Here's a Tory journalist and former friend of Johnson
here is my own attempt at reconciling the inspirational editor I worked for two decades ago with the dishonest lawbreaker in 10 Downing Street today.
Who runs Britain?
Early last year Johnson entered into a bargain with
Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, formerly the organisers of
the Vote Leave campaign. They would propel him to Downing Street, enabling him to realise his ambition to become prime minister.
In return Johnson would abandon the traditional Conservatism he supported at the Spectator. Cummings was installed in Downing Street as a
"senior adviser" while Gove would run the government. I explained some of the elements of this arrangement in a
Middle East Eye column in July.
Johnson is in office. Gove and Cummings are in power. Note that yesterday it was Gove - not Johnson - who
held talks with the European Union. This is Gove and Cummings’ policy, not Johnson’s. All politicians are in one sense actors in search of a scriptwriter. In Cummings, Johnson had found his scriptwriter.
Deep down, this Faustian pact makes Johnson miserable. Look at his recent photographs, and you can see the deep unhappiness in his eyes, which in recent weeks are starting to tell a story of private panic.
His government is a national disaster but, remember, it’s also a private tragedy for Johnson.
The reckoning
Johnson is scared. He’s destroying Britain. He knows it. As a highly intelligent man he will sense that history will damn him as one of Britain’s worst prime ministers. It’s not just Brexit.
The Covid-19 crisis is worse, with his government sending out chaotic messages and overseeing the
worst death toll in Europe.
In the words of
the Daily Mail, one of the prime minister’s biggest backers, “the government's approach seems bewilderingly confused. Stay at home. Go back to work. Stay alert. Don't mix with more than six people. Eat out to help out."
Johnson won’t last. He may go of his own accord, though Gove and Cummings will fight to keep him. That’s understandable. He’s their tool and their only route to power, so he serves their purposes.
