Liar, Liar: Historic triumph for Parliamentary democracy as Boris Johnson flees public life - The Yorkshire Post says

The gravity of Boris Johnson’s offence is unprecedented and the committee’s ruling on it unsparing, and rightly so.

Because this was always about much more fundamental issues than people getting drunk at parties in Downing Street whilst tens of millions obeyed rules they hoped – even prayed – would mitigate a pandemic ravaging the country, leaving heartbreak and economic ruin in its wake.

This was about the foundations upon which our public life and politics stand. Honesty, truth and integrity must be their bedrock if the country is to have faith in its system of government and institutions, especially at a moment of crisis.

Boris Johnson debased all that. He held truth, honesty and integrity in contempt, regarding them as mere inconveniences to be dispensed with if they interfered with personal advantage. Rules and proper standards of behaviour were for others to follow and observe, not him. He lied and lied again glibly and shamelessly – to the public, to the Commons and finally to the committee who saw through his bluster and evasions.

Mr Johnson not only disgraced the office he held, but insulted the memory of those who died from Covid.

While grieving families all over the country wept not only for the loss of loved ones, but for being prevented from saying goodbye, the Prime Minister who exhorted them to follow the rules for the greater good broke them himself, laughingly, cynically, with glass raised in a toast.

And he insulted the NHS and care staff who had worked themselves to exhaustion trying to save lives, by telling the committee that parties in Downing Street were necessary to boost staff morale. The thought of holding such events in the midst of the horror engulfing hospitals and care homes would have been abhorrent to those working in them.

Even now, there is not a shred of contrition from Mr Johnson, no trace of decency.

Instead he offers shrill and ugly petulance, insults and personal abuse directed at the committee of MPs who weighed the evidence and reached their verdict. Mr Johnson’s insistence they pursued a vendetta amounts to nothing more than his latest lie.

It is a measure of the contempt he has for due process and the honest assessment of his actions in office that he sought to undermine the committee members’ reputations and impugn their impartiality, aided and abetted by cronies. In doing so, he has sought to mislead the public and MPs about the investigation into what went on at Downing Street, just as he misled them over the blatant flouting of rules banning gatherings in which he participated.

These are the actions of an individual lacking any moral compass beyond an unwavering desire to save his own skin, ceaselessly deflecting blame, refusing to accept responsibility and willing to argue night is day in order to serve personal ambition. To an electorate disgusted at the law-breaking under his own roof, Mr Johnson’s attitude is not only repellent, but cowardly.

When he was given notice of the committee’s findings and its recommendation of a 90-day suspension from Parliament, which would have triggered a by-election, Mr Johnson did not, it appears, countenance even for a moment making his case to voters in his constituency.

Instead, he opted to cut and run, resigning as an MP with immediate effect to escape sanction and evade accountability. Lies had not saved him, so he has run away while hurling abuse over his shoulder, a course of action that is simultaneously characteristic and utterly contemptible. But there is one thing that he cannot run from, nor bluster his way out of.

Whatever was left of Boris Johnson’s reputation is destroyed. His political career is over. There can be no comeback, no credibility, no second act in public office. Even those Conservative Party members who remained unshakeably loyal as his Premiership unravelled cannot now, in all good conscience, back him again. However many millions he makes from giving speeches or writing in the years ahead cannot buy back the public trust that gave him the prize he had craved all his life. It is fitting that the final downfall – even humiliation – of Boris Johnson should have been brought about by the Parliamentary system and procedures of accountability that he so scorned.

If honesty and integrity were alien notions to him, they were not to the MPs who sat in judgement on his actions. Dispassionately and forensically, they cut through the thicket of lies he put in their way to reach the truth.

In doing so, they bolstered our system of democracy, and emphasised the paramount importance of standards in public life. Our Parliamentary system worked, and the values that underpin it triumphed, just as they did less than a year ago when Mr Johnson was forced from office when dozens of his Ministers quit because they could no longer stomach his dishonesty.

Boris Johnson always wanted his place in history. He has it now, indelibly written by his own actions, and the record’s verdict is one from which any self-respecting person would flinch. Liar.