At first voters thought Boris Johnson’s anti-politics was a joke on the prim, humourless, dullards in Westminster. However, 15 years later the laughter rings hollow and would-be Tory prime ministers need to understand why
and newspaper articles are gushing from the 11 candidates who have so far applied to become Britain’s next prime minister. As the Conservative Party immerses itself in a torrent of verbiage, it also needs to grapple with the record of the man.
To British voters Mr Johnson’s anti-politics was refreshingly transgressive—just as voters elsewhere flocked to populists like Donald Trump, Matteo Salvini and Jair Bolsonaro. They thought that the joke was on the prim, humourless dullards in Westminster and that they were in on it. One candidate campaigning against Mr Johnson to become mayor of London in 2007 heard on the doorstep that: “I’m voting for Boris because he is a laugh.”need to understand why.
The other reason words failed Mr Johnson is that politics is not in fact a branch of entertainment. It is too often treated by everyone involved, including the press, as the script for a national soap opera. However, political rhetoric is not an end itself. Speeches are a device to win governments power, and to keep them in office, so that they can follow their political programmes.
Ideally, politicians would have it all. Margaret Thatcher is the most recent British prime minister who best combined a world-altering ability to set out a fresh vision with the gumption to see it through. However, leaders like that do not come along often.
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