By now it should be all over. Boris Johnson should be walking off into the history books - where he will be remembered as the worst Prime Minister in living memory.
Instead, we have him hanging around like a bad smell when the country should be heading to a general election in short order. For the good of the country, he must go and go quickly.
Then, at the first possible opportunity, the new Tory Prime Minister – who will have no mandate to govern – must give the people a chance to have their say on this corrupt, contemptible, chaotic Tory Party. One thing is clear – Boris Johnson was not fit for office.
But the lackeys, losers, liars and lunatics that make up the parliamentary Tory party are just as bad. They supported and sustained Johnson when he was engulfed in scandal after scandal.
They celebrated his election triumph and cheered him to the rafters when it was clear he was a liar and a fraud. Not one of them is fit to lead the UK. Now or ever.
That is the reason the country must get the chance to vote for a new government fit to lead Britain through the cost of living crisis, the Covid recovery and threat of Russian aggression. Even the nature of Johnson’s departure showed the man and the party in a less than flattering light.
He desperately clung to power until he was forced to resign. When even the most abjectly loyal sheepdog Ministers told him his time was up, he finally realised the game was up.
So there he was, dragged out of Downing Street by his shirt collar and wailing it was all so unfair. His departure was typically petulant.
It wasn’t the lies, the flouting of the rules, the curse of Dominic Cummings, the care home deaths, the bodies piling high, or shielding a sexual predator in government that was the cause of his downfall. It was the “herd instinct” of the Tory party that did for him, or so he claimed.
But his final act of self-serving graft is his decision to remain as Prime Minister until the Autumn. Instead of skulking off stage like he ought to, the charlatan is attempting to stay on in office so he can use Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, for his Covid-delayed wedding.
That “herd” of Tory MPs should turf him out now and clear the smell of sleaze, entitlement and arrogance out of Downing Street and bring an end to this shameful period of the UK’s political story. The two-and-half years of Johnson were not an era, or an epoch, they were a blockage in the sewage system of Britain.
His cack-handed response to a global pandemic and shredding of the UK’s reputation on the international stage will not be easily forgotten or forgiven. The Tories knew when they chose Johnson they had backed a snake-oil salesman who could overpromise and never deliver, a jester who convinced people he was “world king”.
He is now squatting in Downing Street like a lame duck when what the country needs is to be rid of him and to move on. The Conservative replacement contest should be short and sweet.
The true chaos is not the alternative to Johnson but the continuation of the government which has done lasting damage to the country. Just because he is gone doesn’t make the rogues’ gallery of alternative Prime Ministers any more appealing.
All of them in the Tory government mishandled the Covid pandemic that left, at one stage, Britain recording the highest death toll in Europe and suffering the greatest economic setback in the G7. All of them were complicit in his cynical attitude to the public, a rule-breaking entitlement that is being paid back in a deep and long-lasting mistrust of politics.
There is no moral high ground for the Tories to look back on during Johnson’s misrule. Whoever wins the contest for the Conservative crown should not escape their responsibility.
There must be an immediate general election to restore some integrity and trust into politics. The stench left by this Johnson government will not clear quickly.
But getting the Tories packed-off into opposition in a general election would be a good start.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
