The History Boy

There are many things to despise about this newspaper headline and the antics of Boris Johnson below it.

One is the poverty of the historical analogy.

Another is that the one right-wing newspaper which sometimes shows that non-political conservatism is at root a decent thing should present it in the manner of its guttersnipe half-siblings.

Then there is the contempt Johnson deserves from any decent person living on this island, on the European continent or anywhere else, made worse because he's clearly angling to become our Prime Minister. Shame on him, on us if we ever elect him, and on any foreign politician who then fails to remind him of what he said today.

Worst for me is that Johnson, here displaying all the faux-sauciness and cynical ease of manner which so often masks the ruthless ambition of the English public schoolboy, is actually a published historian.

As an American newspaperman once said, "No one ever went broke by underestimating the public's intelligence."

I hope to God he was wrong but I fear he may not have been.