Boris Johnson, the outgoing prime minister, had been a journalist for the Daily Telegraph for a few years when a colleague approached him to discuss a column he was preparing about a Conservative Party convention.
She laid out her plans in detail, and he gave hunches. What was her surprise when, the next day, when she opened the newspaper, her ideas were written under Boris’s signature. Rachel Sylvester, now a columnist for the Times, recounts the incident and describes the politician as a brilliant man. But owner of a terrible character.
Sylvester participated in a debate in June that the BBC published as a podcast. The theme was precisely the prime minister, who resigned this Thursday (7th) from the leadership of the Conservatives after a series of scandals.
Let’s look at two such incidents. The first took place a few months ago, when a London Metropolitan Police chief rang the bell at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the head of government. And he gave the tenant a warning, because, during the pandemic, he went against the government’s own directive and promoted little parties with the agglomeration of guests.
The second is more political than moral. A month ago, the 359 Conservative deputies gathered to vote on the ouster of Boris. They decided to keep it by 211 to 148. One of the possible interpretations of this result was that 148 deputies would already represent an ethical majority to put it on the street.
But Boris not only survived, he didn’t feel scratched when, days later, the Conservatives lost two elections in districts that had been put up for grabs. “The prime minister defies the law of gravity,” said the BBC mediator. He should have fallen by now, but he didn’t. Now he has fallen.
Among the factors holding Boris back was charm. Voters like his disheveled look, with his long, tousled blond hair and a fatherly, deep-voiced way of saying things.
“He’s a seducer who likes to use language,” says Sylvester, who recalls an episode from Boris’ childhood. He was ten years old when his mother suffered a psychotic crisis and was hospitalized. He felt very lonely and realized that he would need to seduce people with clever words to survive socially.
Boris doesn’t like to be badmouthed. So much so that he offered a £100,000 tip so essayist Andrew Gimson wouldn’t write a biography of him. Gimson, one of the podcast’s guests, wrote the biography, “Portrait of a Troublemaker at Number 10” (portrait of a troublemaker at Number 10).
The last participant in the conversation was Tim Montgomerie, a blogger for Conservative Party sympathizers and a former aide to the prime minister. He describes the somewhat chaotic style with which Boris manages his own agenda, arriving late to meetings and forgetting to bring copies of important documents.
Despite this set of facets, Boris works. He was the mayor of London for two terms and even his opponents from Labor did not find many faults in his management. He participated very discreetly in the downfall of his predecessor, Theresa May, who was unable to get Parliament to pass a set of laws that would bring about Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Boris was one of the divorce enthusiasts and committed to putting an end to this story once and for all. That’s what he did. EU supporters do not forgive him. With the pandemic, he invested heavily so that workers forced to stay at home would not lack money. He would have been even a little irresponsible in fiscal terms, which pleased the Labor electorate, said one of the podcast participants.
This voluntarism reminds a little of the Brazilian deputies of the 1950s known in their benches as the “deixa que eu chuto”. They wanted to score the goal to stay in the spotlight.
Boris spoke harshly to Russia, but says he doesn’t care about ideology. He considers himself a liberal, and that’s enough. And he is amused when they say that his government has the diversity that no left-wing prime minister could dare, given the number of positions given to gays, immigrants or women.
The podcast, although recorded before the resignation, delivers a delicious profile for its gossip filling.
