This was an explosive book! The tell all details of Boris Johnson's short reign as Prime Minister of what was once a first world country but which is now rapidly becoming a third world country, and all deepened by the rule of a short term egotistical man. Battles for the ear of this shallow and capricious monarch turned his court into the scene of constant internecine struggle between the ever-shifting factions within the building. After the fall of Dominic Cummings, we hear Johnson whingeing about his inability to find the personnel or the structures to make his government functional, but several inside accounts suggest that he relished being at the centre of the tornado of chaos. Rather than take any responsibility upon himself, he would deflect blame for decisions he feared might be unpopular – and did not hesitate to use even his wife for that pathetic purpose. In the words of one courtier: “He would tell us that she was impossible to deal with and he couldn’t control her and she would do whatever she wanted. Then he’d go upstairs and tell her that we were impossible and he couldn’t control us. He liked to pour petrol on both sides and see what happened to the fire.”

Johnson, a clown at No 10 The inside story of Boris Johnson, a clown at No 10

We can agree on that much, I suggest. But does he really think that the lessons of Johnson’s government have been learned?Cummings ultimately left Downing Street in November 2020 after losing out in a power struggle with Carrie Johnson. However, officials told Seldon that both Cummings and the former prime minister’s wife were used by Johnson to deflect responsibility. On occasions he could show substance, a sense of the necessity of forensic attention to detail, and exhibit firm and purposeful chairmanship and focused hard work, but rarely and only when the subject matter had absorbed his interest. But, as the authors point out, occasional, unpredictable manifestations of these qualities are, in a Prime Minister, inadequate to ensure good government. Johnson remains, in the authors’ concluding words, a man ‘with the potential, the aspirations and the opportunity to be one of Britain’s great Prime Ministers. His unequivocal exclusion from that club can be laid at the feet of no one else, but himself.’ Events have flowed so bizarrely over the past four years that it's easy to become confused. This book is going to be a godsend to people writing about this era because the authors have recorded the views and thoughts of the participants before time and hindsight rewrite them.

Johnson administration Extracts from new book shed light on Boris Johnson administration

There are a couple of points to be said in Johnson’s favour. He did win an election with a clear majority, which is a notable achievement even in the supposedly decisive British system (helped of course by the incompetence at the time of Labour and the Lib Dems). He was seriously committed to Net Zero, and was ready to argue the toss on climate with sceptics in his own party, though less good at doing the preparatory legwork for the Glasgow COP meeting. He came in early and strong on Ukraine’s side in the war, and helped consolidate the G7 and NATO in support. (Though there too, the UK is a smaller player compared to the US and the EU.) This book is truly an eye opener as to the inner workings of a government in crisis from the day Johnson came into power, a man in his own eyes who could do no wrong or make no wrong decisions, instead he was making them daily. History will not remember him kindly, nor should it, as I said in my first sentence we are a country now lower in world statistics in virtually all areas since Johnson was elected to power. The conservative party are still in disarray even though he has left. The next government whoever it may be has a very very long road to go down to bring us to where we were a decade or so ago, and with no extra money in the pot. I am now so disillusioned with government and democracy as I cannot see which political party can get us out of the mess that was Boris and take us forward. Having been fired from every job he has ever done, apart from serving as Mayor of London, did we really expect Boris Johnson to act any differently as PM? This mirthless farce had tragic real-world consequences. Utterly unsuited to handling a crisis as grave as the pandemic, his endless prevarications and about-turns cost lives. “He wildly oscillated in what he thought,” observes one official. “In one day he would have three meetings in which he would say three completely different things depending on who was present, and then deny that he had changed his position.” His personal brush with Covid encouraged some to think it might prompt a reform of his behaviour. They were disappointed. Even coming near to death couldn’t remedy character flaws that were so deeply ingrained. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial?How did Johnson play upstairs-downstairs between his Cabinet and his new wife, Carrie? To what extent did Johnson prefer infighting rather than coherent government? Appointing capable senior ministers might have compensated for some of his weaknesses. Johnson deliberately stuffed his cabinets with mediocrities who knew they were expected to be “nodding dogs” and whom he disdained as “the stooges”. “We don’t want young, hungry lions”, an aide recalls him saying when Rishi Sunak proved to be a less pliable and more popular chancellor than Johnson had anticipated. Secondly, it refutes the dangerous myth that Boris Johnson was foiled by a remainer establishment, rather than his own incompetence. His former chief of staff Eddie Lister declares that there is “no evidence that the civil service impeded the delivery of Brexit” and the authors conclude that if Johnson didn’t always get what he wanted from Whitehall, that’s because he led it poorly.

