The Resignation of Boris Johnson: A Cautionary Tale
When a country we all love sadly lost the plot, and why we should be more careful in the future
I’ve been waiting to write this article for around 3 years now. It’s quite long.
I don’t say this literally - this particular article hasn’t taken 3 years to write.
I say it because from the moment Johnson entered office, the outcome was inevitable that he would resign in disgrace. It was destined to happen this way. Probably no other way.
Opposition can rejoice, of course. Those always so critical of the Prime Minister can be happy, too - they can joke, as Madame Tussaud’s in Blackpool did by placing a waxwork figure of Boris Johnson outside the local job centre - chortle, chortle.
This page is rather uncharacteristically angry, as it happens.
While there is a temptation to trivialise Boris Johnson’s departure and indulge in some short term joy, there’s a rational context to be found in how much we have all collectively lost as a country.
‘This man’ has an opportunity to walk away from it now. He has taken the proverbial ‘easy way out’.
Readers of this page will know that I have long suspected that Johnson would be a very short-term Prime Minister, and that when he finally resigned, he would leave without much fanfare, without much fuss, and in an orderly fashion - because he has prior, more self-serving engagements to attend.
Back in April, I reflected on the Prime Minister’s trip to India at the time when backbenchers were first plotting in the backrooms of Westminster to oust him.
Reports at the time suggested that Johnson was rather “depressed” behind the scenes. Much of that ‘depression’ was said to relate to his apparent financial woes. When Johnson speaks of sadness in his resignation speech, even this is twaddle.
Aides were describing almost a year earlier - and with some prescience, in 2021 - the next chapter in Johnson’s career following his departure from office.
He “could become the richest prime minister on record, even richer than Blair”
“His financial problems will be sorted out in a week after he leaves office,” said one cabinet minister
The minister added, “Boris thinks the money problems will sort themselves out. And he’s right.”
It’s attributed to jealousy he experienced as he languished on an apparently ‘unsustainable’ and measly £158,000 a year salary while former Prime Ministers [including Blair, Cameron and especially Theresa May] were making a small fortune on the after-dinner speech circuit.
Taking a significant pay-cut when he previously earned around £700,000, Johnson often complained of his financial problems and told others he could not afford to be Prime Minister.
What lies ahead for the Prime Minister is the ability for him to turn up anywhere, at a premium cost, with all of the prestige of having the introduction of ‘Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom…’ and a paying crowd to greet him.
[Facetious; at least when he finally walks away from Downing St. he can get around to finishing that book on Shakespeare that he missed COBRA meetings to write, too]
Indeed, The Daily Mail asked on Friday morning:
It’s rhetorical.
But it deserves an answer.
What the Conservatives have done is set Johnson free to leave behind a country he cared little about, to gorge on the inevitable profits he'll make exploiting the prestige and title of a responsibility of a role he hated by speaking to wealthy audiences consisting of many who deep down probably dislike him.
And that will be Johnson’s life after Downing St. And you should be as angry about it as I am - because where is the sense of justice in this knowing the damage that this man has committed upon Britain?
‘Are you happier, 2019-ers?'
Some of those I am angriest for are the people who actually voted for Boris Johnson - because I ask what intrinsic joy Johnson has brought to their lives.
I use the word ‘intrinsic’ to distinguish from that fleeting sense of joy we might take from Boris Johnson when he rides a zip-wire across the skies of London or rugby tackles German footballer Maurizio Gaudino.
These events are superficial and trivial; they offer a short-term burst of real-life smiley emojis as opposed to a deeper sense of long-term fulfilment that we might receive from some generous, life-changing policy or other.
The remarkable thing for me in the coverage - at least what I witnessed on Sky News that I happened to be watching at the time on Wednesday and into Thursday - in what was a pre-death ‘obituary’ [I suppose] for the Prime Minister - was the fact that they never said anything even remotely positive about what he did ‘with all that power’.
Sky News recognised his achievements in getting elected, of course, and what he sought to achieve in office, but while there, they never examined ‘the good things’ the government did.
But there is a reason for this.
Objectively, this page can think of one good thing that Prime Minister and the Conservatives have actually done - supporting Hong Kong residents to become citizens in the UK.
That’s it.
Everything else is tainted with half-truths, deception, ulterior motives, and most of all, fineprint and conditions [usually economic ones].
