The Roman Way

So, we have Boris as our PM. but how can 92,000 people choosing him be a mandate for anything? The truth is it isn't, but that's the system we have.

I have to say that I have high hopes of Boris. He may cultivate the bumbling, eccentric image redolent of a PG Wodehouse character, but he's an intelligent bloke whose flaw is that he treats truth and falsehood in in the same cavalier fashion to satisfy his enormous ego; what he said last week has no bearing whatsoever on what he may say or do this week. The days of honest politicians are long gone and with Boris they have simply never existed. His acolytes fawn on his every word and forgive the fact he doesn't exhibit a single, traditional, Conservative value - all because he's funny.

Those who know him well describe him as an internationalist, which doesn't sit well with the Brexit persona. This alone shows that Brexit, for him, is a convenient facade. Neither is he a racist or xenophobe, yet he plays to the racist and xenophobe gallery in pursuit of his goal.

You has to remember he is a classicist - he's studied Greek and Roman history. One also has to remember the phrase attributed to the Roman writer, Juvenal, when commenting on the decline of the Roman Empire; "Panem et circenses," or 'bread and circuses', which was used to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies a population's erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority. I believe Boris has taken the phrase as his mantra - he is, essentially, a one man circus who plays to people's baser instincts and understands what motivates them- well, some of them.

I was hoping Mrs May would do an Alec Douglas-Home on him and recommend someone else as being capable of carrying a parliamentary majority, but she bowed to custom.

The Conservatives are facing a by-election in Brecon and Rhadnorshire and the LibDems are widely predicted to win this seat from the Conservatives, further eroding their already slim majority. All it would then take is for a couple of Remain Conservative PMs to cross the floor and their majority would be wiped out. Or, they could simply threaten to cross the floor unless a 2nd referendum is held, which would leave Johnson as blameless as Pontius Pilate.

As I said, he's not a stupid man and certainly doesn't want to go down in history as the man who oversaw the dissolution of the UK. Nor does he want posterity to remember him as the PM who crashed the economy. He wants a long tenure, but maintaining the position of no deal will ensure it is only short and he is only too aware of this.

Not too much should be read into the appointment of the Dominic Cumminmgs, who masterminded the Leave win, as his strategist. Strategists do what they're paid to do, and all Boris wants is Farage neutralised before he does what he has to in order to ensure a long tenure. Putting arch Brexiteers into your cabinet keeps your enemies close and under control.

Promises of spend, spend, spend should be taken with a pinch of salt. Sure, there may be an initial splurge to quell the masses, but he is fully aware that a hard Brexit would reduce government spending for a long time to come.

We live in very interesting times and this is a ride I'm going to enjoy watching. All hinges of whether Boris' undoubted intelligence can triumph over his twin flaws of a monstrous ego and gargantuan hubris. Also whether he's not afraid to throw the hard Brexiteer, disaster capitalist backers who got him to where he is under a bus.