Politics

Johnson Goes Full Speed Ahead into Chaos

Whatever Brexit might ultimately bring, there are a number of images from this week that will stick in our memories for a long time. We won't forget, for example, that Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, was expelled from the Conservative Party after 36 years of service, giving a passionate speech describing the injustices visited upon his grandfather before the latter's rise to the top.

That a pale Philip Hammond, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and the very definition of a loyal party soldier, threatened Johnson with the "fight of a lifetime" should the prime minister attempt to block his re-election if new elections are called.

That Phillip Lee, a former parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, crossed the aisle in parliament and defected to the Liberal Democrats as Johnson looked on.

And then there is Jacob Rees-Mogg, the member of Johnson's cabinet responsible for parliamentary affairs, who stretched out for a siesta on the government front bench in his ill-fitting double-breasted suit. He even closed his eyes, no doubt to express his disdain for the endless jawing and inconvenient democratic blah blah. Even as his party was disintegrating, Rees-Mogg took a nap.