The Chaotic Boris Johnson
When Johnson finds Dominic Raab coming to the defence of his speech to the CBI earlier this week even he may get a vague sense that last orders are being called on his Premiership.
The much criticised speech, which included an accurate reference to Lenin and discussion of Peppa the Pig, has been seen as a sign that Johnson is ‘unwell’ or has ‘lost the plot’. Perhaps so but it is also all very much in the Johnsonian character. One wonders how Tory MPs who voted for him to be leader managed to miss his long history of chaos.
One need look no further than Sonia Purnell’s biography Just Boris to find examples. Johnson likes to portray himself as a libertarian (think John Wilkes) free wheeling sort while of course actually being dedicated to making money for himself- and fathering children.
George Jones a former colleague on the Telegraph is reported as stopping by Johnson’s (then) Islington house to give him a lift. He noted ‘Boris was late, his life is chaotic’. When he was Editor at the Spectator (before being sacked) his first floor office was described as ‘spacious, but chaotic’. When Johnson first stood for London Mayor he bumped into Nick Robinson and leaked the news in ‘characteristically chaotic’ style.
So when Johnson told the CBI on Monday, ‘brm, brm..’ should anyone really have been surprised?
Leave a Reply