What Boris Johnson’s opponents need to know about the PM

Margaret Thatcher famously said of Mikhail Gorbachev “We can do business together”. Clearly she wasn’t endorsing the policies and outlook of the USSR, just reaching a practical conclusion that was to lead to beneficial outcomes for both sides in the years ahead. It’s time for Boris Johnson’s opponents to arrive at the same conclusion – and accept that Boris is a man they can do business with.

Boris’s critics might not admit it but the Prime Minister is a pragmatist with liberal inclinations in many policy areas. Yet the luminaries of progressive liberalism still pledge to fight him on every front. They seek to depict him, quite absurdly, as the devil incarnate: a “far right” figure with views allegedly encompassing Islamophobia, bigotry and outright racism. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Far from emerging from the Brexit debacle of the past few years chastened and in reflective mood, many, it seems, are still in reflexive rage mode.