The departing
The United States didn’t invent political theater as an institution, but we most certainly excel at it, if the last six years tell us anything.
But even with all the troubles currently facing President Joe Biden, Boris Johnson is stealing the show. The lameduck prime minister of the UK truly is going out in style.
His popular Brexit platform having lifted him to the top of the Conservative Party in 2019, Johnson resigned this month after a series of scandals, but will remain in office until his successor is chosen on Sept. 5.
And Mr. Johnson appears to be applying a loose translation to the concept of “remain in office.” He has largely disappeared from public view and skipped government emergency meetings related to the record heat wave blanketing the British Isles.
Last week, the Associated Press reports, the PM took a ride in a Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jet, after which his office released “Top Gun”-like footage of the flight. That following weekend, Mr. Johnson threw a big shindig at Chequers, the PM’s country house.
Government officials are claiming he has “checked out,” and Labour Party opposition leader Keir Starmer quipped, “I will miss the delusion.”
Mr. Johnson did show up last week for his last Questions to the Prime Minister session in the House of Commons.
Opposition politicians showered him with variations of “good riddance,” according to the AP. The PMQs, as they’re called across the pond, are one of Britain’s most well-known institutions.
They entail the sitting PM standing before members of Parliament and answering their questions. It happens every Wednesday at high noon when the House of Commons is in session. Can you imagine such a scene in D.C.?
The PMQs are must-see TV, thanks to C-SPAN. (Nancy Pelosi’s tearing in half of that State of the Union address has got nothing on them.)
Meanwhile, the two finalists to replace Johnson, from 11 Tory politicians who threw their hat in the ring, are Rishi Sunak, former head of the treasury, and current Foreign Secretary Lizz Truss. Mr. Sunak, whose recent resignation as treasury chief is said to have helped bring down Johnson, has won all four elimination rounds of votes by lawmakers. But pro-Bexit Ms. Truss seems to have the support of the Tory base. Sound familiar?
Whoever succeeds Mr. Johnson will inherit inflation that’s hit 9.4 percent.
For his part, Mr. Johnson did publicly offer some advice to the next PM: Don’t always listen to Treasury, he said. And he characteristically closed his final appearance before Parliament in his own so-called style: “Hasta la vista, baby.”