More importantly, he’s a ‘character’ and, as such, people are willing to extend him a great deal of latitude. On a programme like Question Time, with its deadly penumbra of identikit politicians, Boris is a ray of sunshine. His very existence is proof that the bureaucrats and percentage players haven’t won the day. That someone so shambolic and disorganised can play a role in our public life is a source of pride. Like Alan Bennett, he’s become a national treasure.
Above all, Boris has tremendous force of personality. In his Diaries, Alan Clark talks about the effect that Margaret Thatcher had on him: ‘At the end, when she spoke of her determination to go on, and her blue eyes flashed, I got a full dose of personality compulsion, something of the Führer Kontakt.’ Boris has this effect on people, too. He is a Man of Destiny. Gimson doesn’t quite do justice to this facet of the Boris Phenomenon and it is left to Lloyd Evans — quoted at length in the book — to sum it up: ‘He’s a war leader. He is one of the two or three most extraordinary people I’ve ever met. You just feel he’s going somewhere. People just love him.They go along with him and they enjoy being led.’
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