Boris Johnson Estonian presidency/CC

Boris Johnson Estonian presidency/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

We may all say things we don’t mean when we want to impress our peers in a sun-drenched luxury hotel in Cornwall.

In trying to impress his fellow political leaders at the G7 summit, Johnson said: “What’s gone wrong with this pandemic, what risks being a lasting scar, is the inequalities that have been entrenched.”

Maybe the champagne had gone to his head.

Workers know the truth, especially those who have been working on the frontline during the pandemic, like those in the NHS fighting for a pay rise, or those facing the public sector pay-freeze. That Johnson and his mates in Cornwall have presided over a pandemic that has killed millions, further impoverished billions, and enriched the world’s super-rich.

Bizarrely, Johnson said that Britain should build back better “in a more gender-neutral, a more feminine, way”. What that means is anyone’s guess. Supposedly it was a nod to the G7’s pledge to invest more in girls’ education in developing countries. But Johnson cut the UK’s foreign aid budget by £4 billion this year, including cutting the UK’s contribution to the girls’ education scheme. Is that more feminine?

What the political representatives of the rich say to impress each other on holiday in sunny Cornwall, and what they do in the shady corridors of power, is another matter. To truly challenge inequality, the working class needs to get its hands on the vast wealth in society. This means nationalising the banks and big companies under democratic workers’ control and management as part of a socialist planned economy to meet the needs of all.