'At the close of Shakespeare’s Henry VII ( writes the ever-discerning Journo Martin Kettle), as Prince Hal is about to be crowned king, he stuns his former drinking companion Sir John Falstaff by telling him: “Presume not that I am the thing I was./ For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,/ That I have turned away my former self…”
Read in full above…
I am inclined to disagree - I don’t see much new found discipline since Johnson was elected.
I’m not won over to any kind of Damascene conversion either, Paul. But I momentarily set aside my presumption that his lack of instant engagement with Trump’s assassination was down to idleness, being too sloshed to be bothered, or being pinned to the floor by his minder.
It’s his lizard brain that still concerns me, though. We shall see…
Can he really stop foot in mouth?
Only, I think, by avoiding media contact and scrutiny - which is about the only way his behaviour is likely to “improve”.
I’ll just leave this one here…
The EU is insisting on our rights before they will agree to the Withdrawal Agreement.
Are we heading for No Deal yet again?
If push comes to shove I think Johnson will, briefly, have the upper hand - the EU won’t want to be in the frame for further delay if that risks no deal.
Which means he might try to win some concessions.
I wouldn’t take anything for granted until it is all agreed and ratified.
I really don’t think the EU can afford to waste any more time on the UK. They have their own work to attend to and that does not include feeding the ego of a fat, demanding baby who is still learning to talk.
I didn’t know Trump was involved.
Henry IV part ii actually, I can still remember that bit from A level a long time ago. It is the continuation of this “leave gormandising, know that the grave doth gape for thee thrice wider than for other men”
Here’s the start of the speech (which I no longer know off by heart)
I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers.
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester.
I have long dreamt of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swelled, so old, and so profane;
But being awaked, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing. Know the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men.
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest.
I’m glad you’re there to mark my papers, Véronique, I need it and miss it.
Can I go now, Miss? 
And I’m not that fat!