Who is popular today?

It is dawning on Tory MPs that they will get no respite from partygate so long as he remains at Number 10Boris Johnson once explained his desire to go into politics by saying: “They don’t put up statues to journalists.”I’m doubtful that anyone other than himself is planning one, but his place in history is definitely set in stone. He has earned the dismal distinction of being both the first prime minister to have been given a criminal sanction while in office and the first to be placed under investigation for contempt of parliament. After being fined by the police for breaking the life-or-death laws he himself introduced to curb Covid, the privileges committee will adjuicate on his repeated false denials to the Commons. Britain has had some dicey leaders before, but no previous incumbent has generated such a double-whammy of disgraces, either of which would have impelled the resignation of any of his predecessors. Continue reading...