Just what will it take to get the great British public to question their love affair with Boris Johnson?

Back in January 2016 Donald Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s, like, incredible.” It was intended as an indication of the robustness of his support base, and to the casual observer it does appear to contain a higher degree of truth than pretty much anything else he has come out with over the last four years.

A year on from making that statement he was made President, and back here in the UK we have had the Brexit referendum, a couple of General Elections, and the crowning of Boris Johnson as our Prime Minister. So, just how far would Bojo have to go in order to alienate his core support? Would causing the deaths of innocent people be enough to make people turn, or would he have to actually be seen firing a semi-automatic before they’d reconsider their allegiances?

Well, despite even the clear displeasure of the affable Phillip Schofield, and the challenging rantings of Piers Morgan ripping every Tory Cabinet Minister a new orifice from which to spout forth, it appears that all the jaw-dropping consequences of their incompetent tackling of Covid-19 barely dents their approval ratings – Apparently, 58% of the country actually believe that the government is handling Coronavirus “very” or “somewhat” well.

And so it appears that Donald Trump’s bold claims might well be pertinent to Bojo too, even if he hasn’t actually pulled any triggers - directly at least. The question is, just how far would he have to go before these core supporters acknowledge the fact that the king may be, well. just a little bit of a phony?

Lying, getting caught lying, and being caught lying again and again doesn’t do it. Insulting black people, gay people, muslims, ordinary working people, or anyone else I’ve forgotten to mention, doesn’t do it either. Not coming back from holiday and then not attending COBRA meetings because he’s trying to sort a quick divorce before his new partner pops out his sixth, possibly seventh child, certainly doesn’t do it. Being described as utterly unfit by his former boss, and then being sacked by another  for more lying, also doesn’t do it.

So what does, just what does the man have to do for those core supporters to start questioning their loyalty?

There are some that believe that we have reached a point where many simply cannot back down, that to admit that they are wrong about this government, and BJ in particular, would mean admitting that they are wrong about many other things - and that is something they just can’t do, they are beyond the point of no return. This may well be true, but Covid-19 may well be the turning point, after all, we may all come out of lockdown as new and improved version of ourselves with a higher degree of honesty, integrity and moral probity, that will drive us all to do the right thing. On the other hand, things could just go back to normal.

I remain to be convinced that we will go through a collective change of our moral compasses just because we learnt not to shake hands and couldn’t get to the pub for a couple of months.

There are two stories though that might actually help show Bojo for who he really is. In neither of them are lives put at risk, or even endangered a little bit, but they do tell us an enormous amount about the man hiding under all that bluster. On the face of them they are both fun anecdotes, trivial in their nature, but what they show us is something else, a naked truth. Quite simply, iit is a mask, an act, he is not who he is pretending to be, he is conning us. And no matter what else we can put up with, no one likes to be made a fool of.

So Boris has a wit and a charm, and is happy to play the fool, whether he is knocking over a small child, or hanging from a zipline, always ready with a quip, as well as a learned quote from the ancients. He says a lot, and much is in jest, so we should know not to take it all so seriously, for under that friendly rough-haired head is a man with a classical education, a great thinker who’s written books and everything. And for these reasons he is often forgiven so very much. But what if they are shown not to be true. What if his buffoonery is shown to be an act switched on at will to please the crowd, and what if his great mind is shown not to be quite so razor sharp and incisive? That is when quirkiness becomes a con, his pleasantries taking the piss, and perhaps even the most dedicated of Bojo-istas may start to doubt.

The first anecdote dates back to 2013, the post-mayoral period when Bojo still thought the EU was a good thing. Appearing on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s show Big Ideas, Bojo slips in to a performance of the Iliad, in Ancient Greek. He is charming, he is witty, and he is so very very clever. He doesn’t stop just because his audience, so less educated than him, don’t understand, he drives on providing all and sundry with a demonstrably dramatic illustration of his superior intellect and eccentric quirkiness.

Except he doesn’t, it’s a con. He was actually reciting disconnected segments of the poem, and as one native Greek speaker who actually studied Ancient Greek put it, “I can confirm I understood absolutely nothing of what he is saying.” I repeat, it is a con. He is taking the piss and we are too stupid to realise that he’s not as clever as he is telling us he is.

The second story comes from Jeremy Vine and tells of Bojo turning up to give an after-dinner speech. It is a funny story of a charming man arriving late and blustering his way through, managing to forget who he is talking to and even stumbling over the punch line of a joke he spends five minutes building up to – yet managing to seduce the audience to receive a rapturous reception. It would be a great illustration of Bojo’s natural charisma, his widespread appeal, wit, sharp intellect, and ability to think on his feet, if it weren’t for the fact that Jeremy Vine happens to see him repeat the exact same performance just two years later. Not a similar performance, the exact same performance.

Again, a con. The word charade also springs to mind.

I think that many of his supporters can forgive him his eccentricities, the occasional slip of the tongue, the fact that he doesn’t always get things right, and even the broken hearts he leaves in his wake, especially if he is saying the things they want to hear. They may even forgive him for the thousands of people that have died unnecessarily from his government’s woeful mishandling of Covid-19. But can they forgive him for pretending to be something he’s not in order to get their support?

I’m not so sure, that may finally be a step too far, even for those married to his lies. He is taking the piss, and no one wants to be considered a fool.