Barry Turner

By Barry Turner Columnist

In 1905 the Spanish philosopher George Santayana said in The Life of Reason “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. In 1948 Boris Johnson’s all time hero Winston Churchill paraphrased the sentiment to the House of Commons saying, “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Ironic indeed then that Boris, who has written so much about his role model Winston, has not had that in mind since he moved into Churchill’s former home a couple of years ago.

Of course those were heady days indeed. His party behind him and an 80 seat majority you could forgive Boris for forgetting himself, if it were not for the fact that he is our Prime Minister.  Boris enjoyed the full support of his party and the shires, even now some of the staunchest of Tory opponents in what became known as ‘the Red Wall’. Even his monumental reputation as a liar and opportunist seemed no obstacle to his aspiration to Churchillian greatness.

So what went wrong? Well, it seems that Scrooge-like economy with the truth, a seemingly insatiable appetite for sleaze and personal aggrandisement actually still are an obstacle in British politics. His unassailable personal charm and Maverick ‘can do’ attitude perhaps are not after all enough to deflect people from his more unsavoury characteristics.

Boris Johnson’s self-serving character has never been a secret, his invented personification of the Brexiteer par-excellence was a gambit that paid dividends and did indicate a certain skill to judge the mood of others. It was however never very convincing when the varnish was scratched off and did not indicate an ability to self-analyse or reflect.

As a self-serving opportunist, if Boris thought re-joining the EU would save him from his current sea of troubles, he would start touring the UK tomorrow in a bus telling us how many millions of pounds we would get if we rejoined the EU.

Remember the two articles he wrote for the Telegraph before deciding that Brexit would suit him best. (Note him, not Britain)

What is incredible about Johnson is he is described as a classical scholar and a historian. As a graduate in Classics from Balliol College, he must have read many stories from Ancient Greece & Rome of treachery and double dealing, of unbridled personal ambition and its consequences

Greek tragedy, according to Collins Dictionary, is a play in which the protagonist, usually a person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he or she cannot deal.

It involves three stages. Catharsis, Hamartia and Hubris. A combination that begins with ridding oneself of all emotions or principles, of excessive personal pride and that final personal error of judgement that collapses the empire the protagonist built.

As a classical scholar, Johnson would have read all of these phenomena. As a historian of 20^th century politics and author of a book on his hero, he must have come across Churchill’s famous comment from 1948.

Unfortunately the Greek tragedies tell us that it is usually hubris that finally brings down the hero. The inescapable belief in one’s own infallibility, sense of entitlement and divine mission. Johnson is only guilty on two counts there, he has never believed in any mission, divine or otherwise. He makes up for that with the other two in spades.

It is possible that in the early pre-dawn hours of the day, he is now visited by the characters from Euripedes, Aeschylus and Sophocles he learnt of as an undergraduate. That’s the usual scenario just before the final battle, the truth finally breaks through the hubris and the hamartia is at last clear to see.

That’s where the similarity ends. If Johnson is deposed by an ever-growing mob of those who once supported him, you will see no sad valedictory speech and certainly no falling on swords. He will have seen it coming well in advance and have already activated the only plan B that has ever mattered to him, that being Plan Boris.

Barry Turner is a Senior Lecturer in War Reporting and Human Rights and a member of the Royal United Services Institute.

By Barry Turner Columnist

In 1845 the master of the Gothic tale, Edgar Allen Poe wrote a short story called The Masque of the Red Death.  The story was made into a movie in the 1960’s starring horror matinee idol Vincent Price as the deranged Prince Prospero.

The story goes as follows.  Set in a fictional country at some point at the end of the middle ages the land is ravaged by a plague called the red death of the title. Prince Prospero the ruler of this dystopian land adopts a casual hubristic attitude to the crisis outside his palace gates. He preaches optimism and a happy go lucky persona, safe as he feels behind those locked gates.

As the plague ravages the countryside for some months Prince Prospero decides to hold a lavish masked ball within the ‘safe’ confines of the palace.  He decorates each room in a different colour, seven rooms in all, travelling from east to west. The first room in the east is blue with a blue stained glass window. The next room is purple and the rooms continue west going through green, orange, white and violet.

The last room to the far west is black with a red window.  In the room is an ebony clock that rings on every hour. During the evening all the guests move from room to room finding most of them to be a beautiful sort of dreamscape. However, because of its frightening atmosphere the guests at Prince Prospero’s Masked ball avoid the sinister and foreboding black and red room.

At midnight a terrifying guest appears. His mask is the face of a corpse and his outfit a funeral shroud. Prince Prospero is outraged that such a person should invade his party and moves to confront him.  The hideous new guest walks from room to room westwards, the other guests cannot stop him and Prince Prospero chases him into the final room to confront him about gate-crashing his party. As he confronts the figure he is convulsed and dies.  The Prince’s party-goers rush into the room to attack his assassin but find there is no one there.

Then they all die. Poe finishes the story with the words “Darkness & Decay and the Red Death have at last triumphed”

Rumour has it that the Conservative Party 1922 committee have bought Boris Johnson a first edition of Poe’s famous work for his Christmas present.  Apparently they are going to give it to him in the Number 10 press briefing room that is being specially decorated red and black by an unnamed party donor running a blind trust.

Barry Turner is a Senior Lecturer in War Reporting and Human Rights and a member of the Royal United Services Institute.