Boris Johnson once wrote two leading articles, one endorsing ‘Leave’, the other ‘Remain’. Boris Johnson appeared on the show Have I Got News For You to raise his public profile. Boris Johnson uses his pithier middle name – ‘Boris’ – rather than his real one, Alexander.
It is, apparently, the little touches like these that make Boris Johnson sui generis. His name is invoked as a self-evident punchline, loaded with meaning. We are told that Boris Johnson casts a long shadow; so long, indeed, that serious attempts have been made to recast all of recent history as his personal drama: a schoolboy rivalry with David Cameron that festered, terminating in fratricide and Brexit.
Boris Johnson is not allowed the normal vanity and manoeuvre of a politician – the kind that we freely grant to, say, Gordon Brown. When Boris resigned from parliament on Friday, we were taken on a whistlestop tour to revisit those he had vanquished: George Osborne, Theresa May and more. We were invited to see them not as failed politicians, but as victims who had – at last – lived to see their old oppressor brought low. But why? What exactly has Boris Johnson done to these people? In 2016, and in 2019, Boris competed with these individuals for power. In each instance he did so on a clear political platform, known to all. In the end, he won, and they lost – vanishing into well-renumerated obscurity.
Assertions of Johnsonian uniqueness have never been convincing. Glance at the rap sheet. None of it looks particularly out of place. Hedging his bets? Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May, now bywords for conviction politics, ducked the EU referendum altogether. Parliamentary purges? George Osborne planned to dump his party’s radical wing; Keir Starmer has already done so. Self-promotion and opportunism? Please.
We start to get the sense that all this is deliberate. Exoticising Boris Johnson as something unprecedented is designed to gin up a sense of crisis and emergency. It declares him to be somehow outside the body politic. Old bosses bemoan ever employing him as a young man. He should not have been allowed to write articles or books. From this, the use of special measures to hound a duly-elected politician from public life is only a short step.
Boris Johnson is a degenerate aristocrat who makes an appeal to the people. This archetype is probably older than democratic politics itself. Healthier polities are not so easily rattled by these kinds of adventurers. Regency Britain eventually let Charles James Fox back into the fold, and certainly never considered a lifetime ban from office. For Boris it has always been something of an act: demagoguery, but with a wry face. Only modern Britain, stolid, worthy, and neurotic, could see in this a real threat to the body politic. But see it they do, much to Boris’s own shock. Classical allusions have no doubt inspired him, and he has spent his whole career wondering why no one else seems to get the reference.
The pathology runs deeper still. The main event of Boris Johnson’s political life has been Britain’s departure from the European Union, a momentous act. But Brexit is exactly the kind of about-face that liberal democracy is meant to absorb, on the pattern of 1945 or 1979. The fact that this hasn’t happened simply discredits everyone involved. The real story since 2016 hasn’t been about one man’s ambition, but the collapse into incontinence over an attempt to moderately reform the British state, an attempt that – by the way – enjoys two democratic mandates.
The mandate was thrown away. Boris locked Britain down for over a year, and was only talked out of it by those he now denounces as wets. The temptation is for Johnson’s Rightward critics to cut him loose. But this would be a mistake. Boris’s present difficulty speaks to more elemental questions. What we are confronted with, now, isn’t the decadence and drift of the Johnson Government, but whether opposition politics is possible in Britain at all. Via the Privileges Committee, Whitehall and a declining class of lobby journalist asserts its old control over the executive. In years gone by, this control rested on leaks and on elegant obfuscation. But, enraged by Brexit, their tools have become crude and cracker-barrel. They no longer plot, only harangue. The endless drawing up of rulebook violations is used to keep ministers in quasi-judicial limbo, locked up in the extra-parliamentary barracks of Portcullis House. This is designed to harry and demoralise, or score a lucky hit; at the very least it wastes their time. As a demented last resort, MPs can now – apparently – be banned from Parliament outright.
