As a lifelong wordsmith, Boris Johnson chooses his references with acute care. Which is why he quoted The Lion King (“change is good”) during an emergency pep talk to his remaining No 10 staff last Friday.
Which of history’s many lions is he really, I wondered when I heard that. Simba, the Disney film’s hero who emerges from the desert to slay his enemies? Or is he Marjan, Afghanistan’s last lion, and the saddest sight I ever saw.