Boris Johnson broke his own lockdown rules

WHEN SOMEBODY has a lucky escape do they learn from their mistake, or are they emboldened to make the next one? That was the question facing Britain on April 12th after the prime minister, along with his wife and chancellor, received a “fixed penalty notice”—a small fine—for a get-together during the covid-19 lockdowns. The answer, alas, is that Boris Johnson has form. However repentant he now is in public, in private he will be revelling in his knack for wriggling out of the tightest spots like a greased piglet. For Britain, that is not a good outcome.For several weeks, starting towards the end of last year, “Partygate” looked as if it might end Mr Johnson’s political career. Revelations emerged that the prime minister and his staff had been boozing at one knees-up after another, in breach of the government’s own covid rules. Mr Johnson first told Parliament there had been no parties. When that proved false, he said he had not known about them. When he was shown to have been at several, he denied that they were really parties. When it was said he had been warned, he seemed to suggest that he had misunderstood his own government’s rules.