Boris sets the bar high – and we’re all braced for the storm

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

So Boris Johnson is Britain’s new Prime Minister – but you’d hardly say the dust is settling now after a marathon campaign. If anything, the storm is only coming over the horizon now.  He has set out his stall without equivocation – he’ll deliver Brexit, unite the country, defeat Jeremy Corbyn and energise the nation.

The problem is that his whole career to date has been founded on mendacity and deception and lies.

He’s already been written off by the ‘sensible’ and rational press, principally on the very reasonable basis that he can’t be relied on, that he has no principles and is incompetent. He cannot plan and is hopeless at managing his time or others – indeed all his energies are devoted to burnishing his own image.

He is also a womaniser and serial cheat, who has treated some of his former partners less than honourably.

His critics say he was a disaster as foreign secretary, too lazy to read his briefs, not on top of the issues, not interested in many of the issues.

For all that, Jeremy Hunt was never going to derail him. The only person with potential to do that was Michael Gove, his erstwhile ally.

In the final round of the elimination contest, there were allegations that some Johnson supporters were told to vote for Hunt for strategic reasons – to ensure he finished ahead of Gove for the final round.

And the other irony is we have seen so little of Johnson during the whole process. His usual sprint to the nearest camera or microphone was not to be seen, as his handlers kept him out of harm’s way in a house in London.

His public appearances were sparing. And whenever he spoke he reminded us of the ballistic residue he leaves every time he opines.

During the debate on ITV, he refused to back the British ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch, who had come under fire from Donald Trump, after secret memoranda he cabled to London about the US President were leaked.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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