Boris Johnson uttered a telling sentence in his farewell speech given in Downing street. He said, ‘When the herd moves, it moves.’ This appeared to be his explanation of how he came to leave office.

The ‘herd’, in this case, meant the Conservative MPs in general, and the 50 or so ministers who have resigned from their posts rather than serve under Johnson.

He spoke as if he had been laid low by a force of nature, or as if he had been a cowboy crushed under the hooves of a stampeding herd of cattle.

If he really believes this, then he still does not understand that he was laid low by his own failings.

When the Conservatives won the 2019 election by a big majority, Johnson must have believed that he could walk on water. As a result he did nothing to address his failings, his lies, misjudgements and lack of organisation.

His farewell speech was that of a man who is either blind to these things, or who believes his faults are mere foibles which an indulgent public will dismiss as Boris just being Boris.

David Martin, Rosedale Avenue, Acomb