Fergus Finlay: Corrupt, dishonest, self-serving turds will be hard to flush away

Boris Johnson and Donald Trump will hold special positions in the pantheon of people who built political careers on the entirely false premise that they were on the side of underdogs

Then British prime minister Boris Johnson and then US president Donald Trump in 2019. History will not view kindly their respective responses to covid-19. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA

This week, some of the most distinguished commentators in some of the poshest newspapers and on some of the poshest news bulletins have started using what I’ll have to call lavatorial comparisons to describe the object of their ire. I’m sure the editor of this newspaper would be horrified if I sought to introduce one of the words I’ve read in The Guardian and The Times and heard on the BBC.

My problem is this. I can find a string of more vulgar words to replace the one I’m embarrassed to use, but I can’t find a more refined and polite one that has the same resonance or makes the point that needs to be made.