The conduct of the Johnson regime during Covid matters. If any of us had done the same we’d be hit with a fixed penalty notice – and those of us who couldn’t afford it would have unregulated bailiffs hammering on our doors. That further illustrates how unjust the rules were. Fixed penalty notices mean something is legal for a price – if you can afford it. If you can’t you face endless harassment by arms of the state.

One can understand, however, the sense of indifference to the media’s relentless campaign to remove Johnson – not least since their own conduct fell far short of the standards demanded of everyone else. Kay Burley of Sky News was not forced to resign for breaking the rules. The media can’t have it both ways. They just want Boris Johnson gone and any reason will do – and voters know it.

It would seem, though, that the standard in politics is not going to be upheld for its own sake. Breaking the rules is evidently within tolerance for the Tory party, even though public opinion polling suggests it is a resigning matter. Voices in the Conservative Party hath decreed that it would be wrong to change the leader in the middle of a war.

Except, of course, Britain is not at war. The establishment has chosen to embroil us in the Ukraine-Russia war, not least because it distracts the media from the relative trivia of Partygate and all of Johnson’s other shortcomings.

This, though, is only to provide him with temporary relief. Johnson wants to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, ensuring prolonged economic harm in the form of massive fuel, energy and food inflation. UK household incomes are set to be obliterated. Home heating bills will go on the back burner as we head into summer, but then summer will see what is now a grim fixture in British public life. Stabbing season – against a backdrop of massive unchecked illegal immigration, further exposing the establishment’s total indifference to the plight of ordinary Brits.

In place of anger, though, I anticipate a growing sense of apathy. The turnaround that many hoped a Johnson led government would usher in just isn’t going to happen. Johnson has traded Brexit for Net Zero, while everything else quietly falls apart. The whole fabric of society is crumbling.

This is certainly the case with the NHS, where the waiting lists are at record levels, patients are dying because of ambulance delays and congestion in A&E departments. But now we are also told that up to a third of cancers are being diagnosed in A&E departments, where patients present with acute symptoms, with their cancers at an advanced state where the prognoses are poor.

At the other end of the scale, babies’ lives are still at risk because maternity units continue to be unsafe, years after concerns had been aired about preventable deaths resulting from poor care. Of the 193 NHS maternity services in England, we are told, 80 are rated as “inadequate” or “requires improvement”, signifying that they do not meet basic safety standards.

Meanwhile, those who are trying to get away from it all though are not having any luck. In the wake of the P&O debacle, ferries are still being disrupted, for holiday-makers and commercial traffic alike, with 20 mile truck queues reported at Dover. Airports are similarly mayhem, the problem apparently being that services have failed to hire enough staff after traffic picked up once Covid restrictions had been lifted. Now, multiple flights are being cancelled and people are missing their flights because of the queues.

And just to add insult to injury, climate change activists are blockading petrol stations and storage depots, causing local shortages of fuel. Police, apparently, have made 338 arrests since 1 April. Whether they get dealt with expeditiously is anyone’s guess as barristers are going on strike in protest at cut-backs in the legal aid system, which are heavily impacting on their fees. This, however, is the tip of the iceberg where the criminal justice system is in terminal decay, in what amounts to another great failure of the Johnson administration.

Further afield, we have the political turmoil in Pakistan, where prime minister Imran Khan has been ousted after a court-mandated vote of no confidence, followed by massive street protests in several cities as the opposition takes over the reins of power until the next election is due in October 2023. What happens in Pakistan, at this level, is always important to the UK, not least because of its impact on our domestic politics and life on the street. But any additional instability in the region is bad news, where war between Pakistan and India – two nuclear-tipped adversaries – is always on the cards.

That the world is going to hell in a handcart, and that our political class doesn’t seem to notice or care, only feeds the public exasperation with politics the media which fixates on just about anything but the important things, while largely supporting Net Zero and mass immigration. There is nobody speaking for us. Our politics has collapsed.

Insofar as there is a battle of ideas in our politics, it consists of privately funded think tanks and special interest groups while the parties themselves are ideas free husks with nothing radical or useful to say for themselves. It scarcely matters who resides at Number Ten. It makes no difference. Whatever cheer ousting Johnson might bring, it forces us to endure yet another Tory leadership whereupon the party parades its mediocrities to choose from. A further reminder that our politics is beyond hope.

By next winter the consequences of this deep rooted dysfunction may explode. Immediate living costs can be absorbed and managed but this is only the beginning and further rises cannot be sustained, If democracy doesn’t work, a frustrated public will start to explore other means beyond mere hurty tweets. We shall have to force our useless freeloading MPs to earn their keep - by any means at our disposal.