A Shakespearean villain laid low by a Christmas quiz
Ahorse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!’ This line from Richard III is one of the most recognisable Shakespeare quotes and feels extremely relevant right now. We have a man running the country who seems to have been bestowed with the belief that by virtue of his status as having been born into the upper crust of British society, he had some divine right to be prime minister.
It isn’t even like he pulled a sword from a stone, or was gifted Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake.
To badly paraphrase Monty Python and the Holy Grail: ‘Some rich boy going to the right private school is no basis for a system of government.’
Yet after all the manoeuvring and politicking and back-stabbing, it looks like his stewardship of our country could be brought down by something as mundane as a Christmas quiz.
That would be a delicious twist of the famed British irony.
In fact, if you think about it for half a second (and not much deeper than that) Boris Johnson almost feels like he could be a villain in a Shakespeare play.
He lied and cheated (in the Biblical, 10 commandments kind of way) his way to the top. Betraying the leader of his party and predecessor in Machiavellian fashion to get what he wants. Before seeing his dream crumble before his eyes and lose his grip on the crown coveted for so long as his own actions finally catch up with him – all the lies finally crashing down like a tidal wave.
For so long, he appeared to be a man who was made of Teflon, able to brush off every lie and every scandal.
But even in Norse mythology, Baldr, whose mother Frigg made every object
vow not to hurt him, could be killed by something seemingly unimportant as mistletoe.
Boris Johnson never hid who he was. Perhaps we are collectively able to see past the bluster for the first time.
All it took was Christmas parties and a quiz. Combined with his fatal character flaw, the inability to take responsibility and just apologise, has ballooned this into a potentially career-ending catastrophe.
So, exit stage left Mr Johnson. You will not be missed.