A fatal temptation in politics is to underestimate your opponents. Nigel Farage, Donal Trump, and Boris Johnson stand as rejoinders to the condescension of elite opinion here. Recall the disbelief when, instead of the “Brits being at it again”, Johnson’s government developed and distributed a vaccine well ahead of the EU. Trump’s Operation Warp Speed caused similar discombobulation. When Boris Johnson became British Prime Minister in the summer of 2019 and appointed Dominic Cummings as his key aide, there was alarm in government here. Johnson’s cynical opportunism and fundamental unseriousness could be easily grappled with, as traits in ample supply…

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