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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
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Petronella Wyatt

Boris can’t stop lying any more than he can stop blinking. It’s involuntary

Petronella Wyatt

(Picture: Dave Benett)

Boris Johnson’s predicament is as inevitable as the asp at Cleopatra’s breast. Boris, who is an old friend of mine, has a penchant for the classics and one only wishes he had paid them more heed. His career has a symmetry with the plotlines of Oedipus and the Iliad. The very moment he became Prime Minister, Johnson was destined to fail. 

Human beings are sort of one-lunged animals. If they show one valuable quality, it is almost unheard of for them to show another. Give someone a head, and they lack a heart. The artist, nine times out of 10, is a deadbeat given to debauchery. The professional patriot is a bigot, and the man of physical bravery is often on a level, intellectually, with a glow worm. 

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