Boris Johnson’s claims about being ‘forced out’ of parliament are simply false – here’s why: In characteristically dramatic fashion, Boris Johnson let the world know he would be standing down as an MP by publishing a letter claiming he was the victim of a witch hunt and establishment stitch up. Ahead of the publication of …
Boris Johnson’s evidence to MPs’ partygate investigation: the key points of disagreement explained: Last year, noted philosopher Rebekah Vardy remarked of fellow scholar Coleen Rooney: Arguing with Coleen is like arguing with a pigeon. You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong but it’s still going to shit in your hair. …
Boris Johnson’s pandemic legacy – where he went wrong managing COVID (and some things he got right): The UK sees a change of leadership on September 6 2022, with Liz Truss selected by Conservative Party members to replace Boris Johnson as the UK prime minister. Johnson’s term of course coincided with the emergence of the …
Five quotes that define Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister: Lingtren.com / Shutterstock Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister comes to an end next week, giving us all a chance to consider what his legacy will be. More than his predecessors, Johnson owed his premiership to his reputed ability to persuade audiences other Conservatives couldn’t, …
Boris Johnson’s ignominious end: the difference between ‘big tent’ politics and personalised populism: Following an excruciating few days when many of his colleagues left his cabinet over yet another scandal, Boris Johnson finally resigned on July 7 as leader of the Conservative party. As the UK is a parliamentary democracy, he continues as caretaker prime …
Boris Johnson’s claim of a ‘mandate’ from the people isn’t accurate – here’s how prime ministers really get power: Boris Johnson’s time as Conservative party leader has come to an end, after a chaotic week marked by rebellion from his cabinet. But despite the wave of resignations and calls from his top ministers to step …
Boris Johnson’s nightmare day: how to read between the lines in resignation letters from government ministers: Over the course of an extraordinary 24 hours, dozens of Conservative MPs have written to Boris Johnson to announce their resignation from his government following multiple scandals. Many of these letters were published on social media for all to …
Keir Starmer: what Labour leader could learn from Neil Kinnock to capitalise on Boris Johnson’s woes: Although prime minister Boris Johnson is suffering a potentially career-ending crisis after only narrowly surviving a confidence vote in his leadership, his struggles don’t necessarily appear to be translating into a surge for the Labour opposition. A recent poll …
I correctly predicted the vote on Boris Johnson’s leadership – here’s how I did it: It would be nice to claim that the near complete accuracy of my prediction of the result of the Conservative Party’s vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson was a glorious triumph of dedicated political science: I predicted that 211 …
Boris Johnson’s future: a philosophical exercise for wavering Tory MPs: UK Parliament/Flickr, CC BY-NC Former British prime minister David Cameron famously proclaimed in 2010 that the thought of giving prisoners the vote made him “physically ill”. Cameron argued that “frankly, when people commit a crime and go to prison, they should lose their rights, including …
Boris Johnson’s leadership: the moral contagion can only be stopped with his resignation: UK Government What is the difference between taking responsibility and bearing responsibility? The former is what the prime minister, Boris Johnson, keeps telling us he is doing. But the latter is what Sue Gray says senior figures at the heart of government …
Boris Johnson’s bad behaviour: how declining trust in the prime minister affects trust in British democracy: A seemingly endless cycle of scandals has come to define Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister. This has peaked in recent months with the revelations about lockdown parties in Downing Street and Johnson being fined by police for his …
Partygate Revisited: why Boris Johnson’s Downing Street is starting to sound like an Evelyn Waugh novel: When allegations arose some years ago that former prime minister David Cameron had behaved obscenely with a pig’s head during a Bullingdon Club event while at the University of Oxford, he distanced himself from the controversial group, saying: These …
Whitehall’s centralised system can’t deliver Boris Johnson’s promises to ‘level up’: Alexandre Rotenberg / Shutterstock The government’s levelling up strategy to tackle regional inequality promises a “revolution in local democracy”. It seeks to do this largely through regional devolution – setting up more localised governments with their own mayors to give greater autonomy and power …
Levelling up: four problems with Boris Johnson’s flagship project: The UK government has revealed its plan to level up the country – a white paper setting out policies to tackle inequality between places. The plan comes at a defining moment. It’s widely seen as the key to holding on to the constituencies that delivered victory …
Four key takeaways from the ‘partygate’ investigation into Boris Johnson’s Downing Street: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologised after a report exposed failings of leadership and behaviour in Downing Street during pandemic lockdowns that was “not appropriate”. While the report was significantly shorter than had been initially expected, four takeaway points merit attention. 1. Not …
A linguist analyses Boris Johnson’s apology: Over the past month, the government crisis of “partygate” has escalated with every new headline about potential lockdown breaches by government staff. Plenty of experts have focused on guidelines and laws relevant to these alleged events, but the ongoing controversy has also been peculiarly linguistic in nature. Journalists and …
Boris Johnson’s Downing Street party apology: three key takeaways: Following mounting pressure and incontrovertible evidence, prime minister Boris Johnson has for the first time admitted that he attended a gathering in the garden of Downing Street in May 2020 – during the UK’s first national COVID lockdown and at a time when group gatherings were …