It is very seldom they discuss the Hong Kong visa policy, however, because the concept of welcoming foreigners to this country would be deeply unpopular with their 2019-intake of voters concerned about people in small boats; another example of a policy that has consistently fallen apart in the courts.
Even furlough was not completely their idea - and they only implemented the scheme because they ‘had’ to; there was no other choice. It was that or the system would crumble and many, many more would die.
The same can be said for the cost-of-living support [NB: bribe] they intend to sell to Britain in the coming weeks, too.
Although even that is in doubt.
The vaccine roll-out - long-touted by the government and DHSC as a government success story - can be attributed to the NHS and the tireless work of volunteers; the NHS , of course, being central to the government’s flagship policy announcement of 40 new hospitals which is currently being investigated by the National Audit Office for essentially being unsustainable - in many cases, based on semantics [over what constitutes a ‘new hospital’] and lies.
Can we be proud of the support we offer to Ukraine?
Yes and no, I’m sad to say, because despite the support we have offered, the government itself was tainted by accusations of Russian-state collusion and leaving refugees without much in the way of support as a result of this government’s open, dog-whistle hostile environment policy towards all asylum seekers - indistinguishable by race, religion, ethnicity or nationality.
Britain - at this point in an evolving cost-of-living crisis - cannot thank Boris Johnson for ‘getting Brexit done’ either - with jaw-dropping figures like £100 Billion in lost output and a 4% cut to UK GDP being put forward by the Office for Budget Responsibility to name a few things we can cradle with warmth alongside life-changing benefits - such as the return of imperial measurements for those who couldn’t order pints when we were members of the EU.
Have people seen any benefits from the government’s nebulous ‘levelling-up agenda’?
The levelling-up white paper was proposed in February and has yet to be implemented - nor it is likely to be. It was also a disaster, as this page noted at the time in a small review of the policy blueprint that even Levelling-up secretary [at the time] Michael Gove described as “shit.”
These things, these key manifesto pledges, like many things, will be put on hold. Johnson is even reported to have said as much:
Based on how few policies from the 2019 manifesto have actually been implemented - some of them: key tax pledges, environmental and international commitments have been abandoned totally - the suggestion here then is that Boris Johnson - in resignation - is about as lame a duck as he was when he was Prime Minister.
“The number of laws and bills that had to be thrown into the ‘Bonfire of Policy’ is remarkable,” I wrote previously when describing how “22 out of 33 of the laws, bills and acts promised at the Queen’s Speech a year ago had been delayed.”
And now all of those from Queen’s Speech 2022/23 - which I also wrote about here - are set to be abandoned again the moment a new Prime Minister will be appointed with a new agenda.
Speaking on these terms, it all seems rather pointless - doesn’t it? These last 3 years? [NB: We’ll get to this - because this is why the whole thing should annoy people]
You’d be hard-pressed to find a single example of anything remotely meaningful or positive that Boris Johnson has done in his tenure as Prime Minister that provided a lasting and fulfilling legacy for you and me.
Even if, of course, several hundred thousand people from Hong Kong are likely to be overjoyed at the thought of arriving in politically Broken Britain.
Many of those surveyed as part of the YouGov poll on Tuesday that established 69% [54% of which were Conservative voters] of all people who wanted Johnson to resign might want to ask the most pertinent question of all in hindsight, which is:
‘How has Boris Johnson made my life intrinsically better?’
Throughout coronavirus, many from that 54% demographic frequently turned a blind-eye to the indiscretions, the rampant corruption, the mistakes - the big mistakes like deaths in care homes as a consequence of unlawful government guidance - and maintained this unwavering belief that the Prime Minister was doing “a good job.”
They did so out of loyalty and at the expense of around 200,000 people - the latter figures representing the “bodies” that “piled high”; a comment, of course, Johnson’s supporters turned a blind eye to out of loyalty.
These people have their own questions to answer.
The reward for this loyalty was the chaos we saw on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and into the foreseeable future and/or for however long Johnson remains squatting in No. 10.
This page wonders about ‘these’ people:
Eileen on Newsnight:
‘That’ gentleman from Hartlepool:
…How do these people feel about what has been happening these last few days? Do they even care?
