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Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Bestselling Political Biography of the Year

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After worrying in his first few months that he would end up being the briefest PM in history ( that honour fell to his successor, on whom Seldon is presumably only preparing a pamphlet rather than a full book), Johnson then assumed that with Brexit done, life would be relatively plain-sailing. Battles for the ear of this shallow and capricious monarch turned his court into the scene of constant internecine struggle between the ever-shifting factions within the building. After the fall of Dominic Cummings, we hear Johnson whingeing about his inability to find the personnel or the structures to make his government functional, but several inside accounts suggest that he relished being at the centre of the tornado of chaos. Rather than take any responsibility upon himself, he would deflect blame for decisions he feared might be unpopular – and did not hesitate to use even his wife for that pathetic purpose. In the words of one courtier: “He would tell us that she was impossible to deal with and he couldn’t control her and she would do whatever she wanted. Then he’d go upstairs and tell her that we were impossible and he couldn’t control us. He liked to pour petrol on both sides and see what happened to the fire.”

Johnson at 10 rings with disapproval at Boris’s endless Johnson at 10 rings with disapproval at Boris’s endless

Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell’s impressive account of Boris Johnson’s chaotic reign lays bare a man utterly unfit to hold the highest office No such problems here. The writing is taut and businesslike and there are almost no stylistic blemishes to make me wince. But of course the adolescent “disruptors” that Johnson was amused and supported by had no interest in that work. Their goal was either personal enrichment or, in Cummings’s case, the application of that Silicon Valley mantra “to move fast and break things”. Disruptive change can work in the commercial sector because you are replacing one product or technology with another in a limited market. One lesson of Seldon’s book is that to apply that idea to government is a fundamental misunderstanding of what government is. Degrading and destroying institutions is not the way to reform them. If you have been paying any attention to the British political landscape over the last seven years nothing in this detailed book will come as any surprise at all.A myth peddled that he was the best leader given the toughest brief and any failures are to do with others (Trump often blames is failures on his predecessors). Evidence proves his personal floors were such even if he had become PM at the 1st time of asking, it would likely still have been a disaster.

Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Instant Sunday Times Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Instant Sunday Times

The book describes how after the 2019 election Cummings assumed universal power across government as Brexit and then the pandemic unfolded. (Johnson at one point raged impotently that: “I am meant to be in control. I am the führer. I’m the king who takes the decisions.”) Unwilling to confront his chief of staff directly, it is said that Johnson frequently employed the excuse that he was subject to the “mad and crazy” demands of Carrie, his fiancee upstairs. (In response to the book a spokesperson for Johnson described that allegation as “malevolent and sexist twaddle”.) Johnson was clearly a man unfit to govern. He was lazy; his attention was spasmodic; he chose to be surrounded by people who would not challenge him; he was unable to make decisions effectively; he was often torn between what Carrie, his wife, would say, what his advisers were advising and what he felt ought to be done; he did not cultivate his MPs; his inclinations were at odds with the influential (and obstinate) Conservative right-wingers; he was a liar, arrogantly self-confident, inconsistent to the exasperation of his aides and advisers, often unbriefable, utterly casual over detail… And so on and so forth. He was a vortex of chaos, and No 10 became one as well without the kind of clear and consistent leadership that makes for an effective administration. The heart of government was, in fact, under Johnson, dysfunctional.The most dispiriting thing about reading the book is that dawning sense that all your worst imaginings about the conduct of that government were, it seems, played out in real time. Seldon argues that the double act in the oven-ready years of prorogation and Barnard Castle really did deserve each other, even if none of us deserved them. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Cummings also barred Johnson from meeting Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, it states. “It was a very odd insight into the mentality of No 10 and resulted in a grovelling phone call of apology,” said Brady. “Cummings had contempt for our MPs and thought that we should be grateful for being in government, for the general election result, and that our job was now merely to behave.” A desperate desire to hold court/power over his court. In some way BJ revelled in the chaos of having three different factions within his team, as shown by the story of Carrie and DC. It actually gave him protection and an ability to blame others. Similar to Hitler, who was well aware of the egos/dislike many German generals had for one another. Anthony Seldon published his Cameron at 10 book when David Cameron was still in Number 10. It made for uncomfortable reading for the then prime minister, with its analysis of who the man in charge was and well-sourced revelations about how he made policy.

