Boris Johnson: What Happened to Serious Politics?

What do the falls, rises, scandals, controversies and parties tell us about Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson? Who is he, and what does his particular brand of celebrity, chaos and contempt say about British Politics today?

In this Ethical Matters talk, two very different Boris biographers join us to discuss the turbulent former Prime Minister. Author, political commentator & contemporary historian Sir Anthony Seldon is known for his piercing and rigorously evidenced biographies of UK Prime Ministers, including Tony Blair, David Cameron, and Lizz Truss. In Boris at 10, Sir Anthony maps the entirety of Boris Johnson’s premierships, from his dramatic rise to power in 2019, through to the unravelling of his government following a series of scandals and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lucien Young is a comedy writer for TV, with credits including BBC’s Siblings and Murder in Successville. He is also the author of seven books of political satire. The Secret Diary of Boris Johnson Aged 13¼ provides a hilariously cutting imagining of a young Boris, developing both his persona and the political “techniques” for which he would become famous – or infamous. HONEST: The (Uncut) Memoirs of Boris Johnson continues Lucien’s run of riotus parodies, with a reimagining of Boris’s reign, told through his own words (or thereabouts!)