New Prime Minister?

With Theresa May stepping down, Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister by the members of the Conservative Party and took up his new position on 24 July.

But the question on everyone’s mind is ‘Is Boris good enough?’ (pardon the pun on Mussorsgsky’s opera). Despite his two terms as Mayor of London and his short period as Foreign Secretary, the country appears to have been presented with an unknown quantity of vast proportions at a delicately balanced time in our history.

Why Boris is not Churchill

Those among the Tory faithful who voted (2 to 1) for Boris, like to imagine something of Winston Churchill in him. There is no doubt, like the great war-time leader, that Mr. Johnson has a certain charisma – an ability to electrify a political meeting and a grand rhetoric.  His first speech as PM outside 10 Downing Street had a real passion, eloquence and determination about it which many found inspiring – with the liberal media looking on simply desperate for him to make a gaff which he didn’t. He too is a wordsmith and has written for the Times and the Telegraph. His personal life, like that of Churchill, does not bear scrutiny – he has children by different relationships. During his time living in Islington, with its leftist intellectuals, Boris embraced the idea of LGBT rights. He has often, like Churchill, been known to ‘fly by the seat of his pants’ in politically dangerous situations. But there is one crucial area where the parallels cease.