Every candidate for high office, from the freshest of faces to the grizzliest of incumbents, seeks to pitch themselves as the candidate of change. This hinges on a cursory understanding of human psychology. Life for a lot of people is tough and when it’s not, it’s tedious. Who the heck would vote for a repeat of yesterday?
It shouldn’t work. But Boris Johnson made an art form of it. By 2019, the Conservatives had been in office for nearly a decade. Yet the prime minister managed to convince enough people he was head of a new government, one that was repudiating austerity and poised to secure a fresh deal with the European Union. The electorate rewarded him with an 80-seat majority.
