For his sake, and Britain’s, now is the time for Boris Johnson to ride off into the sunset | Max Hastings

He could resume his career as an entertainer and we might get a PM worthy of the office

At the end of The Magnificent Seven, most delightful of all westerns, there is a scene in which the elderly Mexican village sage says to Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen: Your work is done." It was time for the farmers to take over again. Following which, the two gunfighters rode away, to massacre evildoers elsewhere.

We shall dismiss scepticism about whether Boris Johnson can plausibly be compared to either Brynner or McQueen, but suggest that this is a good moment for the prime minister's chums to put to him the old Mexican's proposition: Your work is done." We might then return our governance to people willing to be interested not in farming, but instead boring stuff such as keeping the gas on and making sure children attend school.

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