Boris Johnson’s Trumpian path to power

Barely had the ink dried on Stephen Robinson’s imaginative apologia for Boris Johnson — he is compared, courageously, to Churchill — than the former foreign secretary reminded us of his capacity for blunder. In his Telegraph column Johnson assailed the ‘burka’ for leaving Muslim women ‘looking like letter boxes’ and ‘bank robber[s]’. I say ‘burka’ but ‘letter box’ suggests he actually meant the niqab. A regular Abu Hanifa is this one.

But was it a blunder? Or did Johnson, freed from such responsibilities as he felt bound by in the Foreign Office, consider the renewed vigour of anti-Muslim populism and decide to sound a dogwhistle? He certainly couldn’t have failed to notice the protests over the jailing of Tommy Robinson and the rejoicing when the Rosa Parks of Rotherham was freed last week. Imperilling trials, mortgage fraud and other such qualifications for alt-right sainthood are a bit taboo with the Tory matrons but he could still send a signal that there was someone in mainstream politics who shares the Breitbart crowd’s contempt for Islam.