So much of what made Boris Johnson such an effective politician from an American point of view was that he himself was in on the joke. He was able to brush off scandal after scandal, such as his serial philandering, his partying during Covid-19 as the rest of Britain remained locked down, and the general fact that the top of his head resembles the bottom of a hockey rink zamboni — all because he wore himself lightly.
That explains how he skated through scandal in a way that Donald Trump could never — until he couldn’t. For a certain type of upper-class man, everything is a game because they never have to live with the consequences of their actions.
