All that glitters isn’t gold…

by Pseud O'Nym

I’ve just found out from the BBC that

 Boris Johnson has promised the “beginning of a new golden age”, as he made his first Commons statement as PM.

 And a large part of me thinks, is that such a good thing? At the moment I’m reading ‘The Watchers: A secret history of the reign of Elizabeth 1’ by Stephen Alford, and whatever thoughts I had about her reign being a ‘golden age’ is largely a creation of benevolent historians. From the outset, her legitimacy to be queen was questioned, England was isolated from Europe and the country was beset by plots, intrigues and treachery. Does any of this seem pertinent to now?

 Or we could call to mind Harriet Jones vaunted ‘golden age’ when she was Prime Minister. Admittedly she was a character in ‘ Doctor Who’ but as many others have pointed out, Boris Johnson is a creation of Boris Johnson. But whilst she was P.M of a Britain in a parallel world, who knows what planet Boris is on?