Johnson’s incompetence Plumbing the depths of Boris Johnson’s incompetence

BJ was brilliant at feigning ignorance, sometimes to hide when he actually was ignorant. In Sept 2020, when discussing the trade deal, it was starting to dawn on BJ what leaving the customs union meant. “No no Frosty, what happens with a deal?”. Frost replies “PM this is what happens with a deal, that’s what leaving the customs union means”. (A side point, only in 1820 did the US realise that leaving the British empire was beneficial (they left in 1776)). Who knows, Brexit could be beneficial in 50 years? BJ, as written earlier was a very good chair of meetings when he wanted to. At the G7, he had not read his briefing papers, but still managed to survive and almost thrive. How did Johnson despise the Conservative Parliamentary Party with a number of his own MPs doubting he was a Conservative with his high-spending and interventionist views? Sir Anthony Seldon’s verdict on Boris Johnson has made headlines even before his book, Johnson at 10, written with Raymond Newell, is published on Thursday. Here are ten things we learnt from his study of the former prime minister. Johnson’s inadequacies meant that Cummings was perhaps a necessary evil. To the extent that Johnson had priorities, he could achieve little without Cummings’s support. The prime minister was incapable of determining what he wanted to achieve and how to achieve it and needed someone else to do the work. He did not understand the detail and could not be bothered to master it.The authors do apportion some praise as well as criticism. His greatest accomplishments were on global issues where broad brush strokes were needed and not the fine detail he struggles with. Getting a deal on Brexit, Net Zero and Ukraine is what he'll be remembered for. With the right team and without Covid (which saw off Trump too) he could have been a better PM, but his decision-making around appointments sounds consistently poor. Upon seeing the manifesto BJ was furious that none of his ambition/ideas was inserted – which is another reason why his premiership failed so badly. The manifesto did not actually contain any policies on levelling up/BJ hated it. He did not realise that it was designed to purely secure victory and be as risk free as possible – undermining his claim that he had a mandate from the British people. Carrie Simmons became increasingly involved in the campaign, and was worries about the impact that skipping an Andrew Neil interview would have. BJ to her face agreed to do the interview, only to turn around to Cain and DC and say to their face, you are correct we must not do the interview. This demonstrated a key trait of BJ and why he never could build a successful team around him because he could never trust anyone (which DC loved as it gave him more power. DC would regularly talk about the need to have a good team, but knew this would expose his own weaknesses). Grove Press An imprint of Grove Atlantic, an American independent publisher, who publish in the UK through Atlantic Books. People we spoke to were afraid of Cummings, personal fear,” he says. “And to an extent of the whole Johnson court. In the seven books I’ve written, we saw some fear of some of the people around Gordon Brown, but this was off the scale. And that’s a deeply unhealthy facet of modern government that you let in people who are using fear as a method of control. Quite a lot of that was misogynistic in what we saw.” How did Johnson play upstairs-downstairs between his Cabinet and his new wife, Carrie? To what extent did Johnson prefer infighting rather than coherent government?

‘I am the führer. I’m the king’: new book lifts lid on life

Politics Inside 24 hours of Westminster chaos as Boris Johnson tried to spin the Sue Gray report to MPs Read More Sixteen years ago, while he was Conservative MP for Henley but before he became London’s mayor, Boris Johnson appeared on a chat show hosted by Dame Edna Everage. The clip was circulating on social media last weekend after the death of Barry Humphries.

Johnson was a gifted orator and writer but he was hopeless at converting his woolly ideas in substance. With Johnson trust was temporary, what he believed in really was mistrust. He wanted to run No 10 with responsibilities fuzzed, everyone distrusting each other, currying favour and owing their loyalty to Johnson alone - very similar to another politician of recent times. This mirthless farce had tragic real-world consequences. Utterly unsuited to handling a crisis as grave as the pandemic, his endless prevarications and about-turns cost lives. “He wildly oscillated in what he thought,” observes one official. “In one day he would have three meetings in which he would say three completely different things depending on who was present, and then deny that he had changed his position.” His personal brush with Covid encouraged some to think it might prompt a reform of his behaviour. They were disappointed. Even coming near to death couldn’t remedy character flaws that were so deeply ingrained. He had no clue how to be an effective prime minister and no idea what he wanted to do with the role other than satisfy his lust for its status and perks. One of his cabinet ministers, who was also a friend, is quoted saying: “Boris absolutely loved being prime minister, its prestige and the trappings. He revelled in it… His philosophy on the way up had been to do, pledge, say anything to get over the line because I’m the best, I deserve it. Now I’m here in No 10 without any core beliefs, I can do and say whatever I need to remain here.” Johnson deliberately stuffed his cabinets with mediocrities who knew they were expected to be “nodding dogs” Appointing capable senior ministers might have compensated for some of his weaknesses. Johnson deliberately stuffed his cabinets with mediocrities who knew they were expected to be “nodding dogs” and whom he disdained as “the stooges”. “We don’t want young, hungry lions”, an aide recalls him saying when Rishi Sunak proved to be a less pliable and more popular chancellor than Johnson had anticipated. The second moment was when Johnson ‘told his startled officials “Put down in 3,000 words what you think my foreign policy should be.”’

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