“The Pandemonium Prime Minister:” Boris Johnson Resigns

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: Is there any way that his view of his mandate, which is very presidential and not parliamentary, because that is all about the party, might be — you know, might be something that takes hold?

CATHERINE HADDON, RESIDENT HISTORIAN, INTERVIEW INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNMENT: Yes. I think there definitely was a feeling last night of utter shock, really, when despite his own cabinets — a cabinet only constructed over that previous 24 hours with some new appointment would still — you know, he was still rejecting their view that he needed to step down. And there was a lot of questioning of how far would he take this. I think the thing to remember is, I mean, Boris Johnson wants himself to be remembered as the people’s prime minister and many people will talk about the idea of populism. Was he a very populist prime minister willing to push to the edge? I think, actually what he was, was the pandemonium prime minister and he lived as chaos. And throughout his premiership, when we saw that most in the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a chaotic approach to handling of crises, a chaotic approach to policymaking and a chaotic approach to the structures of government. His own number 10 was frequently in chaos. And that kind of pandemonium that he brought is actually one of the things that brought him down in the end because his party, the whole country are so tired of it. They want sensible government. They want a quieter government. They want a government that just gets on with things and isn’t always in the, you know, front of the media. And, I mean, Johnson himself seemed frustrated with it. He kept saying, I just want to get on and deliver. I’m tired of all this noises. Also, it’s extraordinary that he was the one so often responsible for creating it.