Friday open thread: Quo vadis, Boris?

As regular readers of this space know, US politics aren't the only politics I follow. I read about political developments the world over. My reasons for doing so are many. But one of the main reasons is that what happens overseas affects us here, as distant as those events may seem.

Which brings us to Blighty.

The popinjay currently serving as elected dictator of the UK, Boris Johnson, is in a bit of a pickle. Eton prepared him for a life of wearing silly suits to the Grand National and taking in matches at Lords. It prepared him for a life of privilege—unearned, involving no real work. Much like Donald Trump, he could have led a life of leisure, banging the help and being the scalawag in the higher echelons of polite society.

But, for whatever reason, he had only one goal in his adult life: ascending to the pinnacle of British government. And, as the saying goes, the gods punish you by answering your prayers with a "yes".

He led the Conservative Party—with an able assist from a Labour Party under the shambolic leadership of unreconstructed Maoist Jeremy Corbyn—to a crushing electoral victory in 2019, breaching Labour's fabled "Red Wall" in its northern English industrial heartland. He engineered what seemed like a rupture in British politics, portending Tory dominance for the coming decade at least. He was Francis Ewan Urquhart come to fetid life, pummeling the sclerotic opposition into irrelevance.

Johnson's remit was to "get Brexit done". He came out of the political wilderness by being the face of the Brexit campaign, lying promising the moon to voters. Britain would chart its own course on the world's high seas! No more money to Brussels! No more Poles and Romanians and their grubby hands stealing British jobs! As of yesterday, the government in Northern Ireland has collapsed over the customs border placed between it and the rest of the UK in accordance with the deal Johnson signed off on and got passed in Parliament. Remember that the majority of the voters in Northern Ireland voted to Remain—that includes Protestants as well as Catholics. Instead of strengthening the Union, Brexit may see it fly apart, as Scotland secedes and Ireland reunites.

That's bad enough. But, again, the gods punish hubris as the greatest of all sins. His remit was Brexit. Instead, he was handed the first global pandemic since the 1918 flu.

The Tory government rallied British citizens to confront the pandemic. It imposed strict lockdowns. It lauded the frontline workers. It said all Britons were in this together. Johnson stood outside No. 10 Downing Street and joined in applause for the National Health Service. It seemed like the louche public school boy had grown up.

But while Her Majesty the Queen herself was forced to sit solitarily while she buried her husband, at No. 10 all these Covid rules were being broken, not only by Johnson's staff, but by Johnson himself.

Johnson and Donald Trump are both of a type. They believe that rules are things they impose, not things by which they themselves abide. They are not elected officials, beholden to behave in a certain manner. They are lords of the manner, with all the rights and privileges entailed therein. They think they are untouchable.

Now, Trump is facing ruination. And Johnson, pummeled by the report issued by civil servant Sue Gray and the resulting investigation by the Metropolitan Police, is bleeding support. So far seventeen Tory MPs have written in to the 1922 Committee to call for a vote on dumping Johnson. (The committee controls internal no-confidence measures.) And yesterday, four key aides resigned. One of them, Munira Mirza, has been with Johnson for years, from his time as London mayor to the Brexit campaign to Downing Street. She resigned specifically due to his behavior.

Oh, and did I mention that the UK is our chief military ally and we're facing down a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine while Johnson is mired in this farcical situation?

The Conservative Party is a nest of vipers, akin to the GOP. It will stick with Johnson for now. But if the May local elections turn out to be less than optimal, the members will jettison him, without waiting for the conclusion of the Met investigation or the publication of the full Gray report.

Again, the gods punish you by granting you your most desired wish.