Elaine Byrne: It’s all fun and games in Downing Street until the public lose trust in politics

The Tory prime minister has allowed politics to become a kind of tawdry public entertainment, with serious consequences for British democracy

Boris Johnson: the British prime minister is discovering that there are consequences to acting in your own self-interest at the expense of the national interest. Picture: Getty

Roll up, roll up – come and see the show! The trials and tribulations of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson – to give the British prime minister his full title – have become public entertainment.

Politics under Johnson’s tenure are a colourful drama with a cast of kaleidoscopic characters, plot twists, messy romances and official inquiries into lockdown parties in Downing Street, all of it playing out via memes on social media and news filtered ...