Under these new rules, policies are of no moment. As are the virtues that Boris was said to lack: probity and ‘fitness for office’ – whatever that means. If personal probity couldn’t save Dominic Raab – who has eaten the same sandwich and ‘superfruit pot’ for lunch every day for the last ten years – then it will not avail anyone else.
So it has proven. Rishi Sunak’s Government is based on a simple idea: probity and ‘fitness for office’ to end the conflict with Whitehall. This idea has now been tested to destruction. Rishi has watched his ministerial bench slowly empty, picked off for trifles. Probing attacks have already been made on Rishi himself, which will end in his own arraignment. Either you assert the House of Commons’ sovereign authority over its rivals, or politics will simply disappear. Defending Boris Johnson would be a first step in this direction. It would say that a majority of 80 from the British people counts for something, and is more important than a nonbinding office handbook.
But ‘Boris’ is more than just a point of principle. Matt Goodwin tells us that Boris the man is less important than the broader ‘Realignment’ he represents. This idea should not be taken too far. Of those who have had any success in centralising power in Parliament there are exactly three: Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson. Each of these people – infamously – proceeded on individual will and charisma, not big ideas. A gift for command, gravitas, organisation, a common touch. These are high virtues. And they are rare ones – just ask Ron DeSantis. There is no Bonapartism without a Bonaparte to hand. Boris Johnson has immense popular appeal across the country, and, crucially, a cosy retirement of books and speeches no longer seems to be on the cards. As a classicist, the dilemma will probably feel familiar to him. It should be familiar to us, and we’d be advised to meet him halfway.
Stop Press: Read Boris’s scathing 1,700 word statement on the Privileges Committee’s report into partygate describing the findings as “deranged” and “beneath contempt”.
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Johnson was elected on the promise to Get Brexit done! but instead, he became the Keep COVID going! prime minister, always wax in the hand of his so-called advisors who were really running the (shit) show. Had he stuck to his guns in 2020, he would be a national hero now, at least for the thinking segment of the population. What he did instead shall not be forgiven.
Totally agree. He always reminded me a bit of Colonel K from Danger Mouse. However, it quickly became apparent that beneath that bumbling, chummy veneer he was more Baron Greenback.
Uptick for Dangermouse reference
Agree 100%. He had his chance at a Thatcher Moment, and he fluffed it, wilted like a wet lettuce, moulded over the form presented for him like damp toilet paper. He’s dried out now, but the form he flopped upon remains.
Question is, should we forgive him?
Maybe, but I’ll never forget his behaviour over a not-terribly-bad flu virus, whilst knowing The Coronavirus Act 2020 was all total BS.
Forgiveness is fine but should follow repentance. I don’t believe he has repented – at least not publicly.
He did screw it up in 2020, and it’s a shame that he wasn’t well enough at the time, and ended up temporarily in hospital. I seem to remember that one of the workers there “accidentally” let out some info about his weight; not good (the figures themselves). If he’d been more “normal” then, and it was a real case of C-19, he could have chucked out the scaremongers.
It’s possible he may have been close to “doing the right thing” with regard to covid, but either he’s simply not a conservative or he is but doesn’t care that much about anything and just wants power. Either way it’s clear he’s not worthy of respect or confidence.
Perhaps it is a case of one down, an indefinite number to go. Also, what is “the Blob”?
The blob is the name given to the faceless, unelected bureaucratic civil service that seems to be running the show and which usurps (so called) democracy.
The Civil Service is not running the show. Some senior elements might possibly be in a position to issue orders but those orders are emanating from the Davos Deviants, or branches thereof.
Glad you asked that because I didn’t have a clue either. Not sure we needed somebody to invent new terminology for something that isn’t actually new but there you go. How did we get by pre-‘Blob’? Actually, and more importantly, how did we get by pre-‘selfie’??
I’ve always wondered what was the best thing BEFORE sliced bread…
I’ve often wondered who this Gordon Bennett was.
But seriously, what did we used to call selfies before the word ‘selfie’ became a thing? 
Prima donnas.
What’s a selfie?
Whatever anyone thinks of Boris Johnson, at least he was elected Prime Minister. This Sunak government was never elected.
