As I watched Boris Johnson grind through his response to Sue Gray’s interim report in the Commons yesterday afternoon — his irritation mounting, his brief statement of contrition long supplanted by visible defiance, his exasperation far outweighing his capacity to listen — I was reminded of famous words from another century.
The words, in fact, of the US Army chief counsel, Joseph Welch, to Senator Joseph McCarthy, in June 1954: “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
