Irish Examiner view: Birds of a feather lose together

Facing a reckoning

Boris Johnson this week testified before a House of Commons committee on his behaviour as prime minister during lockdown.

Two men who rose to the top in their respective countries now face something of a reckoning.

This week, Boris Johnson testified before a House of Commons committee on his behaviour as prime minister during lockdown — his involvement in drinks parties held in Downing Street in particular.

Also expected this week: An indictment of Donald Trump, though this seems less and less likely as the grand jury deliberating on this case — payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels — looks set to keep deliberating into next week.

Johnson’s performance at the House of Commons committee was as theatrical as one might imagine, though not quite as theatrical as that of his lawyer, David Pannick KC, whose facial expressions in reaction to Johnson’s comments attracted plenty of attention.

However, in admitting he misled the British parliament — unintentionally, he claims — Johnson may have fatally compromised his future plans. 

Depending on the committee report, he could face suspension or expulsion from parliament; not the kind of springboard from which to launch a successful return to leadership of the Conservative Party.

Trump’s travails are of a different order, as is his flair for the dramatic.

Sources close to Donald Trump suggested that if he had been arrested this week then he would have insisted on being handcuffed and forced into what Tom Wolfe called ‘the perp walk’. Picture: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Sources close to him suggested that if he had been arrested this week then he would have insisted on being handcuffed and forced into what Tom Wolfe called ‘the perp walk’ — being taken into police custody with no special privileges.

Why? To galvanise support, given his call on social media for his followers to rise in protest?

Those calls seem to have fallen on deaf ears so far, with his supporters failing to respond to his demand that they take to the streets. 

An actual arrest might yet spark protests, but it looks like Trump does not seem to cast the spell he once did. In that, he and Johnson have something in common.