I MAY have been first to use the phrase “sellers’ remorse”, during a TalkTV interview on the day Boris surrendered to the mob.
But it was no great feat of clairvoyance. Anyone with half a brain could imagine an unfettered BoJo becoming even larger than life outside Number Ten than he was as PM.
If he was irrepressible within the constraints of high office, just watch him go once set free from executive accountability.
Boris is a force of nature whose freedom to enjoy power without responsibility has only just been unleashed.
Which is not automatically good news for the next Prime Minister — probably Liz Truss — the fourth in six years.
Boris has achieved the fabled status of a tragic giant felled by treacherous pygmies.
His departure will not mark peace between those two irreconcilable factions.
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Indeed the final days of this contest have seen an ominous outbreak of recrimination among Tories who want the race cancelled and the true king returned to his stolen throne.
This fantasy cannot come true — and nor should it.
Restoring the crown would be a disaster for the Conservative Party, for the country and for Boris himself.
Despite his Terminator-style “Hasta la vista, baby”, there’s no coming back.
This won’t stop the Tory blame game growing until it risks blighting not just the next Prime Minister but the Government’s fragile hope of keeping power.
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Unless Boris himself puts an end to the plotting.
I am assuming here that the polls are correct and the new PM will not be Rishi Sunak. Otherwise all bets are off.
How could a Boris-loving party reconcile itself with the man they blame, rightly or wrongly, for his fall?
Yet despite what looks like a landslide victory, not everyone in the Conservative Party loves Lizzie.
For various reasons, dozens of Tory MPs have withheld public support. So a significant minority is at best undecided and at worst hostile.
Some will be waiting for her to unveil her new Cabinet and announce moves to save vulnerable households from the cost-of-living tsunami.
What will she do about the tide of illegal immigration which makes a mockery of our borders? Or to stop the NHS collapsing this winter?
Truss will need all the help she can get.
Will Boris be a good fairy, the leader of his protege’s fan club, or a bad imp looking over her shoulder like Margaret Thatcher, the famous “back seat driver”?
Formidable allies
In four weeks, the next leader faces her first Tory conference — a test for any new PM.
It would be tempting for Boris to steal the limelight — and there will be plenty of it from his adoring fans.
There will be queues around the Birmingham International Centre and standing ovations before he even enters the hall.
But while BoJo may play the buffoon, he is no fool.
He knows the assassins who brought him down are not in the media nor the toothless Labour Party led by “Captain Crasheroonie Snoozefest” Starmer.
They are the Remainers in his own party who have never forgiven him for Brexit.
He can prove them wrong by backing Liz Truss and throwing his formidable weight behind the party in the next General Election, perhaps as early as next year.
Defeat is not inevitable. Inflation is forecast to tumble in 2023. The economy is not doomed to recession. Liz Truss has formidable allies.
She is willing to promote rising talent, with Suella Braverman as new Home Secretary to deal with illegal immigration. And Kemi Badenoch as Education supremo to return discipline to the classroom.
Tough action on energy bills, the NHS, illegal immigration and street violence could swiftly turn the tide.
If so, Labour’s lead would evaporate like summer rain.
It is perfectly possible for the Tories to win a record fifth term in power.
Boris would gain credit for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
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He would face the future with the legacy as a benign statesman loved by all as ex-world king.
Well, he can dream, can’t he?
The truth about lockdowns
THE truth is finally emerging about the Covid lockdown which wrecked the economy, damaged children’s lives and caused more deaths from neglect than from Chinese bat flu.
For many, the abiding memory of those dark days – apart from the Queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral – is reporter Clive Myrie’s dirge of death on the BBC news.
“We’re all scared,” chanted the Grim Reaper as he filmed intensive care patients breathing their last, corpses entering a mortuary and grave diggers preparing final resting places.
Now we are seeing just how the facts were concealed at the highest level, it would be fairer to say “we were all conned”.
Sage “expert” Prof Neil Ferguson panicked ministers by predicted half a million dead in the first wave. His forecast was totally wrong.
When the inquiry is finally held, Ferguson should be called as the first witness.
