From near-death to birth, the show goes on

Is this the ultimate diversion strategy? Reaction is sharply divided this morning between celebration and exasperation as, once again, Boris Johnson’s personal life eclipses the grim facts. For a man with a still-unknown number of children and a penchant for Dionysian distractions, Boris Johnson has managed to reflect a number of quasi-religious tropesRepeated themes, images, metaphors and narratives. For instance, the "damsel in distress" is a trope in fairy tales and romantic novels. over the last few weeks. As many have pointed out, it was after bragging about shaking the hands of coronavirus patients and delaying imposing a lockdown that Johnson contracted the "invisible enemy" that is Covid-19. He embodied the suffering of the nation, descended into intensive care, and emerged resurrected at Easter. Yesterday, just a few weeks after his brush with death, Boris became a new father again for the fifth (or sixth) time when his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Typical of Johnson's rule-breaking style, perhaps, to get the nativity after the resurrection rather than before. It did not prevent the birth of a child, amidst the grim daily toll of coronavirus deaths, being cheered by political leaders from across the whole spectrum of politics across the world yesterday. It has been quite a year. Twelve months ago, Johnson was a backbencher having quit the foreign office in 2018, claiming that Theresa May's Brexit proposals would relegate the UK to the status of a colony. Since then, he has become prime minister, prorogued parliament, got divorced, won an election with the biggest share of seats since 1987, forced Brexit through, become engaged, nearly died, led the country through its biggest crisis since World War Two, and become a father of a baby boy. Martin Kettle sums it up in the Guardian this morning: "The new baby is the embodiment of a prime minister who does the job in his own way, who prefers to govern through the media rather than through parliament, who chooses to float above the quotidian matters of government in the manner he perfected as mayor of London, who prefers cabinet courtiers to departmental heavyweights - and who, as Blair's former communications chief Alastair Campbell has correctly identified, is more interested in being prime minister than in doing the job." Many see the child's arrival as a huge red herringA misleading piece of information that draws you away from the right answer.. Will the government use the new baby to distract from today's failure to meet the 100,000 testing target? Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan tweeted: "OK, I'm very happy for Boris & Carrie, but can we please all urgently re-focus on the tens of thousands of people who’ve died & are dying in Britain from #coronavirus – this is the big story, not a baby being born.” Is it fair to call this the ultimate Johnson diversion strategy? Happy birthday? Yes. Boris Johnson can survive almost any political calamity, and turn the narrative in his favour. As the UK overtakes France and Spain in the grim global Covid-19 death tallies, Number 10 played the baby news very cleverly yesterday making sure it would steal the headlines. No. The serious business of dealing with the pandemic and Britain's failures is not going away. This baby, after all, was conceived long ago in very different times. It is right to celebrate all new birth - and be happy today. There are plenty of tomorrows for politics. KeywordsTropes - Repeated themes, images, metaphors and narratives. For instance, the "damsel in distress" is a trope in fairy tales and romantic novels.