The Machiavelli in Number 10

THOSE whose memory has survived the heatwave may recall that not long ago I begged for a thorough clear-out of the ministerial dross – over-promoted by the covert Remainer Theresa May to ensure that Brexit never happened.

Hardly had Boris Johnson reposed his rear end on the Downing Street sofa – the un-wine-stained one – than it began with a vigour that brings to mind Macmillan’s Night of the Long Knives – but more so.

Supermac elbowed nine ministers in a single day. The BoJo has nearly doubled that.

Under May two thirds of the Cabinet stayed Remainers, easily outvoting the Brexiteers and thus ensuring that either they voted against what they believed or resigned. Now at last we can get on with what we voted for three years ago.

Next, I understand, will come the bureaucratic mandarins who believe their towering intellects outmatch our poor brains.

Should I get down from my top shelf my dog-eared copy of Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince? He offered advice so impressive that I memorised it back in my youth. “It should be noted,” he wrote centuries ago, “that men must be either caressed or annihilated. They will avenge themselves of small wrongs but cannot do so of great ones. Be sure therefore that the injury you do to them is such that you need never again fear their vengeance.”

He was advising Lorenzo of Medici. But behind the waffling Etonian act I suspect BoJo knows exactly what he is doing and may even have another dog-eared copy to hand.