Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson publishes memoirs

Twenty-five months after being kicked out of Downing Street by his partythe controversial and charismatic former Prime Minister returns to the forefront of the British political scene, if he never left it. Next Thursday, a volume of nearly 800 pages written without the need for books arrives in bookstores across the country. ghost writer in which he looks back on his journey from his victory in the London municipal elections (2008) until the beginning of 2023. Fifteen years that changed the United Kingdom, partly thanks to BoJo, as he is popularly called; and not exactly for the benefit of the British.

In January of last year, Johnson signed a six-figure deal to provide his version of events throughout that period, as well as the excerpts he released ahead of the Daily Mail and to Mail Sundayand which the rest of the press also distributes second hand, are sufficiently striking to arouse great expectations. BrexitLas Downing Street parties during the pandemicthe relationship with the Queen, the 2012 Olympic Games, the invasin from Ukraine or his disgrace are some of the episodes he inevitably talks about. The title of the volume could not be more significant: Unchained (unleashed).

What he was like when he lived in Downing Street, long before as Mayor and also as Foreign Secretary, is well known, as he even went so far as to escape the bodyguard to attend a party at a castle in Italy one weekend. invited by a former KGB agent, when he was responsible for British diplomacy. On his return to London, he was spotted at an Italian airport looking miserable.

Problematic versions

What we will now have to verify is whether his version coincides with that of other protagonists of the time who have recently published memoirs. Among other reasons, because Johnson's relationship with the truth “has always been very problematic”, as Max Hastings, the former editor-in-chief of Daily Telegraphnewspaper whose former Prime Minister was fired in the early 1990s for having exaggerated the facts in his articles in the Brussels correspondent.

The style of the text is undeniably his own. And it's as colorful as when he spoke ill of the European Union itself, of which his father, Stanley Johnson, had been a senior official. Thus, when he talks about a bitter debate in Parliament with the then leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, he does not bite his tongue and describes his irritable face as that of a calf with a thermometer unexpectedly inserted in the rectum.

The first of the serialized episodes is one of the most surprising material released thus far. Addresses the difficult times of the pandemic and the lack of existing vaccines (as of March 2021). Johnson discussed with senior military officials the possibility of carrying out a raid in the Netherlands to seize a shipment of AstraZeneca doses that were in dispute with the EU and were stored near Amsterdam. It appears to be little more than a joke intended to expand his ego and fuel the legend of the indomitable spirit he loves to cultivate.

Lieutenant-General Doug Chalmers, then deputy chief of the defense staff, had to remind first the following: If we are detected, we will have to explain why we are invading a long-time NATO ally. Johnson then admits, “I secretly agreed with what everyone was thinking, but I didn't want to say it out loud: that it was all crazy.”

It makes sense that David Cameron would threaten him if he supported Brexit. In 2016, when the then mayor publicly plucked the daisy, it was taken for granted that his mere presence on one side or the other of the debate could swing the outcome for or against the EU.

The former prime minister tries to appear as a coherent person. If everything he had written so far from Brussels was against the EU, he would not be able to support its continuation. However, everyone knows that he wrote two letters to explain his decision: one in favor of the EU and the other against. In his memoirs, David Cameron accuses him of supporting Brexit only because it improved his chances of becoming Prime Minister. Cameron's comments, published in 2019, were known at Westminster in 2016, at the time of the referendum.

As happens in any memoir, many statements, in this case those of the former Prime Minister, are based on private conversations that are impossible to verify. The political facts to which it refers and for which there is other evidence or witnesses can be contrasted.

assured success

Among the first, in discussing the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Johnson writes that he had known for a year or more that he was suffering from a type of bone cancer and that his doctors feared that at any time he might experience a sudden decline. .

Among the latter, he comments on the Brexit negotiations and how he overcame the political stagnation the country had fallen into by making some changes to the existing agreement. He says he signed it deliberately, leaving Northern Ireland subject to EU trade rules. “I did it because I didn’t think the Commission would be stupid enough to block trade within the UK.” But he failed to double it and it was ultimately Rishi Sunak who developed what, more or less, still continues.

Sales success is more than assured. Because those who admire it and those who can't stand it will read it. Far exceeding the number of copies sold by Theresa May, David Cameron, Liz Truss and even John Major. And surely also what Tony Blair sold (On a journey; 92,000 copies the first four days) and also Margaret Thatcher (The Downing Street years), with 120,000 copies sold in one week. And in all likelihood it will have a translation, at least in Spanish, like Blair and Thatcher. It is not for nothing that someone as influential on the Spanish right as Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo is an unlimited admirer of Boris Johnson and his unprovable truths.