Boris johnson

'Them’s the breaks'. Those three words speak volumes about Boris Johnson’s ability, his character and his fears. The words show Johnson retains the talents that made him a successful columnist. I know a lot of people don’t like this, but he was a good columnist, in the sense that he consistently said things that people were interested in hearing and talking about. Amid the eternal babble of the media, being able to find a phrase, a word, a sentence or a paragraph that captures attention and captures ideas – consistently – is no small skill. 'Them’s the breaks' is already doing exactly what its author intended. It’s becoming the headline on stories about Johnson’s departure from No. 10.

A brutal encounter at the Liaison Committee this afternoon. Boris was grilled for two hours by a gang of aggressive MPs, (many of them Tories), who were drooling and panting for him to quit. But it wasn’t until the final moments that the session caught fire. Darren Jones took the first chunk out of the PM.  ‘How’s your week going?’ asked the Labour MP mildly. ‘Terrific, like many other weeks.’ ‘Did Michael Gove come in and tell you to resign today?’ ‘I’m here to talk about what the government is doing.’ Boris brushed off a similar attack from the SNP’s Angus MacNeil. ‘The game’s up. Will you still be prime minister tomorrow?

The government's line yesterday on what Boris Johnson knew about Chris Pincher's behaviour kept changing. Today, it's quite hard to find anything that could reasonably be described as a 'line'. More of a messy scribble. After Simon McDonald's explosive intervention this morning, the 'line' had to change from Boris Johnson not being informed of any specific complaints, because now there was a report of an official complaint which McDonald alleges the Prime Minister was indeed briefed on. So what did it change to? As ever in these circumstances, Michael Ellis, the minister for defending the indefensible and holding lines even as they change, made his way into the chamber to answer an urgent question on the matter.

Boris Johnson has never been afraid of expressing himself but he might well have regretted his verbosity yesterday when he had a rather awkward encounter at the Nato summit in Madrid. As Johnson sat at the summit table, a tall figure loomed over him and gripped the Prime Minister's back. Johnson turned around to be greeted by Turkish President Recep Erdogan, with whom he, er, has some previous history. For back in 2016 when Boris was a humble backbencher, The Spectator ran an offensive limerick competition. Its aim was to poke fun at Erdogan who, at the time, was trying to prosecute a German comedian over a rude poem. Johnson submitted his suggestion and won the £1,000 prize. His five line effort went as follows: There was a young fellow from Ankara, Who was a terrific wankerer.

Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she will not contemplate breaching the rule of law by holding an independence referendum was pretty blatant trolling of Boris Johnson, given the multiple allegations he faces of being less than scrupulous in following domestic and international law. But Sturgeon also put Johnson and the Tory party in a tight corner by asking the Lord Advocate to petition the Supreme Court in London to determine the legality of a referendum. If the Supreme Court rules her way, then there will be the mother of all constitutional crises if Boris Johnson continues to reject the lawfulness of any vote by the Scottish parliament to hold a poll on 19 October 2023.