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Gentle Into That Good Night? Not Boris Johnson.


LONDON – Less than three weeks after he announced his resignationand with rumors swirling that he has plans to return, Britain’s scandalous prime minister, Boris Johnson, received the best kind of self-care advice from a family member.

“If you ask me,” Rachel Johnson, the prime minister’s sister, said recently on LBC Radiowhere she hosted a talk show, “I want to see my brother take a break and write and draw and just regroup and you know, let’s see what happens.”

Not much chance of that.

Remaining prime minister, Mr Johnson has barely retreated to the rear. He’s recently posing in a fighter planethen at a military base where he threw a grenade, used machine guns and organized rocket launchers during exercises with the Ukrainian army.

And at his final appearance in Parliament as prime minister, Mr Johnson’s verdict on his tumultuous three years in Downing Street was a “largely mission accomplished – for now,” before he autograph from the movie “Terminator”: “Hasta la vista, baby.”

However, as a follower of the Terminator series, Mr Johnson knows about sequels.

Andrew Gimson, who is about to publish the second volume of his biography, said: “He was not the type to give up and go away to live a quiet life in some nice country house and work. good deed for the local church. of Mr. Johnson.

“You don’t really get to the top unless you’re already pretty uncharacteristically competitive, so it would be surprising if he just went into his private life.”

While a return to Downing Street may be unlikely, Mr Johnson, with an exceptional political record, knows how to keep his name on the headlines. That may not be good news for his successor.

Writing in The Times of London, William Hague, a former Conservative Party leader, warned of the possibility of Mr Johnson making it clear that “a tangle of resentment, denial, attention-seeking and vindication will be a constant nightmare for newbies”. generals.”

Downing Street did not say anything publicly about Mr Johnson’s future although his allies dismissed Mr Hague’s comments. They expect Mr Johnson to stay in Parliament and speak out about any dilution in his strong commitment to Ukraine, any significant shift to Brexit or a reversal of plans remains to be seen. his cloud to “upgrade” the prosperity of neglected areas.

Despite the scandals that led to his resignation, he retains a strong following in the right-wing media and among his party members who will elect a new leader. Ms Truss’s supporters have tried to exploit this loyalty, and have accused Mr Sunak – whose resignation began to unravel Mr Johnson’s job security – of betraying the prime minister. A cabinet minister, Nadine Dorries, recently retweeted an image of Mr Sunak posing as Brutus about to stab Julius Caesar in the back.

And a campaign seems to have ended to keep Mr Johnson in Downing Street through suggestionssigned by thousands of Conservative Party members, helping to validate his theory – which was enhanced when he announced his resignation – that his lawmakers acted unjustly by forcing the removal of the man who had give them victory in 2019.

“As we saw at Westminster, the herd instinct is very strong and when the herd moves, it moves,” Mr Johnson said in his resignation speech, suggesting that his Conservative colleagues in the Congress simply succumbed to the political survival instinct of following the crowd. .

Mr Johnson has expressed little regret or self-reflection about the largely self-inflicted wounds that led to his downfall.

Robert Ford, a political science professor at the University of Manchester, says the Prime Minister can trust in his heart that he can one day return to Downing Street because he has defied all previous hardships. .

“Throughout his political life, he believed that he was a special person, that he could achieve things that others could not, and that the usual rules did not apply to him. them,” he said, noting Mr Johnson’s many comebacks from previous reversals.

Professor Ford argues that comparisons to former President Donald J. Trump are inaccurate because Mr. Johnson has finally accepted the process of ousting him.

“But the way the Trump simile is applied is this: first, Boris Johnson rejects the idea that whatever happens this year is his fault; and secondly his very strong desire to be in the spotlight again,” said Professor Ford.

All remaining political ambitions aside, Mr Johnson has no shortage of options for a living. He has a biography of William Shakespeare to complete, the prospect of lucrative international lectures and even, potentially, press attention. (He’s a columnist for The Daily Telegraph.)

If he continues to be a force in politics, Johnson’s first task will be to secure his seat in Congress.

A committee is investigating whether he misled lawmakers about Downing Street lock-down parties and if it harmed Mr Johnson, he may have to fight an election to keep his seat later this year.

It is also unlikely that he will keep his seat at the next general election unless fortunes improve for his Conservative Party, so there is speculation he could seek a safe zone. than.

Regarding his eventual return to Downing Street, Mr Gimson said that Mr Johnson’s “biggest chance of coming back is if the country is in a desperate predicament and he is arguably the only figure big enough and big enough to get back on”. Courage to deal with it. . “

Several previous prime ministers have returned, including Winston Churchill, Mr Johnson’s political hero.

But Mr Johnson’s task will be more difficult because – unlike Churchill – he has lost leadership of the Conservative Party, and will have to win it back before any second attempt at Downing Street. It seems Conservative lawmakers don’t want to risk a repeat of his chaotic administration.

In any case, with a ready background in the right-wing media, Mr Johnson is more likely to prefer to cause trouble than to play a supportive older politician, Prof Ford said.

“He doesn’t take personal responsibility for his overthrow, and he doesn’t think he should go,” Professor Ford said. “He thinks he has a mandate from the people and a special election call that his colleagues cannot repeat.”

And the question remains: deep down, will Mr Johnson – whose long history is written only to refute his doubts – admit that this time it’s really over?

“I doubt it,” said Mr Gimson, his biographer, “I think he accepts that he will be leaving shortly. But that’s short term, and he’s an optimist by nature. “





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