“Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” So runs the ancient adage. An appropriate warning, considering the soon-to-be retiring prime minister of Britain. Is Boris Johnson “mad”? Your Brexit Diarist is simply equating madness with “great promise, squandered.”

Another appropriate Greek concept may be “hubris.” Mr. Johnson will resign as premier — he currently only resigned as Conservative Party leader — for breaking his own rules regarding Partygate and for making an MP with a history of unwanted sexual advances a deputy party whip.

Worst of all is the public perception that the prime minister knew he was doing wrong and lied about it. So Mr. Johnson will resign office over political scandals, and without having fully secured the British exit from the European Union — for which he’d sought and gained a mandate.

Your Diarist is reminded of another resignation, in December 2021, by David Frost. What distinguished his resignation was that it was over principle — namely, “concerns about the current direction of travel” in the government’s Covid response and the prospect of “coercive measures.”

It’s a resignation that may yet reverberate through the halls of Westminster. It began, we remember, with the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May, who was unable to bring Brexit to completion in Parliament and was humiliated by Nigel Farage at the EU elections in mid-spring 2019.

In stepped Mr. Johnson, the Tory hero of Brexit. No one can deny Mr. Farage’s pivotal — indispensable — role in gaining Britain’s independence from the European Union. Yet, in that same spirit of Brexit, it has all been downhill from there, which, in your Diarist’s view, accounts for this Greek tragedy.

It began with initial plans for massive infrastructure spending, followed up with a policy of carbon “net zero.” Then, when the coronavirus appeared, came lockdowns and furloughs, with further spending. Along with crackdowns against violators.

This came to such an extent that a retired justice of the United Kingdom’s supreme court, Lord Sumption, called it “my definition of a police state.” When the Covid mania subsided, more bad policy emerged from no. 10, Britain’s own “Build Back Better” being the most egregious.

Now there is the inevitable rise in the cost of living and inflation. Plus the government’s response to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, and the continuing unchecked immigration along the English Channel. Are these sustainable policies without dire long-term consequences?

Winning Brexit was Boris Johnson’s best act. A credit due. As Francis Bacon wrote, “For many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when that faileth, he groweth out of use.” Mr. Johnson’s strength was in standing up for U.K. independence, against an entrenched establishment.

That is, the establishment in politics, the press, and at the EU itself in Brussels. Mr. Johnson gets credit for influencing the Brexit campaign with a spirit of liberty — economic liberalism — which made the subsequent defaults all the more painful. So time to move on.

The question is: To whom? Most of the candidates to replace Mr. Johnson hold or held ministerial rank in the government. Cabinet solidarity requires unity of purpose. Put another way, Mr. Johnson’s leading replacements stood with policies that ran counter to the promise of Brexit.

Remember that BoJo was cashiered by reaction to scandal, not by principled disagreement over policy. A scene from the film “Darkest Hour” comes to mind. Winston Churchill is speaking with Anthony Eden in the Cabinet room at no. 10, having just “kissed hands” with George VI. 

Eden comments that Lord Halifax was hopeful of becoming prime minister after the resignation of the author of appeasement, Neville Chamberlain. Churchill replies, witheringly, “Why replace the organ grinder with the monkey?”

BoJo is the organ grinder; those Cabinet ministers (current and recently resigned) the monkeys. With apologies to the primates. There may be backbenchers who were more constant for Brexit — Steve Baker comes to mind. Who, though, can climb what Disraeli called the “greasy pole”?

Which brings me to Lord Frost. As chief negotiator, he led the negotiations that saw Brexit finalized at the end of December 2020. So we know he is true to the idea of U.K. independence. More importantly, Mr. Frost resigned from the government in December 2021.

He did so when he saw the promise of Brexit being betrayed. He knew the government was pursuing policies inimical to the spirit of Brexit. “Brexit is now secure,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “The challenge for the Government now is to deliver on the opportunities it gives us.”

Lord Frost wrote that in December. “I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy, at the cutting edge of modern science and economic change.”

In June, as the government faced a series of byelection losses, Lord Frost came out and remarked on Mr. Johnson’s refrain of “getting on with the job.” The peer replied that it “will not be enough if the new job is the same as the old job. If it is, the new boss will not be the same as the old boss….” 

Putting Baron Frost into Downing Street would require some legerdemain — not least because back in 2016 he was a Remainer. Then again also, too, Reagan was once a Democrat. Your Diarist’s bet is that Lord Frost would essentially have to resign from the Lords and seek a seat in the Commons.

Much of this politicking lies within the parameters of the Conservative Party, and it can be as accommodating as its executive sees fit. Let’s leave those particulars aside for the moment. The main question is: What Tory can best him in standing for maximal liberty and minimal government?

“Three hundred years of history show that countries which take that route grow and prosper,” he said in his letter of resignation back in December, “and I am confident we will too.” So as we enter the post-Johnson era, let me say, the gods will have a hard time making Lord Frost mad.

BrexitDiarist@gmail.com