Max Hastings, who was Johnson's editor at the Daily Telegraph, said that Boris Johnson wouldn't recognise the truth in an identity parade. Even before our current PM was elected, Hastings said that he wass unfit for public office because he only cares about his own fame and gratification and, although he sees himself as another Churchill, he is more of an Alan Partridge. His housemaster at Eton said in his school report that, having failed to work hard enough, "Boris seems to be genuinely affronted that an exception isn't made in his case."
These are two people who knew Johnson well and they paint a picture of someone who sees himself as special, thinks only of his own interest and has no regard for the truth. This assessment has been confirmed, if anyone was in any doubt, by the lies and bluster about the parties.
I have some sympathy with those who say that the fuss about the parties is a distraction from the terrible mess our country is in. It is true that we are in a quagmire of corruption and incompetence, as Brexit bites, we become the first European country to pass 150,000 Covid deaths, a third of all UK kids live in poverty, and people die waiting for ambulances and cancer operations because billions that could have gone to the NHS have been squandered on things that weren't fit for purpose, like the Test and Trace system or the PPE contracts. But the anger about the parties is based on a matter of principle.
The principle is that those who make the law must obey it. If those who create the rules don't follow them, how can they expect the rest of us to do so? And they have not only broken their own laws, they have also lied about it shamelessly. They have lost any shred of moral authority.
During lock down, people were fined £10,000 for organising parties. I am waiting with interest to see the organisers of the Government's parties pay similar fines.