We will probably never know - but they won’t be running to the Prime Minister’s defence at this moment in time. In many cases, they’ve actually been rather quiet over these last few months since the Owen Paterson affair left the government teetering like a precarious Jenga statue.
The Prime Minister - even new education minister Andrea Jenkyns - might be rather hoping for a kind of January 6th uprising but as noted before, he has no ‘Proud Boys’ and no real supporters that actually “love” the Prime Minister.
Johnson has no servile devotees or lunatics bereft at the dying gasps of their fallen leader - these people merely resign themselves like moth larvae burrowing into the fabric of the internet, shouting into the void of the Meta algorithm, and screaming “WITCH HUNT!” in big capital letters.
The extent of their love for Johnson will be the most damning of all to his psyche. He will be shocked by their indifference and apathy.
Contrary to his own sense of inflated self-worth and importance, nobody truly loves Boris Johnson, and those who do make about as much effort in defending him now, as they did in providing legitimate reasons explaining why he was fit to lead the country in 2019.
Solitude
Johnson’s solitude, in the end (in addressing the press) is one of the more telling elements in this psycho-drama.
Look at the man's departure.
Consider how other Prime Ministers have left in the last 20 years - surrounded by loving and devoted family members; their children; in Theresa May's case, she broke down in tears.
With Johnson there was nothing. Not a shred of emotion as he delivered his speech.
His family and ‘friends’ were treated as mere appendages and stuffed into the corner of Downing St. alongside the few allies and acolytes left while he took centre stage and spoke of Darwin, and how it was the fault of everybody else though never himself.
That Johnson spoke of Darwin, too, is ironic.
Considered a misappropriation ascribed to Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’, Darwin believed adaptation to be the key to survival - over even strength and intellect.
If Johnson were truly familiar, he would appreciate the irony in the fact when he needed to adapt to change -as early as January when the polls essentially said, ‘sort it out, Prime Minister’ - the Prime Minister did not, and how he reacted to events surrounding Partygate, with hubris and arrogance, and a pattern of behaviour that has lived with him since childhood, signed his death certificate in the end.
Relaunch after Relaunch, ‘Operation Save Big Dog’ to ‘Operation Red Meat’, reshuffle to reshuffle, he screwed it up - constantly. Time and time again.
He did so with ‘Partygate’ and it was repeated with the Chris Pincher saga.
And in the end, when there was no other choice, he let us know of his intention to resign without a shred of grace or dignity.
There was no humility and he left without contrition.
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Nothing.
That - for all he was ever worth - is exactly how he feels and has always felt about you, the voters, and in the end, everybody he ever thought was loyal, left him standing there casting a very lonely and solitary figure over the steps of 10. Downing Street.
Of course, with the shadowy figure of page nemesis and Conservative Party chair Ben Elliot looming in the background.
The loneliness is what got him in the end - he never truly had friends or allies; historically, he has always been one to keep his own company.
But then in politics, friends or not, and rationally, the only question that ever needs to be asked or considered is this one that would likely be asked by Her Majesty herself at the dawn of any new era in politics:
“Can you with confidence form a functioning and working government?”
If the answer to that constitutional question is no, then you cannot and should not be Prime Minister.
His ministers abandoned him.
Initial spin was that the government was merely ‘streamlining’ and aiming for a smaller state; this line held for around 20 minutes into Thursday as more stopped gnawing at the rotting carcass and left to occupy the green, green grass of ‘honour and integrity.’
But then even this a lie.
Many of those in their respective cabinet roles having previously dribbled out support on the broadcast media day after day and towing the government’s line when nobody watching ever truly believed them in a post-Soviet display of post-modern hypernormalisation.
As a nation we sat enthralled and captivated - held hostage, really - by this minister’s lies or that minister’s lies daily.
We suffered this for years, and with appointments - like Peter Bone or Brendan Clarke-Smith to government payroll jobs - we’ll likely have to endure it a little bit more, except now it will be more embarrassing, more surreal, and more brutal.
This point about those who propped the government up though and supported them most visibly in the broadcast media, is why, fundamentally, the whole of the Conservative Party is corrupted and inherently duplicitous - not centralised around the faults of ‘one man’.
They supported him, these people.
But then the moment the wind changed, and for the sake of their political careers, they cut Johnson like a malignant tumour.
