Here, in the order I have read them, are three Telegraph essays on Boris Johnson. Fraser Nelson’s essay:
Headline: The regicidal Tories won’t oust Boris until a successor steps up.
Sub-headline: Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have failed to convince MPs that they have the mettle to take the top job.
The Conservatives have long been the natural party of regicide which is, right now, what is keeping Boris Johnson in place. A more impulsive party might have thrown him out, simply as an act of rage. Regicide experts know that success means lining up a successor, making sure the transition would work. It means asking hard questions such as: is Liz Truss really the answer? Could Rishi Sunak win the north? Are either ready? And if not, are we really so sure that the Boris project is unsalvageable?
It’s striking how many Tory MPs, even his erstwhile supporters, now consider the damage irreparable. It was, in the end, his decision that the elderly should be unvisited in care homes and families could not meet for funerals during lockdowns. For him to then host a “bring your own booze” party in his garden, when he was asking police to prosecute anyone who did the same, was indefensible. It may yet prove to have been, under his own rules, a criminal act.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/13/regicidal-tories-wont-oust-boris-successor-steps/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1539759&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Loy_Dig_Tri_200526_TopStories&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Loy_Dig_Tri_200526_TopStories20220115&utm_campaign=DM1539759
Fraser Nelson’s essay devolves from a polemic against Boris, to political prognostication, note the last two paragraphs:
Johnson may yet recover: if omicron keeps falling, he could abolish all Covid rules this month (including the plan to sack 70,000 unjabbed NHS staff) and go all-out on a “rebuild” theme and place his hope in local elections. His penance for his garden party could be a pardon (and repaying the fines) of those prosecuted under his lockdown rules.
He will not be forgiven by his party: things are too far gone for that. But he may yet persuade them that he is still, for now at least, the least bad option.
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Headline: Boris Johnson must take ‘full responsibility’ for conclusions of ‘partygate’ inquiry, say ministers
Sub-headline: Prime Minister put on notice by his own side as Tories face a tidal wave of anger from voters over No 10 gatherings
MPs and ministers are publicly warning the Prime Minister to take "full responsibility" for the findings of an inquiry into Covid rule breaches in Downing Street, as they face a tidal wave of anger from constituents.
In one case Mims Davies, the employment minister, said it had been "very hard to see" the way the apparent rule-breaking had brought back painful memories from the last couple of years for so many, and of the sacrifices we’ve all made".
"Understandably, many constituents have been very greatly angered and deeply hurt by this reported ‘party’ in the garden on May 20 2020," Ms Davies said.
She was one of many MPs reporting voters' anger to party whips at the weekend and said she understood the "extreme upset" the behaviour had caused.
Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, said he was receiving emails that were "red hot with anger”. Gary Sandbrook, an executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, said: "I would expect anyone who is found to have broken the law to seriously consider their position in Government, and that includes the Prime Minister."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/15/boris-johnson-must-take-full-responsibility-conclusions-partygate/
Edward Malnick’s essay explores the political consequences of Boris’, what to call it but political incompetence? The sine qua non of his political practice!
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Headline: Boris Johnson could have passed tipping point of unpopularity from which prime ministers never recover
Sub-headline: Comparisons with downfalls of other premiers, such as Eden and Major, show current occupant of Number 10 may find it hard to bounce back
There are not many prime ministerial careers that do not, eventually, end in failure. Fewer still recover from the kind of self-inflicted wounds Boris Johnson has given himself.
Politicians can survive scandals and even overcome multiple calamities across a career. At some point, however, the improprieties and foul-ups congeal into an unrepairable mess, dragging their unhappy bearer into the abyss.
This is the tipping point - the moment that, as Dr Mark Garnett, author of The British Prime Minister in an Age of Upheaval, puts it: “The gilt comes off the gingerbread man.”
If Mr Johnson falls in the next few weeks, there are few historical comparisons that will do justice to the precipitous nature of his decline.
This is the man, after all, who took a parliament paralysed for over a year with a set of seemingly irreparably divided Conservative MPs to an 80-seat majority.
Perhaps the closest example is Anthony Eden. As successor to Winston Churchill, he called the 1955 snap election and increased the Conservative majority from 17 to 60. Yet he was out of office in under two years, having presided over the Suez Crisis - the final, humiliating confirmation that Britain was no longer a great power.
Mr Johnson, though, is no Sir Anthony. Whatever the wrongs of Downing Street’s prolific partying, it does not quite compare to colluding with France and Israel to create the conditions for a fake peacekeeping operation aimed at toppling the Egyptian government.
Despite just two years in office, Mr Johnson’s influence on Britain, unlike Sir Anthony’s, is likely to last for decades.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/15/boris-johnson-could-have-passed-tipping-point-unpopularity-prime/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
Daniel Capurro explores the historical dimension, of British political maladroitness, or incompetence… via comparison with other historical actors. The concluding paragraphs of Mr. Capurro’s essay offers …
As Sir Anthony Seldon points out, the Prime Minister has struggled to play two very different roles - the disruptive force that broke the Brexit stalemate and the national healer who brought the nation together in its aftermath.
“Macmillan put the lid back on the extraordinarily volatile position in Britain, with the country deeply divided after Suez,” he said. “It’s been much harder to put the cap back on after Brexit.”
Rather than forging a new politics from the chaos of 2017 to 2019, Mr Johnson may simply have been a temporary release from it.
Robert Colvile in his Times essay of December 26, 2021 offers usable political prescience, from a past, usable in the political present?
Headline: Jettisoning Johnson will not be the cure-all that troubled Tories crave.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jettisoning-johnson-will-not-be-the-cure-all-that-troubled-tories-crave-nt0sfsn27
The last paragraph as quoted, by me, in my reply to Mr. Colvile:
The Reader encounters the last paragraph of Mr. Colvile’s essay, call it a flaccid Johnson defence, framed as a maladroit riff on Shakespeare?
Yet while the prime minister has been divorced, and frequently almost beheaded, he has somehow always survived. Boris may be bruised and battered. But he still wears the crown.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jettisoning-johnson-will-not-be-the-cure-all-that-troubled-tories-crave-nt0sfsn27
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A link to Colvile’s January 16,2022 essay on Boris:
Headline: Don’t plan Boris Johnson’s leaving party yet — remember how long it took to oust May
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dont-plan-boris-johnsons-leaving-party-yet-remember-how-long-it-took-to-oust-may-frtdqcs9c
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