Book. Let's not shy away from our pleasure: Indomitablethe account written by Boris Johnson of his years in power – first as mayor of London (from 2008 to 2016), then as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, between 2019 and 2022 – is very pleasant to read for a book policy. The book is full of anecdotes and incongruous or funny details.
However, this paving stone of almost 800 pages, written in the first person by the ex-leader chased, mid-term, from Downing Street, in a humiliating manner, after the “partygate” scandal (parties organized in ministries during confinements), contains neither revelations nor mea culpa or reflections on the reasons for its failures.
Boris Johnson began his career as a journalist, first at Timesthen at Daily Telegraph and at Spectatorthe three main opinion journals of the British right. He undoubtedly knows how to grab the reader's attention. The politician multiplies the scenarios to avoid an overly chronological story: of his legal standoff with the “spider woman”, Brenda Hale, President of the British Supreme Court (who declared her suspension of Parliament illegal in September 2019) to his family vacation in Canada cut short in the summer of 2011 because of the riots in London.
Lies about Brexit
The ex-mayor of London with his characteristic appearance – shaggy hair, rumpled suit, worn shoes – seems to play his character to the point of caricature. He is always ready to tell a joke, to admit a blunder, he takes nothing or no one seriously, starting with himself. He spares the reader no detail, notably the ridiculous episode of the zip line, on which he got stuck in the summer of 2012 during the London Olympics, after having launched there to attract the attention of the British who he didn't find them enthusiastic enough.
He also has great fun recounting this telephone call from Downing Street, a few years later, while he was at the urinals of the House of Commons: the Prime Minister, Theresa May, tried to contact him to offer him the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs… Reading him, you almost have the impression of hearing him speak. He multiplies the exclamations, the lurches, the quotations from the classical Greek authors, whom he venerates.
Mr. Johnson, who resigned from the House of Commons in June 2023 (before being disavowed by the conclusions of a parliamentary inquiry into “partygate”), gives lengthy developments to Brexit, of which he was one of the main advocates . However, he never questions the reasons why, according to all the polls, a majority of British people now disavow the divorce from the European Union. The ex-leader certainly cites “Frosty”, alias David Frost, his negotiator with the Europeans, but it is to rave about his talents as a diplomat.
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