They’re already calling it the Platinum Boo-bilee.
OK, maybe not. Boris Johnson arriving at St Paul’s Cathedral to boos and jeers from the crowd is unlikely to overshadow the pomp, majesty and stone-cold celebrity gold of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service.
But for him, it should probably prompt a moment of reflection.
He’s supposed to be the last great man of the people in politics. A popular, populist Prime Minister who cuts through the nonsense of the Westminster Bubble straight to the hearts and minds of the Great British People.
And what better example of the demographic who are supposed to love him the most than those who travelled from across the country to watch the arrivals outside St Paul’s this morning?
All week, Boris Johnson’s government has been feeding policy announcements aimed squarely - and perhaps too cynically - at them.
Pounds and ounces, the return of grammar schools, a bonfire of EU regulations.
These headlines were custom designed to tap into the kind of nostalgia that Johnson’s team might also assume would lead someone to drive hundreds of miles to see the top of a minor royal’s head as they get out of a car.
These are presumably not the hardened, ultra-liberal, remaniac extremists the Prime Minister and his team invoke to dismiss criticism of his behaviour.
The reaction that met him as he climbed the steps of St Pauls this morning suggests his read of the Great British People is somewhat basic.
Yes, people like the Queen. Yes, people probably think it’d be nice to have a crown stamp on a pint glass. Where’s the harm?
But they’re also furious that it took him six months to decide whether people being able to pay their bills was more important than fat cat energy firms having to pay their taxes.
And yes, they’re still furious over that “Westminster bubble” issue of his having presided over a team that had raging parties while they held funerals on Zoom.
And no amount of bananas by the pound is going to make up for that.
In his Mumsnet interview the other day, Johnson said it would be irresponsible for him to step down, as if it was his divine duty to lead the country.
He and his team may be slowly realising line only works for the Queen.
