Boris Johnson.
The same Boris Johnson who spear-headed the Leave campaign and then announced he would not run to lead the country through Brexit when it became apparent things might get a bit tricky.
The former Mayor of London outlined five points he thinks the next leader of the Conservative Party needs to consider when negotiating Brexit just three days after ruling himself out as the man to do it.
In his weekly column for The Telegraph published on Sunday evening and titled “Boris Johnson: Project Fear ‘hysteria’ is gripping Britain”, the former Mayor of London took a combative stance against those who have campaigned against the result of the EU referendum.
Speaking of the crowds who gathered outside his house in the wake of the referendum, he wrote: “On Friday I heard a new dawn chorus outside my house.
“There was a rustling and twittering, as though of starlings assembling on a branch. Then I heard a collective clearing of the throat, and they started yodelling my name – followed by various expletives. “Oi Boris – c—-!” they shouted.
“Or “Boris – w——-!” I looked out to see some otherwise charming-looking young people, the sort who might fast to raise money for a Third World leprosy project.”
Johnson’s decision to drop out of the leadership race stunned British politics since most assumed the former London mayor would be a shoo-in for the the job - and becoming Prime Minister - after last week’s vote to leave the EU.
But everything changed when Gove, who led the Vote Leave campaign with Johnson, announced this morning his intention to succeed David Cameron - despite repeatedly saying he wouldn’t.
At the end of the press conference where everyone present expected him to announce his bid, Johnson said:
“Having consulted colleagues and in view of the circumstances in parliament, I have concluded that that person cannot be me.”
Speaking of the crowds who gathered outside his house in the wake of the referendum, Johnson wrote: “On Friday I heard a new dawn chorus outside my house.
“There was a rustling and twittering, as though of starlings assembling on a branch. Then I heard a collective clearing of the throat, and they started yodelling my name – followed by various expletives. “Oi Boris – c—-!” they shouted.
“Or “Boris – w——-!” I looked out to see some otherwise charming-looking young people, the sort who might fast to raise money for a Third World leprosy project.”
Without ever addressing his decision to drop out of the leadership race, Johnson instead muses about the feelings fuelling the remain camp.
So what was it about? People’s emotions matter, even when they do not seem to be wholly rational. The feelings being manifested outside my house are shared by the large numbers of people – 30,000, they say – who at the weekend came together in Trafalgar Square to hear pro-EU speeches by Sir Bob Geldof. There is, among a section of the population, a kind of hysteria, a contagious mourning of the kind that I remember in 1997 after the death of the Princess of Wales. It is not about the EU, of course; or not solely. A great many of these protesters – like dear old Geldof – are in a state of some confusion about the EU and what it does.
Well, it has been a pretty surreal few days...