There is no crisis at Westminster so serious that it cannot be made to look trivial by the inclusion of Boris Johnson. And there is no scandal involving Johnson that cannot be explained, partially or wholly, by his lies. Those are axioms of post-Brexit politics.

The House of Commons committee of privileges is due to publish a report concluding that a former prime minister turned his back on truth and put himself in contempt of parliament. The gravity of the offence invites a serious discussion about the safeguards in British democracy. Or it should.

Johnson lied because he had broken the rules that most other people observed during the pandemic, often at significant personal cost. He lied because he felt no duty of submission to rules imposed by his own government or any other authority. He lied because breaking rules and refusing to admit it had been a reliable method of self-advancement throughout his life, propelling him all the way to Downing Street. He lied because that is what he does.

Those facts being established, and Johnson having quit the Commons to avoid the indignity of a suspension, the main question left hanging is how such a man ever reached a position of power for which he was obviously unfit. What sickness in British politics produced the hallucination of merit in Johnson’s candidacy for No 10?