Let’s suppose partygate didn’t happen. I do recall record numbers of illegal immigrants coming in through Dover with UK border force vessels sent out to pick them up. I do recall how a totally inept government failed to establish a functioning test and trace system at the height of the pandemic. I do recall companies (and MPs) getting very rich off that failure.

I do recall BLM riots where police stood by and did nothing and then knelt before violent thugs. I do recall record numbers of teen stabbings on the streets of London and I recall that Cressida Dick was rewarded for her failure without intervention from the PM.

I do recall Boris Johnson telling a room full of Northern Irish politicians that his withdrawal agreement would see no checks between Britain and Northern Ireland. I do recall that Boris Johnson signed a rushed FTA that absolutely shafts British agriculture.

I do recall the Tories winning by a landslide with a view to taking Brexit forward only to revert to Cameronian eco-dogma as though we never left the EU. I recall that national insurance is going up. I recall how Covid was allowed to infect care homes. I recall how ministers and SpAds regarded the lockdown rules as wholly optional.

I haven’t followed partygate closely enough to comment with accuracy, but Johnson’s record has been less than stellar. But even if you can forgive Johnson’s past, his administration has set British industry up for failure. The decision to outlaw the sale of new petrol cars when we have neither the production capabilities, raw materials or the energy generation capacity to switch to EVs, is sure to be an expensive failure – one which does not enjoy majority consent. It ultimately brings about the end of private mobility for all but the rich.

A serious prime minister would recognise the urgency of our energy predicament and pull out all the stops to ensure the security of our energy supply. A serious prime minister would recognise that any Covid comeback is contingent on affordable energy. It is within his powers to scrap the green taxes which add more than 25% to our bills, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Decisions made by this government are set to make us permanently poorer to fulfil an agenda nobody voted for.

Johnson’s predecessor could at least blame the lack of a working majority to excuse her underperformance, but Johnson’s has no such problem. Johnson has an eighty seat majority but has done little with it. Johnson has no vision for Britain and seemingly no real interest in doing the job he wormed his way into.

I didn’t vote for Johnson’s Tories and I didn’t expect much different from what we’re getting, but part of me hoped that Brexit would at least be a catalyst for change. For as long as Johnson remains PM that potential evaporates by the day, and it’s unlikely any Tory successor will make good of it either. Boris Johnson has squandered a once in a generation opportunity to transform the country – and that is the greatest of his crimes.

When it comes down to it, the Tories are not doing what they were elected to do. They are not “draining the swamp”. In fact, they’ve re-stocked it with a new species of pondlife. We’re not going to see a Brexit agenda at work.

As much as Boris Johnson is an easily led scatter-brained oaf who doesn’t take the job seriously, the people at the top of government are too busy larging it up. They feel no weight of obligation to the country or even the people who voted for them. There is no moral mission. No crusade for reform. No sense of what is demanded of them. They simply don’t care. They’ve got the job of running the country but delegate it to the blob. There is a moral vacuum at the heart of government and Conservative voters have been taken for fools.