New Statesman`s article on Johnson too lenient

Writing an article criticising the career of Boris Johnson must be like what Americans call a "turkey shoot", and Martin Fletcher`s article certainly made a decent fist of it (The way of the chancer, 3rd November, 2017). Asking the question "Who seriously believes that Johnson gets up each morning and asks himself, How can I improve the lot of the ordinary people?" was however, given the Tories` recent record of callous austerity, and May`s abject failure to put her "just about managing rhetoric" into practice, a little unnecessary; could Fletcher name anyone from the current Tory crop who does?

          On the other hand, the knife could have been plunged a little deeper. "Adding £250,000 to his official salary of £140,000" as mayor for a weekly Telegraph column was surprisingly not accompanied by mention of how Johnson described it - as "chickenfeed"- at a time when Conservatives were trying to show themselves in touch with the people, and oust Labour.

      Fletcher mentioned Johnson`s book about Churchill, but not how it was reviewed: the Telegraph described it as a "mixture of Monty Python and the Horrible Histories", whilst another said it bore as much resemblance "to a history book as a Doctor Who episode". No mention, either, of his efforts at fiction, as if his "history" books didn`t include enough; 2004 saw the publication of Johnson`s "Seventy Two Virgins", "not quite a novel" according to the Observer ( Drats. MP falls foul of facts, 03/10/04), with the author a "heroic failure as a novelist". An unsurprising verdict, with prose like  "a suicide bomber`s head would fly off as though drop-kicked by Jonny Wilkinson"!

 Despite the omissions, an enjoyable read about a "thoroughly untrustworthy charlatan". Speaking of which, can we have more please? Next, how George Osborne tricked the nation into believing austerity was imperative, followed by one on Gove`s totally unnecessary education reforms.