Boris Johnson has announced that he will not stand for the leadership of the Tory Party.
This after he most probably delivered the leave campaign their victory in the recent referendum. I suppose the early indications were that he was content to put the Country into a position of social and economic uncertainty for years to come but not take responsibility for what he had done when he was so keen to have Cameron stay on.
I imagine Cameron could have taken the view of Johnson and others that they should take responsibility for what they have done when he resigned.
The EU referendum may turn out to be the most damaging act of democracy the Country has experienced and he is walking away from it - did he recognise that he could not deliver what he promised?
A vote is a valid democratic process - but its success should be measured by more than it's delivering a verdict - it needs to be a satisfying for most of those on both sides. I know a good number of people where I live are still angry about what has happened. This win or lose - even by one vote - referendum to decide the future of this Country for years to come was put in place for cynical political reasons with a reckless assumption that the decision would be for remain.
The tone of the campaigns have done no good for the Country - certainly the Remain campaign contained a lot of warnings of economic problems ahead - arguably too many. But these may yet come true, only time will tell.
The Leave campaign - led by Johnson - did rely on a fear of foreigners and the idea of the 'other'. Even if the worst of it was voiced by Farage - his warnings of sexual assault by immigrants - his pictures of immigrants on posters.
Johnson may not have agreed with Farage but he enabled him and UKIP to win. If there has been an increase in racist attacks since the Brexit vote - then this is also something Johnson has helped deliver - even if that is not something he would have wanted.
Lets not forget that Jo Cox MP lost her life during the campaign - not something any of the Leave leadership would have wanted - but it happened in a polarised campaign. If her murder was not about the campaign then it is a strange co-incidence.
The side I supported lost and the Leave campaign won - but I have stood for elections before and learned to accept that sometimes you win - sometimes you lose. But this referendum has left a lot of people angry up and down the Country. Even some of the Leave supporters are beginning to complain that what they were promised may not be delivered.
Johnson supporters are on the radio right now heaping praise on him - for what - walking away having made all this happen? It seems to me he is a giant child who broke something and now wants to walk away and avoid responsibility.
Many decent people took the view that we were better off out of the EU and they were and are entitled to a view on how immigration is addressed in this Country. But - I can't help thinking that the Leave campaign may have won because Boris Johnson looked like a man who could provide the the leadership they wanted and that he would stick around to deliver it - not just the leave campaigners but for all of us? Without that thought they may not have voted for Leave.
So - his leadership is just something else he is not going to deliver as promised to the leave campaign - along with many other promises on immigration and the certainty of a better future for the Country.