Gentlemen's agreements

As I write, the country waits with baited breath to see whether Mr Johnson will resign as prime minister.

Having survived a rushed no confidence vote with a 59% majority a month ago, in the wake of a scandal over blatant dishonesty and hypocrisy denying first the occurrence of, then his own knowledge of, and finally basic understanding of staff parties in his own office, spread over two years of heavy lockdown restrictions emanating from that same office, Johnson is currently continuing to cling to power after 24 hours in which over 30 ministers have resigned, led by the health secretary (leaving a Johnson cabinet position for the second time) and the chancellor (Johnson's second in under three years).

It is clearly impossible for Johnson to continue to lead a parliamentary party that has so utterly lost faith in him. Given his proven lack of ability to achieve anything meaningful - or even plans to attempt to do so - there is no credible explanation for hanging on, other than that Johnson is in government for entirely self-serving reasons.

The unlikely parallel I wished to briefly draw is with Johnson's 2019 contender for the premiership, Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn also clung to power long after having lost the support of the parliamentary Labour party, with the encouragement of his core supporters.

It seems on the whole likely that Corbyn, at least, genuinely believed in his socialist mission and that he was the only person who could deliver it. Whether Johnson believes in anything so much of the glory of his own personal destiny is far from clear - has never been clear, for those who were paying attention.

Yet the behaviour is similar. The UK's lack of a written constitution, and dependence on what might be termed the gentleman's agreement mode of government, leaves it particularly vulnerable to people who do not care about traditional or conventional decency. In Corbyn's case, that stemmed from traditional leftist anti-establishment feeling; in Johnson's, it is a libertarian bent, combined with a deep-seated narcissism.

The attitude places both men in the same camp with Donald Trump. Placing their own personal prestige above decency, basic fairness, or even democracy, they plod on as long as they possibly can until they are finally forced out.

This increasingly common attitude among political leaders has no purpose, and no dignity - and is rapidly undermining Western civilisation. If "conservative" means anything at all, we should be recognising this problem and restoring traditional standards of basic decency.