Boris Johnson’s current crisis of leadership is of his own making
Live MintThere he goes again, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is described by his newly- appointed communications director as “not a complete clown”. But like with the Joker in the comic series Batman, there often seems a sinister aspect to Johnson’s cynical manipulation of rumours that reaches almost Trumpian sophistication of innuendo. In apparent desperation to deflect blame over his administration’s callous handling of the pandemic and his bacchanalian parties at 10 Downing Street, Johnson can be seen trying to pin false blame on opposition leader Keir Starmer for not prosecuting the case of a paedophile. Here is a former journalist who became popular by marketing his cultivated disorderly charm in a topical news-themed quiz-cum-comedy show, Have I Got News For You; who was sacked as a correspondent for making up ‘facts’; who was sacked again as a front-bencher for allegedly lying to his party leader; who insulted all and sundry, from a city to the US president and African diplomats, and treated it lightly; and whose actions suggest he weighed the decision of whether Britain should stay in or leave the EU with only one criterion in mind—how that might help his career. Now-backbencher Jeremy Hunt was Johnson’s rival the last time, but he has lost the race once, although he is what Britons would call “a safe pair of hands”.