FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD: Who will be the next foolhardy soul to take the poisoned chalice? Who wants a job, doomed to failure, lived out in the glare of publicity? Which gullible sap wants to inherit Boris Johnson’s grotesquely tarnished Crown?
It is often said that nature abhors a vacuum. Although this is only true in the case of Mr Dyson’s machines.
There is, as one notable nonentity recently asserted, a moral vacuum in government. It could be argued that there is an actual vacuum between the ears of many backbenchers. That incessant noise emanating from every newsstand? It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. And of a house of cards, slowly and inexorably toppling.
Which empty vessel will wish to preside over the wanton collapse of this once great nation? Who is vain, stupid, arrogant and deluded enough to volunteer to hammer the final nail into the UK’s coffin? Apart from Liz Truss, of course.
To be quite honest, nobody could do a worse job than Boris Johnson. In which case it might be time for nobody to lead the country.
There are plenty of advantages to this arrangement. There would be no more porky pies at PMQs. No vague, waffled press conferences. No excruciating dressing up opportunities. No Boris Johnson.
Against that, nothing would get done, no decisions would be made. So no change there.
It’s hard to see how the lack of an actual leader could be worse than a lack of leadership. The ship of state is in deep trouble. The rats are finally realising and starting to leave. But the captain is insisting that if he goes down, the ship will go with him. There is no iceberg, and even if there is an iceberg, it won’t do any harm, and even if it holes the ship and sinks it, nobody told the captain that would happen.
Maybe having a nobody in charge is worse than having nobody.