Not with a bang but a whimper, Johnson's political career is almost certainly over
Today is Boris Johnson’s birthday. He will be 59 years old.
Clark Gable died when he was 59 years old. Dostoevsky died when he was 59 years old. Other famous people who died when they were 59 years old include former ‘Incredible Hulk’ star Bill Bixby and Truman Capote. Coolio did, too, and now lives in his eternal Gangster’s Paradise and presumably we’ll see him when we get there.
If you believe in that sort of thing.
The bell is not expected to toll for Johnson now that he has reached the age of 59, and this page does not wish [or even predict] the demise of the former Prime Minister as though I’m some sort of foreboding deathly oracle from a Bergman film [or indeed Bill and Ted as they proceed on their ‘Bogus Journey’] uttering the words, ‘It is time!’
His glittering political career, however, looks perilously on the void of non-existence, and it does seem that ‘time is up’ for Johnson - as a politician at least.
It was as early as October 2020 [if my Facebook timeline is anything to go by] that this page predicted Johnson would eventually go on to resign in disgrace, and then go on to ‘rake it in’ and “become the richest prime minister on record”. At the time, I reconciled myself to the concept that this was probably the price we all had to pay for finally seeing the back of him - enduring [and trying our utmost to ignore] badly-written, weekly columns in the Daily Mail about snaffling cheese and chorizo will be another.
The reason that his career as a politician is over is because today, MPs will get the opportunity to vote on whether to revoke the former Prime Minister’s parliamentary pass.
It’s expected to go through ‘on the nod’ - without much fuss, without division, and in sharp contrast to the noise that Johnson and his acolytes have created these past few weeks and months. A striking contrast, actually, will be how quiet proceedings are expected to be despite the chaos wrought by Johnson for the last 7 years [in particular] with his face at the frontline of British politics.
In Johnson’s head, he probably feels that this is like the political equivalent of Slim Pickens’ death in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid; gut-shot, sensing the inevitable, the veteran cowboy actor quietly shuffles off to sit on a stony creek and watch the sunset one last time to the soundtrack of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’.
Let’s not indulge him. It’s not that romantic.
Johnson’s punishment might not appear ‘severe’ - a revocation of his parliamentary pass. It might even seem disproportionate for the damage Johnson has inflicted upon this country, but it is the only recommendation that - following the conclusion of the Privileges Committee investigation into Johnson’s conduct - the 4 Conservative MPs, 2 Labour MPs and 1 SNP MP could make.
You can read their findings here.
MPs would be voting to accept the recommendations of an unprecedented 90-day suspension had Johnson not resigned. Following this, if they did accept it [as per the process], it would be asked for his constituents to decide Johnson’s fate as an MP. The process is not easy, and it is entirely democratic contra to the claims of Johnson’s acolytes - like Jake Berry.
Rather than face the prospect of his own constituents turning on him, though, Johnson, like a coward, resigned his seat in disgrace instead.
What did Johnson fear?
Was it the fate of Johan de Witt, the 17th century Dutch politician, who - along with his brother Cornelius - was literally torn limb from limb, ripped to shreds and then subsequently eaten by his own people in a cannibalistic frenzy?
Or was it to be [slightly] less serious than that and merely an assault on Johnson’s fragile ego by the way of an expected loss to the Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP candidate Danny Beales in a humiliating by-election?
Probably the latter. Probably.