Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Chris Deerin: Character is destiny and Boris Johnson will leave a shameful legacy

What kind of legacy will Boris Johnson leave? Photo: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA
What kind of legacy will Boris Johnson leave? Photo: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA

Men, says Niccolo Machiavelli, are “ungrateful, fickle, dissembling, anxious to flee danger, and covetous of gain.” To control them, therefore, a leader should be both loved and feared. Where it is difficult to maintain such a balance – it usually is – one should choose to be feared.

This is the most commonly quoted section from The Prince, the wily Florentine diplomat-philosopher’s 16th Century treatise on bossing it. Less often noted is what follows: while fear among one’s subjects is good, hatred is not, and “it makes him hated above all things, to be rapacious, and to seize the property and the women of his subjects.”

You can see why Boris Johnson has problems. By the middle of this decade public spending will be the highest, as a share of GDP, since the mid-1970s, while taxation will be its highest since the early 1950s. His is proving a particularly un-Conservative, acquisitive and controlling administration. When it comes to women, he displays the morality and entitlement of a Medici prince.

Boris Johnson was once thought of as naughty but nice

The Prime Minister was once loved. As mayor of London and a lowly MP, his tour of the rubber chicken circuit delighted the elderly dames of Tory constituency associations. They liked his wit and his impertinence, and the uncertainty of whether he was going to kiss a cheek or goose one. Naughty but nice, was Boris.

Today, few would describe Johnson as nice. In fact, “ungrateful, fickle, dissembling, anxious to flee danger, and covetous of gain” quite neatly captures him. From the very beginning his government has been abhorrent, a reflection of the profound character flaws of the man at the top.

The past three years has been a hurricane of mismanagement, corruption and rule-breaking. In any other profession, the PM would long since have been fired or departed, in that loaded phrase, “by mutual agreement”.

The past few weeks have seen a series of leaders fall on their swords including Conservative politician Owen Paterson. Photo: PA Wire

In the past few weeks alone we have seen an army of leaders fall on their swords. Jes Staley, the chief executive of Barclays, resigned over an investigation by regulators into his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club has quit in the wake of racism allegations. UK Athletics lost its chief executive and its head of performance due to internal ructions. Even a Conservative politician, Owen Paterson, has gone, due to his acceptance of staggering amounts of money to lobby on behalf of two companies.

PM has taken slipperiness to a new level

Political leadership too often begins with a declaration of personal responsibility – “the buck stops here” – followed by everything humanly possible being done to avoid taking any. Johnson, though, has taken crass, arrogant slipperiness to a new level. On his appointment as PM he appointed a largely third-rate Cabinet both to reward slavishly loyal Brexiteers and to avoid any risk of competition. He oversaw the defenestration of a generation of respected, civilised Tory MPs – remember David Gauke, Justine Greening, Dominic Grieve, Rory Stewart and Nicholas Soames? – because they stood up for the rights of parliament.

One could go on and on about the sheer depravity of this government and this Prime Minister – the mismanagement of the Covid response, the NHS contracts for pals, the peerages for cash, the Horlicks being made of Brexit, the renovation of the Downing Street flat – and still not reach the end.

He protected Dominic Cummings, his chief of staff who so spectacularly broke lockdown rules, and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, after a Cabinet Office inquiry found her guilty of bullying staff. He declared the matter “closed” after married health secretary Matt Hancock was videoed snogging his aide, only for Hancock eventually to be forced out (the same Hancock had been briefed against as “useless” for months by No 10).

Johnson kept Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, in post after the latter approved a £1bn house-building project hours before a council levy kicked in that could have cost the developer, a Tory donor, £40m. And he bent every rule he could to save Paterson, attempting to subvert the independence of parliament before it all simply became too tough.

Contempt for parliament and contempt for the electorate

One could go on and on about the sheer depravity of this government and this Prime Minister – the mismanagement of the Covid response, the NHS contracts for pals, the peerages for cash, the Horlicks being made of Brexit, the renovation of the Downing Street flat – and still not reach the end.

It was thoroughly damning to hear Sir John Major savage Johnson at the weekend, suggesting the administration was “politically corrupt”.

“They have broken the law, the prorogation of Parliament,” said the former PM. “They have broken treaties, I have in mind the Northern Ireland Protocol. They have broken their word on many occasions. There’s a general whiff of ‘we are the masters now’ about their behaviour.”

Contempt for parliament and contempt for the electorate. If it weren’t for the tragically misfiring Keir Starmer, Johnson would be in much deeper trouble than he is. As things stand, he is neither loved nor feared and will leave a shameful legacy and a diminished country behind him. As they say, character is destiny.

 


Chris Deerin is a leading journalist and commentator who heads independent, non-party think tank Reform Scotland

Read more by Chris Deerin: