Boris Johnson should pick fights with conservative institutions

YOUR COLUMNIST joined The Economist in 1988, at Thatcherism’s high tide. Sluggish institutions were being electrified, and long-suppressed energies unleashed. He is leaving during another Conservative revolution. But this time the chance of success looks slimmer. Boris Johnson lacks Margaret Thatcher’s self-discipline and command of detail, as demonstrated by his bizarre speech to the Confederation of British Industry, a lobby group, on November 22nd. The prime minister lost his place, mimicked car sounds and waxed lyrical about a children’s television character, Peppa Pig.