It has not often been remarked, even before this pandemic, that British democracy had entered an extraordinary period. The present prime minister was selected by his own party, and endorsed by the electorate, on the explicit basis of his incapacity to govern. That is to say, Johnson's character, to whom integrity and diligence are strangers, was known and acknowledged by almost all his colleagues and was a matter of public knowledge, but was not viewed as an obstacle to his holding high office, but as a positive virtue. The clue to this paradox is encapsulated in the election slogan: 'Get Brexit Done.' Johnson was able to pose, in populist fashion (as outlined by the political scientists Cas Mudde and Jan Werner Muller) as the anti-political politician, embodying the 'authentic' instincts of the people against those nitpicking, meddlesome, irksome politicians who seemed intent on frustrating the people's will. (That he never really supported Brexit was conveniently overlooked. As the journalist Andrew Gimson in his biography of Johnson has shown, Johnson's unpublished article in the 'Daily Telegraph' supporting Remain was more convincing than his published article supporting Leave). Johnson's bullying and proroguing of Parliament, his stretching of the Constitution to its limits, his efficiently Stalinist purge of the parliamentary Conservative party, and his cynical exploitation of political divisions, (a strategy masterminded by Cummings) all reinforced this 'narrative' of Johnson as populist hero.
As with Trump, many voters viewed Johnson's obvious personal failings as virtues, because, unlike other politicians, whom voters had assumed for a long time were all cynical and power-hungry, at least he was not hypocritical. As one Wisconsin voter said of Trump in 2016: '"We know we're not going to get any change with Hilary ... A lot of people feel like, let's roll the dice, and we're going to have to put up with a whole bunch of bad stuff, but maybe we'll get some things done with Trump. " ' (Anthony Barnett, 'The lure of greatness: England's Brexit and America's Trump.', (2017) , page 36. It is not inconceivable that many English and Welsh voters had the same sentiment about Johnson.
It is not surprising, therefore, as will be explored in a later blogpost that, in another 'unprecedented' moment for British democracy, Johnson chose his cabinet on the basis of 'kakistocracy' (rule by the least qualified or most incompetent).