Johnson wants and needs to have his say. Why should anything change when the inevitable day comes and he is turfed out of Number 10?
WHEN I WAS STARTING OUT in newspapers in the 1990s, I used to say that my career ambition was to be an ex-editor. It seemed to me that the people who had the very best of Fleet Street were the ones who’d once run the place then stepped down or — more often — been given the push. Accustomed to passing authoritative judgement on the events of the day, the ex-ed crew could hold forth as columnists and authors. The grandest collected glittering prizes: Oxbridge masterships and seats in the Lords. The pay-off cheques were nice too.
The point was that former editors had made their bones. It didn’t really matter whether they’d run their paper. It’s one of the reasons he’ll be a very good, and happy, ex-prime minister.
