When Boris Johnson rose to the top of the British government in July 2019 and then won a resounding snap-election victory in December on the lingering Brexit question, I said that if he did nothing else, Brexit would ensure him a legacy. Having gotten Brexit done, he has his legacy, but he did nothing else. The lesson, as always, is that character matters in a national leader. There is no doubting the talents of Boris Johnson; he has cleverness, flair, mischievous wit, erudition with a common touch, a deep grasp of history, and a studied devotion to Churchillian rhetoric. He has the gift of making the most calculated maneuvers look spontaneous and heartfelt. He is good copy, and is a natural on the small screen. He understood that David Cameron, Theresa May, and Jeremy Corbyn had combined to leave a yawning opportunity: Labour was unelectable, yet the Conservatives would not stand for a leader opposed to Brexit. What was lacking was someone among the elites to run as a pro-Brexit Conservative, so Boris did. With nerve and verve and daring — and even the willingness to provoke a constitutional crisis — he got it done just before the Covid pandemic hit.
And . . . that was it. The subsequent two years have been one fool thing after another, and mass resignations in his Cabinet have finally forced him to go. Boris might return; he has the gift of a Nixon or a Netanyahu for improbable regenerations. Part of his problem, it is true, was the philosophical incoherence of his party and electoral coalition. But much of the issue was the flawed character of the man, well-known when he volunteered as the instrument of a national cause, and apparent in every dreary particular since its attainment. Boris is not honest, he is not moral, and he is not prudent. His audacity in seizing opportunity is not matched by integrity or constancy. That caught up with him because, sooner or later, it always does.