Johnson at 10: The Inside Story by Anthony Seldon | Goodreads Johnson at 10: The Inside Story by Anthony Seldon | Goodreads

What proves that Johnson was never a Brexiteer with no clear or ambitious plan for a post-Brexit Britain? Covid and Cummings are the central two chapters of the book and they complement one another perfectly. Covid would have been difficult for any PM but did not suit Johnson as it commanded too much detail. Cummings ended up running the show, and it was obvious from the daily briefings at the time that officials were having an enormous say in the decision-making during the pandemic. Partygate, the most important of the scandals that finished him, was an appropriate nemesis for such a lawless regime. BJ was brilliant at feigning ignorance, sometimes to hide when he actually was ignorant. In Sept 2020, when discussing the trade deal, it was starting to dawn on BJ what leaving the customs union meant. “No no Frosty, what happens with a deal?”. Frost replies “PM this is what happens with a deal, that’s what leaving the customs union means”. (A side point, only in 1820 did the US realise that leaving the British empire was beneficial (they left in 1776)). Who knows, Brexit could be beneficial in 50 years? BJ, as written earlier was a very good chair of meetings when he wanted to. At the G7, he had not read his briefing papers, but still managed to survive and almost thrive. He lied about Brexit. In particular he was happy to sacrifice the Good Friday Agreement, international treaties and mislead the Queen without ever having an oven ready plan for Brexit or the skills or ability to make one.The related tragedy was the national one, in which we are still living. Whatever you thought of Brexit, Seldon argues – he thought it was a bad idea – it did provide “the overdue opportunity to modernise the British state and Britain’s institutions. There was a desperate need to bring the civil service up to date,” he says. “To forge better connections between universities and public life, to rejuvenate professions.” The second moment was when Johnson ‘told his startled officials “Put down in 3,000 words what you think my foreign policy should be.”’ It is a book to be appreciated for all of the diligent hard work that the authors have put into it though. Thoroughly researched and detailed, the authors make a comprehensive argument for Johnson’s shortcomings, of which there are many (no spoilers there!) and of which the authors are clear! This is the latest in the long and distinguished series of "immediate" accounts of recent British prime ministers. Anthony Seldon is a fine historian of British politics and the constitution. His judgments of political figures are invariably sound and reasonable. So it is with this account of the turbulent premiership of Boris Johnson.

Anthony Seldon on Boris Johnson: ‘At his heart, he is

People we spoke to were afraid of Cummings, personal fear,” he says. “And to an extent of the whole Johnson court. In the seven books I’ve written, we saw some fear of some of the people around Gordon Brown, but this was off the scale. And that’s a deeply unhealthy facet of modern government that you let in people who are using fear as a method of control. Quite a lot of that was misogynistic in what we saw.” Survival by divide and rule and the blame game - even “her upstairs” got to carry the can from time to time! Weak and needy, hence the plethora of advisers, some more dysfunctional than others. Comparisons with other PMs, especially Lloyd George, though the authors see Johnson as a very poor second to the Welsh wizzard. This series about recent prime ministers is one I’ve been meaning to catch up with . This one is a fair and balanced account of an era I don’t love . It’s nuanced about what Johnson is to blame for and what he isn’t , especially with Covid . Could he have been a better leader, if he had paid more attention to his briefs, liaised closer with his own cabinet ministers, MPs and cabinet staff, despite Covid and the war in Ukraine?The tone is much more judgmental too, but really, how could it not be? Like Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson was a political figure whom people either adore or hate. Those in the first group are prepared to overlook his outrageous mendacity, immoral behaviour, and hyprocrisy because he got them what they wanted - most obviously, a massive election victory and Brexit. Those in the latter group could not overlook those flaws whether or not they liked Brexit. And, in the end, those flaws were enough to undo him. During one of many episodes of derangement in Downing Street, Johnson is to be found raving: “I am meant to be in control. I am the führer. I’m the king who takes the decisions.” The would-be great dictator was never in control because he was incapable of performing even some of the most basic functions of a leader.