Boris Johnson must put country first and himself last as Downing Street scandals grow – Jayne Dowle

Many who have been scorched in his tumultuous orbit say that the problem with Mr Johnson is that all he ever does is think about himself.

How Boris Johnson has lost our trust two years after fridge farce to avoid Piers Morgan – The Yorkshire Post says

Former newspaper editor Max Hastings, who employed the Prime Minister as Brussels correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in the 1980s, warned in a column in June 2019 that whilst Mr Johnson is “a brilliant entertainer… he is unfit for national office, because it seems he cares for no interest save his own fame and gratification”.

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They’re prescient words. Although we moved in very different circles, I knew of Mr Johnson too when I also worked at the Telegraph a few years later.

He was, back then, what we female hacks used to call a ‘NSIT’ (not safe in taxis), a wonderfully arcane reference to what debutantes and their mothers used to say about young men who couldn’t be trusted to escort a young lady home without pushing their luck.

Johnson was also never regarded as a serious, deep-thinking and reformative politician. When he became Mayor of London in 2008, he was a jovial Charles II to his puritan predecessor Ken Livingstone. Much has changed in the world since those heady days of freedom we all took for granted a few decades ago, but seemingly not two of the key character traits of Mr Johnson.

Unfortunately for him, trust and levity are two absolute key characteristics all people living in any kind of democracy require their leaders to possess.

Under pressure, he panics. With no strong internal moral compass for guidance and no lifelong history of careful rumination, his only response is to exert control.

The point is that Mr Johnson is a character of extremes – the clown prince turned captor, and this is not good in a crisis.

Taking refuge in draconian measures on a very shaky ground of trust is hugely damaging for us all, for the economy and for our confidence as a nation.

The big question is not whether he should resign, but whether he is prepared to accept that at the age of 57, he must change or a least safely park key aspects of his character if he is to remain a credible Prime Minister.

There are many calling for his head; disgruntled, and, yes, disgusted Conservative backbenchers, Tory party members withdrawing their membership and huge swathes of the British public, who may well have backed his party for the first time at the 2019 general election on the strength of Brexit and are now regretting this decision bitterly.

As a bit of a social experiment, I’ve been following the Facebook posts of an old school friend of mine. Let’s call her Susan. She’s a school dinner lady, grew up here in Barnsley, from a mining family, and until 2019, never voted anything but Labour.

Like many people, she loves her foreign holidays but is also deeply patriotic. It was only a matter of time before Boris seduced her over Brexit.

I was slightly saddened, but not surprised, to see her taken in like this, but I could see why.

It wasn’t just Boris, it was the fact that Jeremy Corbyn was still in charge of Labour and offered no sensible stance on Brexit or much else.

Whilst much of the mess he’s created is his own fault, there were a lot of circumstantial reasons why Mr 
Johnson came to hold such sway, especially in so-called ‘Red Wall’ constituencies.

All through the first lockdowns in 2020, my old friend stood by her man, defending his rules and reliance on ‘the science’ even when others openly questioned his judgement and challenged her faith.

Now, however, she has completely overturned her allegiance; her faith has been shattered with the sudden imposition of Plan B, not least because travel edicts have put paid to her hopes of taking her family to Spain for the New Year.

I know this sounds fickle, shallow even, but Mr Johnson’s party won the 2019 election on the strength of support from people like Susan, who are not political by nature, but instinctive. He has shattered all that goodwill. They trusted him. Now, they do not.

If he still really does want to be Prime Minister, he must dig deep to find empathy and understanding. From now on, he must commit to leading from the front – and by putting himself last.

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