you did English literature does this make you have any more sympathy for the guy missing five Cobra meetings at the start of a coronavirus pandemic is this something you can imagine yourself doing. No it's breaking out people are dying in China and Italy bodies are piling up like what does this chapter on Shakespeare I just really need to get done. To be fair Shakespeare also did all of his best writing during a time of plague but don't think that he was you know in charge of the pandemic response. At the time in Renaissance London also there are plenty of biographies of Shakespeare that doesn't need to be another one essentially by a dilettante posho who knows some florid words but actually has got no critical thinking skills whatsoever. So let's just get the literary value of this book out the way it has none what it would be as a cash cow because Boris Johnson is one of. You know the biggest names in the world a huge scalp for any publishing house because that book will sell it really will and he sort of made his name by writing these deeply unserious texts. His awful novels which are absolutely shot through with anti Semitism and racism and also just absolutely torturous extended metaphors. You know this is something that he's done he's you know a hack a shit journalist a terrible writer and because of he's been able to rise to prominence by virtue of his class and his connections. He will never be out of a job he will never be out of money what is shocking is to prioritize this completely profit driven move over and above diligence in governing. It's shocking because it's hard to believe that anybody any human being who has attained the highest office it's possible to attain in this country would be so deeply cavalier and callous about. The lives of the citizens which are entrusted to him I say it's shocking when it's Boris Johnson it's not surprising he's marked himself throughout his career first as a journalist and then subsequently when he entered politics into by this very deep carelessness for the demands of his role when it came to you know the comments made. About Nathani and essentially saying that you know what yes maybe she was there for reasons which are other than the reasons that she had told the Iranian government it was a huge spanner in the works when it came to negotiating her release when he was mayor of London one of his favorite things to do was just absolutely spunk money on these like white elephant projects which would go nowhere meanwhile neglecting the day to day demands of running a city like London. And addressing the very real impressing issues which ordinary people were essentially lumbered with he's lazy he's cavalier he's uncaring he's callous but he won an election by a landslide because ultimately the media got together along with naysayers from within the Labour Party to torpedo the candidacy of somebody who might have done a better job. He might have been motivated by values other than greed and self-aggrandizement. Ash I think you've been a little bit unfair there because what you've done is you've judged Boris Johnson's book before I've read you the blurb which I am about to do. I didn't know Boris Johnson had written a book about Shakespeare I don't think anyone did but it's been on Amazon for ages. It's true to be published on the thirty first of March twenty twenty two called Shakespeare the riddle of genius what's amazing I find about this is in the blurb of Boris Johnson they seem kind of embarrassed that he's the prime minister because they don't mention it says from the inimitable mop headed New York Times bestselling British journalist and politician a celebration of the best known Brit of all time. It's almost like they feel like if they mentioned that he was the prime minister during a pandemic it would be kind of embarrassing that they're making money off this presumably not gonna be a particularly good book but let's get to the blurb now. So this is how it's being sold four hundred years after his death William Shakespeare is more popular than ever but why what about Shakespeare has allowed him to stand the test of time with characteristic curiosity verve and wit Boris Johnson sets out to determine whether the bard is indeed all he's cracked up to be and if so why and how he immerses us in the circumstances in which Shakespeare came of age he explores the endlessly intriguing themes the plays and how they. Speak to us across the centuries the illicit sex and the power struggles the fratricide and matricide the confused identities and hormonal teenagers the racism jealousy political corruption. Now as the reason I think you may be judged this book too quickly is because you know to be honest who is better qualified to write a book about racism political corruption. People you know hormonal teenagers people who put out quite a lot without much you know idea of the consequences this is Boris Johnson isn't it. But there's the danger of being a literary critic who sees himself in everything that he reads that's not good literary criticism Michael. But can I just say because I do have a real annoyance here which is I am you know a Shakespeare nerd I'm a Shakespeare lover and I think that there's all sorts of ways to become interested in his works he was one of the most populist minded writers of his time. He knew about bombs on seats getting people into theaters watching these plays so I don't think that you've got to like have a PhD in English literature and Renaissance history in order to grapple with Shakespeare. However, it pisses me off that here is this no nothing posho who was a failure at Eaton a failure at Oxford and continue to fail his way up through the echelons of power and money and prominence. Now thinks that he's an expert on Shakespeare because what he's going to write the same flippant kind of essay that he's written a million times which is Shakespeare good bad I don't know but Romeo and Juliet were some randy teenagers weren't they. It really annoys me that there's actually all sorts of really interesting things that you can say and write about Shakespeare from all sorts of different perspectives. And instead what we're being you know inflicted what is being inflicted upon us as readers is just this annoying who ray Henry back slapping unserious dillaton take on the bar that pisses me off. So this is a double whammy Boris Johnson one you shouldn't have been writing the book in the first place you should have been dealing with the pandemic so we didn't have one of the worst death tolls in the world to if you were going to miss all those clever meetings at least write something interesting it's a real disappointment on two counts.