Conversely, it could be argued that the ones still loyal to Johnson are the least contemptible - even if tying themselves to the post has left their careers ruined and they look utterly ridiculous by maintaining their support.
You can’t fault the loyalty of people like Nadine Dorries or Andrea Jenkyns but you can question their level of comprehension - and perhaps their sanity for good measure.
Sense of Justice?
Reflecting back to the anger this page feels however - and in conclusion - this page also draws on sadness and grief over what we have lost as a country since Boris Johnson was elected.
Stories will ‘go quiet’, too.
If indeed Johnson decides that the best course of action is to take advantage of the lucrative after-dinner speech circuit, what then of the Privileges Committee investigation, for example?
What of his relationship with Alexander Lebedev? The role of Russian oligarchs in British politics?
What about the Greater London Authority investigation into funds given to Jennifer Arcuri, the use of the Foreign Office for - ahem - nefarious purposes involving his now-wife Carrie, any investigation into Cronyist/PPE contracts, the scandal over second jobs that set in motion the chain of events that we see before us today and the pledge to overhaul the system that was later abandoned…
The list goes on for things that have been left unsettled and unresolved, chief among which is the Covid inquiry and justice for Covid-19 Bereaved Families who have been met with constant obfuscation leading to delay after delay to any inquiry, and laughed at by this government throughout.
Least of all, and most obviously, by the events surrounding Partygate.
More must be done for these people because every day in their hearts - visualised on the wall outside Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital directly across the other side of the Thames from the Palace of Westminster - they feel that this man, and this government’s biggest mistakes, led directly to the deaths of their loved ones.
They hold this man personally responsible, some of them. In some cases - particularly where those deaths in care homes are concerned - there is an existent and very strong legal case for corporate manslaughter.
For these people, a simple resignation will not suffice, and to leave in the manner and with all the disgrace in which he left, with what this page suggests might be waiting for Boris Johnson on the other side, is not justice nor will it provide closure.
Maybe the assurance of how history will remember Boris Johnson will suffice.
Having written about this Government for nearly three years now - having followed the career developments of Boris Johnson for probably around twenty - I don't know if I can say, convincingly, that Johnson is the worst Prime Minister in history - however immediate, emotional and popular this perception may be.
A rational mind would suggest David Cameron for ushering these last 6 years of chaos in; Johnson is just the creature to Cameron's Frankenstein - perhaps - and that moment Cameron resigned in 2016 was the epoch of this disaster we’ve seen unfold before our eyes.
The alternate argument to suggest that he is the worst Prime Minister could be attributed to the fact that he squandered so much in so little time - an unassailable lead; an 80-seat majority; all gone in the blink of an eye.
In any case I don't doubt for one second that he is the most hated Prime Minister for the way he has treated the people of this country with such an entitled sense of disrespect.
Boris Johnson becomes like the Erich von Stroheim of British politics.
To be known as the most hated when he sought to be the most beloved will hurt him and his legacy more, I feel. Maybe saying this will offer people some comfort, though I doubt much.
In time Boris Johnson will probably be lamented as the vivid hallucination of a nation’s collective psychosis, but there'll be a few of us traumatised enough to remind people that it was tragically and sadly real - and it was horrifying to the extent that some of us wanted to scratch it out from under the skin and bathe ourselves in bleach in an attempt to remove the stench.
On one hand, Johnson should be ripped from history books and excised like he is nothing. This is probably the kind of legacy Boris Johnson truly deserves; like a ghost hovering through some political, spectral nether-world halfway between reality and a dream where people ask, ‘did that really happen?’
On the other hand, Johnson should be exemplified as a cautionary tale of the consequences for when we, as a nation, stop caring about our country, and when we let a temporary lapse in sanity determine how it is run - and by whom. Maybe a positive we can draw from Johnson is that it might encourage us to think more about politics; to engage more and learn from it so that it never happens again, and so that we never again let somebody of this ilk ‘take back control.’
But then perhaps all of what is written above is noise, read by a few - though not many - and appreciated by some. I don’t know.
Perhaps it’s superfluous, portentous, self-serving, verbose or irritating and long-winded. I don’t know this, either.
Perhaps the best and most-fitting obituary or ‘tribute’ (if you can call it that) to Boris Johnson’s political career for the lives he has ruined would have been silence.
But, I guess - for my part - I just wanted to say it.