With Boris Johnson's time as UK Prime Minister due to end in the very near future, I wanted to share my thoughts on his tenure. Although the manner of the end of his term of office isn't a positive one, it's difficult to think of a time when a Prime Minister's term DID have a happy ending for the Prime Minister concerned. Whilst much emphasis has been placed on his apparent lack of honesty and inappropriate conduct; perhaps controversially, whilst I of course believe that Prime Ministers should behave appropriately, I personally didn't want him to resign, as it's my view that a Prime Minister should only step down if they have made mistakes in terms of policies/laws they have passed or decisions directly impacting the country. The two main motivations behind his resignation were, firstly, attendance of "parties" during the Covid lockdowns; and, secondly, for allowing a politician to remain in office despite being found to have behaved inappropriately. Whilst both acts deserve scrutiny and criticism, neither involve the direction of the country in my opinion, which are primarily what we should be concerned with with regards to our Prime Ministers. The impression I get is that his fundamental decisions as leader, and policies pursued (which are the most important aspects of a Prime Minister to me), were relatively popular, and I'm not convinced that most of the public have turned against his policies.
My wish is therefore that Boris Johnson's successor hopefully maintains the same approach to flagship policies such as "Levelling Up", continues working on Brexit to make it as practical and beneficial to the UK as possible, and attempting to address issues with illegal migration via the English Channel. Based on my understanding (which has, admittedly, been learnt rather than directly seen or experienced), there have been clear disparities in wealth and opportunities across the UK for decades (perhaps the worst legacy of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, which I generally otherwise speak highly of) and "Levelling Up" not only expressed intent to address this, but also showed how this could actually be achieved: by encouraging investment and improving infrastructure.
Given that Boris Johnson's policies do not appear to have been rejected by the public, I hope that his flagship policies are maintained until at least the next general election (and, potentially, reaffirmed in that election as well). As regards Boris Johnson personally, I feel that he generally got the balance right between seriously governing the country, and also sharing his trademark sense of humour. It is disappointing that he did behave inappropriately though, in a way that led to his downfall.
Nevertheless, with those policies of his that can (and should) be maintained for the foreseeable future, and looking back on his actual handling of the coronavirus, Brexit, and the economy, he seems to me to have done a good (and difficult!) job. It is easy to criticise him (and many have extensively carried out this easy exercise), but I'm pleased that he has remained his positive, bullish self, and trumpeted his achievements in a way that is justifiable- and necessary, to try and counter the potentially overwhelming tidal wave of criticism he experiences from much of the establishment.
