It feels like a long time has passed since the prime minister’s ethics adviser resigned. The second ethics adviser, that is: Christopher Geidt. It was only a fortnight ago. The first one, Sir Alex Allan, quit 18 months earlier. That is an aeon in Johnson time – a temporal distortion caused when bad government tumbles out of Downing Street so fast it laps the news cycle. One drama is not over before the next one has begun. Seven days in Johnson time can age you more than a week.
What was the spur for Geidt’s departure? Something to do with steel tariffs. Not lockdown parties? Too slow! Now we’re breaking international law to rip up the Brexit deal. Oh wait, now we’re deporting refugees to Rwanda and railing against human rights law. And what was that about Boris, Carrie and a top job at the Foreign Office? A treehouse at Chequers? £150,000! Someone call the ethics adviser. Oh, there isn’t one.
