As a centre-rightist I’ve no interest or enthusiasm for bringing Boris Johnson back into government. Although I appreciate greatly his Brexit push and how he pushed that over the line despite objections from within Parliament, there’s so much else about his rule as Prime Minister that I can neither forget about or forgive. He wrecked the economy with his government’s Pandemic policies, failed to protect the nation’s borders or national integrity, failed to do anything other than mindlessly cheer on attacks on British energy security and did little to protect or enhance the rights of Britons in areas such as freedom of speech and expression. I voted for this man and his party, mistakenly it turned out, but after experiencing being governed by the man, there’s no way on earth would I want Boris Johnson in charge of any governmental entity more complex than a Parish Council.

But Boris Johnson is at the very least a great showman and the manner of his passing from mainstream politics illustrates that quite clearly. To make an analogy: If Margaret Thatcher’s pugilistic performances as a conviction politician in the House of Commons could be described as Shakespearean then a large portion of Boris Johnson’s political career and his exit from it might be described as resembling an entertainment put on by PT Barnum the famous circus promoter.

Boris Johnson’s decision to resign his Parliamentary seat in the manner that he did was like letting off a giant political firework and the sparks from the ignition of it has caused and will cause all manner of problems for the Tory party. Whilst I agree with Mr Johnson that the investigation into his activities during Lockdown, which is under the control of life long socialist Harriet Harman does look more than a little bent, quitting a Parliamentary seat in the way that Mr Johnson did fits in with Boris Johnson’s ego. Anybody else, someone less driven by ego might have decided to fight this out with the investigators even if for no other reason than to expose alleged bias in the committee.

There’s another reason why Boris Johnson may have quit in the way that he did and that’s because he may have thought better to quit now rather than be turfed out at the next election. He did represent what has become a marginal Tory constituency and there was the strong likelihood, due to the unpopularity of his party and local demographic change, that he would have lost this seat at the next General Election. By quitting now rather than being defeated at an election, Boris Johnson gets to get out of Parliament and to exploit, earlier than he might have been able to do, lucrative speaking and writing jobs whilst also throwing a large metaphorical bucket of crap over the Conservative Party.

I can’t really see any way back into political power for Boris Johnson after this. There’s talk of Nigel Farage signing him up for Reform but I can’t see that idea going anywhere. Reform would be foolish to bring Boris on board as although he has a lot of online cheerleaders, he is also very closely identified with some of the worst failures of the current government. Whilst many think of Brexit when they think of Boris Johnson, there’s also a lot of people who dislike the man intensely because of his close association with the Pandemic failures and the sort of lunatic greenery that is likely to be an Albatross to be hung in the future around the necks of those politicians who’ve been cheerleaders for this. Taking on board Boris Johnson might hurt Reform and make it look less like the challenger and alternative party that they need to be seen as an much more like an Establishment Party which will be a turn off for some voters.

I had incredibly high hopes for Boris Johnson both at the point when he became Prime Minister and at the 2019 General Election. Sadly he’s dashed all these hopes on the rocks of his own failings both personal and political. He could, as the washed up and corrupted boxer said in the movie ‘On the Waterfront’, ‘been a contender’ for greatness, a man who led Britain to freedom, who secured Britain’s borders, who rebalanced the political viewpoint of the universities, the third sector and civil service or who gave us all back the free speech rights that we have lost. But he did very little of anything of that. However unlike the washed up boxer in the aforementioned movie, it was not those around Boris Johnson that did for Boris Johnson, it was Boris Johnson himself who threw the fights that the British people had voted him to be our pugilist in.

Boris Johnson is a great political character, probably one of the best since the days of Thatcher or Wilson. But he has failed dismally at politics and what’s worse has failed the rest of us as well.