The British value privacy and discretion, but an exception is made for politics. Everything that is discussed in the corridors and back rooms is, unlike in the Netherlands, on the street in no time. Or, to be more precise, can be read in the Sunday papers. A textbook example was seen in recent days, when the British got insight into what happened during the dramatic fall of Boris Johnson in the bunker at Downing Street.
For example, at one minute to nine on Wednesday evening, Johnson called Michael Gove, the minister who had come by earlier on this chaotic day advising him to resign. “Have you decided to step down?” were the words with which Gove answered. “No, Mikey, buddy,” Johnson replied, “I’m afraid you’re going to do that. I’m going to ask you to step back.” Gove: Prime Minister, if anyone has to back off, it’s you. Johnson would do that, but first wanted to settle an old score with his ‘frenemy’.
The scene is described by Tim Shipmanwhose political reconstructions in The Sunday Times have been part of a Full English† Nobody knows better what goes on behind the scenes than ‘Shippers’. He has an eye for details and drama. For example, he noted that a Downing Street adviser compared Johnson’s bravado on that night to an aria from La Bohemein which Mimi, the tuberculosis-stricken heroine, fearlessly sings to death.
Elsewhere in the review, there are subtle comments, such as the statement that Johnson is the third Conservative prime minister to be brought down by Johnson, after David Cameron and Theresa May. Another official noted that the Conservative Party has “finally developed group immunity” against the phenomenon Johnson, a politician long thought to be “too big to fail.” A play about what happened this week in Westminster will be showing in the West End at some point.
The screenwriter can also draw on other newspapers. That’s where the evocative term Ikea cabinet popped up, a reference to the speed with which Johnson had assembled a new cabinet. The readers of the Mail on Sunday could not only hear what was going on, so to speak, but also smell it. Andrew Pierce knew after all that vegetarian curries were eaten in the Thatcher Room, with samosas and papadums. A harbinger of Rishi Sunak’s premiership?
The Sunday Telegraph describes how the loyal minister of Scotland had tried to comfort his boss. “You’re often too nice,” Alister Jack claimed, “and now you’re paying the price. You’re loyal, maybe too loyal, and you’ll get paid for that too. And you’re not afraid of anyone, the best quality imaginable.’ Johnson heard the eulogy, but didn’t want to show any emotion. “I think we’ll have to plow through, Alister, before I have to pull out my onion.”
Behind the bravado hide the emotions. We know this thanks to his sister Rachel, who spoke on the popular TV radio station LBC about “a great loss” for her brother. ‘He was not born in luxury’, she tried to correct the image of a spoiled rich man’s son, ‘his privilege was in his education, his intelligence, his drive, his energy.’ The members of the Johnson clan like to entertain the British with arguments, about Brexit for example, but in difficult times they close ranks.
Publicly, of course.
Patrick van IJzendoorn is a correspondent in London.