GENUINE question. Is there anything Boris Johnson’s government has done right? Looking at yet another week in which disaster has followed incompetence which, in turn, has succeeded malice, it’s hard to find something positive to say. What can the Prime Minister point to and suggest, “at least we managed that”?

Getting Brexit done? Well, there’s that, if you overlook the fact that the government is muttering about ripping up the Northern Ireland Protocol and thus risking damaging peace. Plus, last week the Prime Minister hinted that physical Brexit border checks on food imports due to be introduced in July could be delayed for a fourth time amid fears that the supply chain may collapse if it is introduced.

There’s always its Covid response, I suppose. But then yesterday the High Court ruled that the government had broken the law by failing to protect more than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents who died in care homes during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. So much for former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s claims of a “protective ring”.

And then there’s the fact that, as it stands, the UK has recorded the highest number of Covid-related deaths in Western Europe.

Meanwhile, it’s worth remembering that the UK Department of Health has had to write off billions spent on unusable or overpriced protective equipment. And the Times reported yesterday that government financial support during the pandemic had been used to fund gambling sprees, home improvements and cars. Due diligence is clearly not really a thing for this government.

What else? Well, setting aside the question of morality, you could ask whether the much-vaunted initiative to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is value for money. Tory MP Andrew Mitchell suggested that it might be cheaper to put them up in the Ritz for a year.

The cost-of-living crisis? So far there’s the wizard wheeze of allowing MOTs to be taken every other year and removing “red tape” to allow a reduction in staff-to-child ratios. Never mind about the potential knock-on impact on road safety or the quality of childcare. Or the knock-on impact on garage and nursery jobs.

Oh, and by the way, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak seems to have already ruled out spending any actual money on schemes to ease the burden on hard-pressed families.

Maybe you could argue that the government’s support for Ukraine at least deserves an uptick. There may well be something in that. We have sent some £200m on military kit to the Ukrainians, after all. Then again, we’ve also imported £220 million on Russian oil since the invasion despite all the tough talking (because contracts are contracts, and it would cost to stop them).

What does that leave? Not much, I’d suggest.

When it comes to Partygate, the recurring defence of the Prime Minister by obsequious Tory MPs – and by Johnson himself – has been that he needs to be left to get on with the job.

But where’s the evidence that he or his lousy government is up to it?