Liz Truss was at least elected Prime Minister by the members of the Conservative Party, according to the rules. Sunak wasn’t.
Too true.
There is no such thing as an elected prime minister in the UK, at least none elected by the so-called electorate. Voters elect MPs. MPs can then organize a government in whichever ways suits them (as determined by MP votes in parliament). Even this is technically still wrong as the prime minister is appointed by the king and the king is free to appoint whomever he desires to appoint. But no prime minister can actually rule against a parliamentary majority.
Everybody who voted Conservative at the last General Election was in practice voting for Johnson to be PM, and the idea that there was the slightest possibility that QE2 might have appointed someone else is ridiculous.
That was the sales pitch of Johnson’s party at that time. However, anyone with at least a passing familiarity with the tories-in-parliament will have known that this absolutely didn’t mean he was going to remain prime minister until his nominal term of office was over. And a sales pitch is just that, a sales pitch. People may have believed (or may have been fooled into believing) that they were voting for Johnson to become PM but this doesn’t change the fact that they actually didn’t.
The first pure tourist attraction on the British throne would certainly never have done anything than what she always did, do whatever she was asked to do and open the other hand to receive her payment for that (or rather, let a bunch of her servants open the huge sack it was supposed to be put into). But that was specialty of this lady and she was by no means required to exercise her prerogative in this way.
Because of this, the statement that Johnson was elected PM is wrong. The tory faction in parliament has chosen to suggest his appointment to the monarch and the monarch has chosen to accept that. Exactly like all of his predecessors (for some time) and all of his successors (so far).
Correct. However, General Elections do appear to be pseudo-presidential in reality, even though there is no such position on paper.
The sad/ unfortunate reality is that people vote for frontmen and not for policies.
“The temptation is for Johnson’s Rightward critics to cut him loose. But this would be a mistake.”
Well, he’s not a conservative so he can get stuffed as far as I’m concerned.
“Rishi Sunak’s Government is based on a simple idea: probity and ‘fitness for office’ to end the conflict with Whitehall. ”
The appearance of probity and fitness for office. Not getting caught. Globalism, socialism, crony capitalism, technocracy, safetyism. State interference in everything.
“Of those who have had any success in centralising power in Parliament there are exactly three: Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson. ”
Cummings pushed stuff through against the will of Whitehall, but he also pushed for lockdowns without being elected (and then ignored them, of course).
Bozo is guilty of crimes against humanity.
Never forget. Never forgive.
He certainly was the figure head of the political, civil servant, public services face that withdrew most if not all of our basic human rights. As an individual I would not have wanted any part of his job at the time. For those who rejoice in his demise should remember the regime that initiated, controlled and enforced the human rights removal are still in place, and digging in.
Obviously. When faced with decision of governing for the people or for the bureaucratic establishment with its global ties to NGOs and big business, Johnson chose the latter. He was then kept in his somewhat influenceless position for as long as he was still useful — the final nail in the coffin was daring to dump the mask mandate — and then, let fallen onto a sword preprared for this purpose. He has none but himself to blame for that and certainly doesn’t deserve any sympathy.
There’s a German proverb, Die Kleinen hängt man und die Großen läßt man laufen, English Minor mobsters get hanged, big mobsters go free, which neatly describes the situation. But the solution to this problem is not Let the other’s go free as well. They’re still guilty.
I agree with what you say. I liked the German proverb, Aesop also said something like, We hang petty thieves but the great ones we elect to public office; or something like it. It seems the underlying opinion of politicians has not changed much in the thousands of years of political activity.
If we accept this ‘Blob Rule’ on the basis that Boris is a consumate arse and deserves no better, then we have lost our democracy completely. Pop it in a box and stick it in the attic, that our children can one day find like a time capsule and marvel at a time when the people had a say in choosing the government of the day, and could get rid of it if they so choose to do.
As PM, Johnson could have prevented the Lockdown Destruction.
He could have dropped the Net Zero lunacy.
He could have told Schwab and the WEF that their Agenda to Build Back Better was being ditched.
He could have closed the immigration floodgates.
