I'm writing this at lunchtime and scheduled it for the afternoon, so there's every chance something here is horribly out of date already, given the tenor of the last 48 hours.
In the newsletter that preceded this blog, I used to write occasionally about the latest in UK politics. I sort of... stopped doing that some time in the latter half of the 2010s, which was ultimately sensible for a bunch of reasons. Primarily: my own sanity, given I had enough sources of despair into which to gaze; and because frankly no one needs yet more underbaked punditry on national politics. There are plenty of people who know very little opining very confidently on Twitter and in major newspapers.
But seeing him on the way out the door today, and in such a messy and undignified manner, is a relief. I know that it doesn't fix everything -- maybe even anything -- but I also don't really care for the slightly smug-feeling pointing-out of that as if it were some sort of gotcha. As if, somehow, those celebrating it hadn't thought about the matter beyond gleeful crowing.
No, it doesn't fix everything. The rot is real and pervasive, the alternative options (both for the next Conservative leader and also the other parties in the mix) are variously dangerous and disappointing. And immense amounts of damage have been done in the process.
We seem incapable of imagining a better country -- a better way of doing things. While the latest asshole may be going up in smoke, he's done a good job of shitting all over the place as he burns, and Johnson's departure is not in and of itself a promise of better things.
But it's also okay to celebrate the humiliating fall of a would-be tyrant.