This is ex-PM David Cameron – in an interview to be broadcast tonight – on why Boris Johnson came out in favour of Brexit at the time of the 2016 Referendum.
‘My conclusion is, he thought that the Brexit vote would be lost but he didn’t want to give up the chance of being on the romantic, patriotic nationalistic side of Brexit.’
I must say that this fits in with the impression I got, when I saw Johnson’s face on TV the morning after the surprise result was declared. (See https://bernardjporter.com/2016/06/25/fuck-what-have-we-done/.) He looked shocked. He had wanted to be the ‘people’s’ champion against the ‘Establishment’, but in a cause which, conveniently, and even more heroically, couldn’t be won. (Where’s the heroism in merely struggling for the possible?) Winning was the last thing he wanted. It would put him on the side of a new ‘Establishment’, and it would mean working at something. Now he has to face the prospect of real failure. The words ‘hoist’ and ‘petard’ come to mind.
Porter’s Pensées 
The notion of Johnson who is clearly part of the Establishment, in so far as it exists, leading a crusade against it is so ludicrous it’s difficult to comprehend except in terms of someone prepared to do anything for personal ambition. Another Old Etonian who saw himself in anti-Establishment terms was H.M. Hyndman, though on the revolutionary left, but at least he was sincerely principled and a member of the MCC!
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