“It was strange to experience so little joy when the day came, considering the hundreds of thousands of words and hundreds of hours I had spent campaigning for Boris Johnson’s departure.
This is partly because his resignation speech was a nebula of lies, half-truths, deceptions, false allegations and manipulations that have been his hallmark since he first became a media figure, then political, that is to say for decades. He couldn’t even bring himself to utter the word “resign”, nor to apologize for the many misdeeds that led his party to turn against him. He is simply “sorry” to leave a job he loved.
But my inability to savor this moment was mainly due to the fact that, as he stood at his desk, in front of the famous door of 10 Downing Street, all the satisfaction I could feel at the idea of seeing him go was overshadowed by the disgust of knowing that he had ever been able to access these functions.
Enough ink has already been spilled to describe the lies, slander, false or broken promises, fabricated stories, deceived wives, mistresses and children, financial scandals, repeated blunders and incompetence. by Boris Johnson. But, at least soon – not soon enough though, as he continues to ‘squat’ Downing Street [jusqu’à la désignation de son successeur, NDLR] – he will leave, and we won’t have to spend so much time thinking about the character or talking about him. Big questions remain, however, about the political and media ecosystems that allowed him to rise so high.
The man who said anything
Anyone who knew him or had worked with him knew the man was a liar. Anyone who had dealt with him personally knew he was unreliable and untrustworthy. Anyone who had followed his career as a journalist, MP or Mayor of London knew he was unserious, cowardly, indifferent to both the ins and outs of politics and its consequences. For Johnson, politics, like journalism, was a game of which he himself set the rules, with the aim of his own rise, the interests of the people and the country coming far behind his own.
Everyone, including those who feign surprise at seeing his term as Prime Minister end in Berezina, knew all of this. Members who voted for him knew that. The ministers who sat like cute doggies at the Cabinet table, laughing at his jokes, closing their eyes to his faults, obediently repeating the lies or excuses they were told to sing when he found himself tossed from scandal to scandal , maneuvering to cover up every affair, knew it too. But they preferred to play the ostrich. Because, in the political game, they saw in him a winner.
Of course, it’s easier to win when you’re willing to say literally anything – both the truth and a lie – that will advance your cause, and you come from a media culture that places the truth and the facts in the background behind the strength of a subject, and in which many newspapers cease to hold the powerful accountable, preferring to help to become more powerful those who, among the latter, carry their vision of the world. the DailyMailthe Daily Expressthe Sun and the Daily Telegraph have sometimes given the impression of being Johnson’s press office rather than newspapers seeking to update their readers on the state of the country. They bear a great responsibility for the current political malaise – so much so that, under Johnson, the UK ended up making a fool of itself on the international stage.
The “winner” turned “loser”
In the end, if he fell from grace, it was for the bad faith he repeatedly showed about a repeat sex offender he had appointed to a high profile position. But, in truth, he had survived much worse in the past. It was not the sudden discovery of the existence of moral principles that changed the minds of ministers and deputies. It was realizing, suddenly, that Johnson was no longer a winner. That he was now despised by much of the country. that he was a loser. And that if he stayed, he risked harming the party.
He will go down in history as the most dishonest, most corrupt, most incompetent, most disgraced Prime Minister in our history, the one who has caused the most damage to our Parliament, to our rule of law, to our media ( including the BBC), our diplomacy and our place in the world, and the peace process in Northern Ireland. The fact that Joe Biden did not even bring himself to mention his name in his brief reaction to his resignation speech gives an idea of the extent of the damage inflicted on our privileged relationship with the United States. As for the alliances with our closest neighbors across the Channel – and in particular with the French president, tired of his lies and his antics for a long time -, they have suffered as much as the rooms in which Johnson had organized clandestine parties during the health crisis – to the point that, of the whole country, it is 10 Downing Street that will have received the heaviest fines for non-compliance with confinement!
“A liar and a charlatan”
And yet, even when the man and his antics are long since forgotten, the crux of his legacy – Brexit – is likely to remain in effect. The fact that Johnson is now widely seen as a liar and a charlatan – who used the same dirty tricks to win the referendum six years ago – does not seem to have changed the minds of much of the political spectrum, which considers it impossible to reverse Brexit.
This is the real tragedy and the reason why I felt unable to celebrate his passing. For the irony of history is that the least serious and fickle tenant Downing Street has ever seen is responsible for what is arguably the most serious and profound change in our country since the Second World War. So he left, no doubt to give conferences around the world, in exchange for a small fortune, to businessmen who will laugh at his good words, and to write memoirs as truthful as fake news on the great statesman that he was.
He leaves covered in shame and disgrace, and it will neither heat nor cold him, since he knows no shame. But the sorry centerpiece of her legacy will remain, and it will take more than a change of Prime Minister to fix that or to undo the damage inflicted on our politics by a narcissistic sociopath who, unfortunately, has had more than a thousand days to him to sow desolation in the land.”