It’s The End of Boris Johnson—Just Don’t Envy His Successor

The unorthodox leader is responsible for his own undoing and the predicament British Conservatives find themselves in.

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Boris Johnson’s luck has finally run out. The prime minister agreed to step down as Conservative Party leader Thursday and—once a successor is chosen—as prime minister, following a calamitous few days in British politics.

Like a Frank Abagnale in coattails, Johnson had managed to outrun almost everyone. David Cameron, his school friend and former PM, called him “the greased piglet” because he could escape from every crisis seemingly unscathed. And so it seemed until, in 24 hours, more than 50 members of Johnson’s government resigned en masse. By Thursday morning, the message was clear: Time’s up.

The case for Boris Johnson as leader of the party and country always rested on shaky foundations. His supporters knew he was a gambler. But Johnson had an uncanny way of defusing everything with a cock-sure smile and a jig of his tousled hair. When everything was a joke, anything seemed possible.

There have been so many investigations, so many resignations and apologies and lies over the past 18 months, it can be hard to distill it all into a coherent narrative. But the case against Johnson emerged eventually, and in two parts.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Amanda

    This was a bad move and I don't support it. Should have stuck with Boris. The Tories will rue this day for a long time to come. They never learn!

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  2. Avatar photo
    Rajeev

    I think David Cameron is the last Right Wing leader of a major country who I would define as an intellectual/traditional conservative. Boris Johnson, in my opinion, had some similarities in political philosophy to Shinzo Abe (Rest in Peace), but his periodic buffoonery often undermined his effectiveness.

    He did give us this funny clip back when he was mayor of London:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPFZyTodwnQ

    But in all honesty he changed his philosophy to match his party so much from his mayoral days to his Prime Minister days that it never really felt authentic to me. Like so many modern leaders he liked the power and liked being able to get away with it, whatever it was.

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  3. Natty Bumpo

    Best of luck to our British Cousins in finding a new leader. I don't follow British politics closely but have been generally aware of Johnson's foibles and failings as well as his ability to weather the storms he often creates for himself. For a conservative (and presumably a Conservative as well) his lack of regard for propriety is surprising, but as we have learned in the US leaders of traditionally conservative party are not always very conservative.

    I truly hope for a good government leader for the UK;someone who can guide the ship through fiscal and trade challenges while providing international leadership as one of the bulwarks of the West to confront military expansionist by Russia and China.

    The West just lost an important ally in Japan (Shinzo Abe who was still active in politics), so we need all the good leaders we can get.

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  4. Duane Truitt

    It seems rather likely that the Brits will do a return to norm or perhaps all the way to the opposite of Johnson, with a drab personality, not prone to rocking boats or testing the limits of propriety. There is a sort of rhythmic and predictable cycle with elected leaders, both in the UK and the US. Voters get tired of the antics of the old leader, and look for his opposite with the next.

    In the UK they went from Wilson to Heath to Callaghan to Thatcher to Major to Blair to Brown to Cameron to May to Johnson. In the US we went from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon to Ford to Carter to Reagan to Bush 41 to Clinton to Bush 43 to Obama to Trump to Biden.

    See a pattern there? The cycle repeats over and over again, and short memories prevail.

    Reminds me of the old business joke about a CEO who gets forced out of the company, and in the course of cleaning out his stuff from the executive suite, leaves three numbered envelopes for his successor, with the admonishment written on the envelope no. 1 being "Each time you run into trouble, open one of these envelopes in order."

    The new CEO moves in, discovers the envelopes in the drawer of the executive desk, and soon after, he inevitably gets into trouble, so he opens envelope no. 1, which reads:

    "Blame your predecessor."

    The new CEO blames his predecessor for the trouble, and it gives him some temporary relief. But eventually the new CEO gets in trouble again, and opens envelope no. 2, which says:

    "Reorganize!"

    So the now veteran CEO reorganizes the company, and it gives relief again for awhile. But eventually trouble strikes once more, and so the CEO finally opens envelope no. 3, which says:

    "Prepare 3 envelopes"

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