He did none of them.
I don’t give a 4X what happens to him.
100%. All this nonsense about Brexit revenge seems to me to play to the very same entitlement caricature of Boris that let the idiot achieve the highest office possible in the first place! I voted Remain, but would now vote Leave, solely on the basis of how the states of the E.U. behaved during “pandemic”.
Lockdowns, the mask mandates, the idiotic NPI’s and the vaccine mandates knock the Brexit dilemma into a hat when it comes to liberty, human rights & dignity, and freedom of speech; anyone bringing up it up as to why Boris was done in is creating a massive straw man.
I much appreciate your blunt an comprehensive appraisal of the treasonous Johnson. Short memory syndrome is clearly alive and well even here on DS. Remarkable.
It is difficult not to conclude that we are being set up for a pre-election soap opera with the cruelly wronged Bozo ‘fighting to clear his name’ over the grave injustice he has suffered from Harridan Harman’s committee.
Bozo battles to have his – admittedly appalling- reputation restored and as Fishy is forced to let go of the reins Bozo gallantly gallops in to save the country from the Satanic Kneel and his partner in crime, Ranting.
Only once Bozo is elected the real carnage can begin and if he loses the Reset is safe with Kneel.
For the months up to the election the electorate can be kept happily distracted as the pantomime plays out while in the background our digital prison is firmly constructed.
Just the ticket.
‘Boris’ was a jellybelly. He thought he could coast along, letting his appointed loyalists get an ultra-soft, BRINO Brexit sorted while he took the credit for it. Then COVID-19 came along. Rather than stick to the pandemic plan, telling the authoritarian Macron to get shafted, and being bold by ‘doing a Sweden’, he panicked and threw us into the worst lockdown of anyone outside China: ‘worst’ not so much for the level of restrictions, but because it was one with no rules except what police officers and politicians made up on the hoof, while keeping an incompetent psychopath (who thinks malaria is a virus) in office as Health Secretary.
I have some concerns about the way Johnson was ejected: he should have been ejected as the most vicious dictator this country has seen since Cromwell and put on trial for crimes against humanity, not for scoffing a load of cake and champers. Then again, I suppose, Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion.
And this is personal too: my Dad had to wait six months for eye surgery, because the hospitals here had shut down all ophthalmology operations as ‘non-essential’. By the time he had the surgery, his eye was too far gone and it failed. He got confirmation yesterday that the second – and final – attempt had also failed. He now has about 20 per cent vision. We’re paying £1,000 for laser treatment for the other eye next month in the hope that he can be boosted to maybe 35 per cent vision. The NHS wait would be six months to a year, by which time the vision in that eye would be non-existent.
My Mum has sarcoidosis on her lungs. She had a big scan and treatment was sorted about the time the lockdown started. In between regular scans, she had the first Pfizer booster shot (jab 3) and was very ill. Next time she was scanned, the hospital discovered a serious heart condition that wasn’t there before. Her specialist was gobsmacked. She’s now on steroids and might be starting immunosuppressants. Her heart is working at about 50 per cent what it should be. She asked the specialist if she should have the offered fourth jab. The response was an unequivocal ‘NO!’
I wish nothing but ill on the people who ran the lockdown in the Government and wider country: I want full-on ‘Wrath of God’, Black Death and Ebola all rolled into one scenario for them. My level of hatred is such that I don’t want them harmed by anyone: I hope to see them live and suffer. My Dad is in despair. My Mum’s life is going to be shorter and more restricted than it would have been. For that matter, at 48, my foreseeable life is very restricted: I now have two elderly, infirm parents I absolutely have to live with, because Dad, at 86, has several other serious problems and my Mum struggles even to put washing on the line without having to lie down on the bed to sleep afterwards. I’m fine with doing this because I love them, but it means the next ten years of my life will be tough and by then I’ll be pushing 60 myself. Don’t want to sound ‘Woe is me!’ What makes me angry is that I’m reading stories about this happening to people all over the country.
It shouldn’t have been this way.
The old adage “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” springs to mind.