The stability that once characterised the British parliament has been replaced by a turnover rate that only Chelsea FC managers can rival. It has become common in recent years to see prime ministers standing forlornly in front of 10 Downing Street’s foreboding black door, expressing “deep regret” about where it all went wrong, perhaps choking up a little or even shedding a few tears. But not this time.
This time it was the resignation of the PM who thought he was, like one of those Chelsea managers, the “special one”.
There was little contrition from Boris Johnson. He mourned his suffering at the hands of Westminster’s “herd instinct” but still proclaimed his faith in the power of the UK’s “Darwinian system” to produce a new leader worthy of being his conqueror. It was a strange tone to take for a moment of personal disgrace, in which he was being metaphorically dragged out of Downing Street in handcuffs. But then everything about Johnson’s premiership has sought to buck convention. And not in a good way.
