>> It's his character that is on trial.
True. But Johnson isn't going to win that contest.
I don't need an enquiry to believe Starmer is fundamentally an honest man and Johnson is a charlatan. It's hard to really judge people on a filtered persona but I'm confident on that.
However I have to accept that Johnson still has a lot of fans. The odd thing is, I haven't knowingly met one recently that doesn't agree that he is a clown and a liar - they just don't care. Even he and his party don't seem to dispute that, hence "he gets the big calls right", with the sub-text "even though he has illegally progued parliament and lied throughout his career".
What those people tend to say about Starmer is "he's boring", "he's not really a leader", "he's not a good orator", none of which relates to his integrity or inherent ability.
I do think Starmer overdoes the high moral tone - it just doesn't play well. The contrast between his conduct and Johnson's is there to be seen, and it would be easy to remind people every so often that Johnson is fundamentally untrustworthy without appearing so priggish.
Que sera sera. Starmer resigning won't rehabilitate Johnson.
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