Just the other day, I was trying to remember when I first heard about Boris Johnson. I can recall a Youtube video of him going around showing him rugby tackling a German chap in a charity football match and everyone thinking it was funny. At that point, I just thought he was a harmless but slightly embarrassing clown. That must have been at some point in the noughties, I guess?

As the years passed, I heard more and more tales from those who had worked with him that he was much more than a harmless funster. The buffoonery was just an act and he was more a backstabber, a user and habitual liar with power in his sights. This was of grave concern amongst many Conservatives in both the media and in his own party.

The Rule Breaking Turncoat

To have someone who is willing to break rules and lie profusely to find a path to being a Prime Minister, is only going to create chaos. The public saw (or should have) this in action when Johnson deserted the remain camp to back leaving the EU. This was because he saw an opportunity to unseat a vulnerable looking David Cameron. It’s clear that if Cameron was a leave campaigner, Johnson would have backed remaining.

What sort of leader is that? How could a nation deserve to be led by someone who will jeopardise the economy and our world standing just to oust an Etonian rival? Of course, like in The Jam song, Eton Rifles, when it all went wrong for Cameron, he ran off home for his tea. Johnson’s job was not complete though, he needed Theresa May to deal with the chaos and fail. Then he could claim he was the man to sort it out.

The plan was to do a deal that would be accepted by the EU but dangerous for the UK. He would then attempt to rip it up when, inevitably, he couldn’t make it work. ‘Getting Brexit Done’ was one of Johnson’s biggest and most dangerous lies, yet people bought it. Why? I don’t know, as I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist.

X-factor Buffoonery

I can only think that the people who bought into his buffoonery and saw him as an X Factor campaigner, are in denial. Perhaps they have been suckered and don’t want to accept that they have fallen for the lie. Denialism, fanaticism, cultism, call it what you like, but it exists in Johnson supporters in the way it did with Donald Trump.

Then there are the bullshitters. You know the type. Bar stool philosophers who won’t let the truth get in the way of a story about the mugger they beat up, the cracking bit of stuff they shagged umpteen times, or the amount of money they wouldn’t get out of bed for. Teenage stuff that most of us indulged in but grew out of as our front cortex developed and logic replaced impulse.  

Every one of them that I still know through work, or in an ancient social circle, are Johnson supporters. Every single one. Johnson has legitimised them. He is the public schoolboy bullshitter who they look up to as their champion. If the Prime Minister can live a life of preposterous lies and deceit, why can’t they? Everything comes from the top.

Unfolding Chaos

The chaos that comes with impulsive populism is now unfolding. Johnson has lost support that he won’t get back. Floating voters have seen through the lies and walked away. Many of them won’t admit that they once supported Johnson and I don’t blame them. Getting fooled is horrible. It is something we have all experienced at some point. It’s humiliating and from experience I can understand why denial is an option.

The bullshitters, however, are going nowhere. They will back Johnson to the death. They are invested in him like a religious cult. He is their liar, and no cost-of-living crisis will change their minds. That will be someone else’s fault. That’s where 65% of the voting population have a problem. 35% of the British electorate is all Johnson needs as the 65% is divided. Unless Johnson admits to being a transexual whilst setting alight to Labrador puppies live on TV, I don’t know how that percentage will be reduced to anything other than a hung parliament.

Johnson is the King of the stunted front cortex.