“I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause: what cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?”
from Julius Caesar, Act III Scene 2, William Shakespeare
Apart from our ‘Thought for the Week’ on 9th May called ‘The need to re-discover Conservative values’, we've made very little comment about the trials and tribulations of Boris Johnson. This was principally because the catalogue of errors which have now brought him down are so small in comparison with the big issues confronting us: how can irresponsible parties and personal misjudgements in any way compare with massive economic, environmental and military challenges such as we are experiencing today?
People come in all shapes and sizes, and there are many people who have that strange combination of seemingly boundless energy and inherent unpredictability which are found in Mr Johnson. These are not herd animals, as Boris conceded in his resignation speech: ‘.. as we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves; and, my friends, in politics no one is remotely indispensable’. People who are more measured and reliable may find them intensely frustrating, but there should still be a place for unconventional people, albeit not as prime minister.
So in this commentary we find other examples in history of unconventional individuals who were also not accepted by many of the people with whom they worked, and we look not so much at weighing their offences but counting their merits in asking how the undoubtable strengths of someone like Boris can work for the benefit of all.
I had the privilege of working closely with people much like Boris during my years as an entrepreneur. The early years of starting a business are deeply challenging: the risks are massive, the work is exhausting, the opportunities are boundless. If I had been surrounded by a cadre of wise but cautious creatures of compliance, we would not have taken many of the essential calls, and the business might have disappeared without a trace.
History, often celebrating such individuals through major drama and movies, tells us of many people with the ability to break the mould of convention. Very few are without major character flaws and moral challenges, such as being ‘economical with the truth’, but they all shared a singular ability to confuse and often frustrate those with whom they worked.
Mark Antony's famous speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar followed one of the earliest political assassinations, when those who surrounded this exasperating but immensely successful leader finished him off rather more terminally than Boris last week. Our quotation is from this speech, and I wonder if someone might write a parody of it recounting the final days of Boris's leadership of the Conservative Party, as he struggled with his erstwhile colleagues?
Another example comes from the massively popular musical ‘The Sound of Music’, which starts with the song ‘How do you solve a problem like Maria?’. Maria, who went on to provide inspiration not only in the family she was posted to but also in real life, clearly upset colleagues so much in the convent in which she was a trainee nun that a solution had to be found elsewhere.
And those who know the Gospel stories well will appreciate the extraordinary unconventionality of Jesus Christ, who had to break the mould of the religious order of the time. He did so with a series of challenges to their hypocrisy and fixed mindsets: these were stifling people’s understanding of what divine unconditional love is all about. It’s a challenge with which those in any established church will be familiar.
The spectrum of morality for unconventional people is of course very broad and, while Jesus is definitely at one end, it may well be that Boris Johnson is closer to the other. However, the combination of boundless energy and unpredictability remains a key feature of people who do not fit easily into society’s norms, but may have a great deal to offer all the same.
Like so many of these individuals, Boris has brought some massive benefits, as some of his colleagues have reminded us over the past few days: the implementation of the Brexit vote, the vaccine programme, early and firm support for Ukraine and, in so doing, uniting the western democracies. The problem is that, as with so many unconventional people trying to work with people who don't understand them, the Westminster village cannot cope with the wild excesses which often accompanied these big picture successes. It is certainly not appropriate to belittle his achievements, and I suspect history will be kinder to him that the media cartoonists.
Writing people off is not the answer. We need to be able to combine both these individuals with their boundless energy and chronic unpredictability and the ‘grey suits’ who keep us on the straight and narrow. Too much of the former, and we risk losing a sense of direction and trust, as we’ve all experienced; too much of the latter, and the inevitable endless compromises will result in masses of ‘camels’ — outcomes designed by committees. So — how do we harness both?
Unless divine guidance provides the solution, the answer is that wise leaders must be able to cope with both unconventional, inspirational people as well as rational, organised government so that their very different gifts can be brought to bear for the benefit of all. The Mother Superior in Maria’s convent clearly had that gift, and we must hope that whoever succeeds Boris as Prime Minister will not altogether dispense with a more controlled array of his contributions which he could continue to make over the years ahead.
There has to be a role for the unconventional — we should not write them off.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio