There are incredible similarities between the end of Boris Johnson this week and that of Joseph Muscat so many months ago.
Both had been the adulated leaders of their countries but in time the adulation wore off. Boris Johnson committed too many mistakes and tried to lie his way through.
Then in just over 24 hours all his power drained away. No fewer than 21 letters of resignation made their way to Johnson’s post box, an absolute record in British political history.
He wriggled and turned this way and that, he tried to speak on what he wanted to do, on the grand design. He tried to buy time, and later it was discovered he planned a big wedding celebration at Chequers in July and pre-notices have already been sent out.
But the grandees of the Tory party would have none of this. As I write, on Friday noon, it looks like he will not get his wish.
He has left a terrible inheritance behind him, one that none of those jockeying to succeed him will be able to cauterise. The effects of his maladministration will take years and years to be corrected.
We in Malta are somewhat privileged in this for we know what happened between November 2019 and today and can thus see where Britain could be heading.
We still do not have the real story of what happened in that long Cabinet meeting that took up most of the night in November 2019, except that the media found itself locked up in a room by staffers who probably panicked the media could find out what was going on in Cabinet.
It would seem that Joseph Muscat, harassed by the protests around Parliament, tried to find out who would stand by him and found that support lacking.
Like Boris, Joseph gave up and, again like Boris tried to bargain for more time. Unlike Boris, or so it seems, he got the extension and so we watched the charade of an extended leave-taking for a number of weeks until his successor was chosen.
It wasn’t just leave-taking – this extended time was used to build up his successor. We all remember how Chris Fearne looked like being a shoo-in until one day Robert Abela claimed there was a “patt imxajtan” (a devilish pact) and launched his own campaign. Abela has never specified what that devilish pact was and in fact his rival then is still Deputy Prime Minister till today.
From that moment Fearne’s campaign petered out and Abela’s climbed and climbed, thanks to some judicious positioning and also to grassroots support from the Joseph Muscat camp.
The Tories, it is safe to say, will not face this outcome. I would not say the campaign will be a level playing field for all and I would not exclude specific media like the Daily Mail will not try to push things their way. It is enough to see the vast coverage Johnson was given in the last days and the advice to stick it out regardless.
In Malta Abela positioned himself as the candidate of continuity but events have forced his hand. Once he had won the general election he removed ministers and PSs from the Muscat Cabinet and introduced his own.
Payback time may have come in the most recent campaign that set up Muscat as the head of the Maltese football, with the help of many construction magnates and against, it has been reported, Abela’s specific wishes.
Boris Johnson had a life outside the Tory party (or sort of) when he had been Mayor of London. Will he retire gracefully with his family or will he turn to some new adventure?
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