" In an age when politicians are judged first of all on personality, when the public assumes all of them to be deceitful, and when it’s easier and much more pleasurable to laugh about a political issue than to think about it, Johnson’s apparent self-deprecating honesty and lack of concern for his own dignity were bound to make him a hit. "

― Jonathan Coe , Marginal Notes, Doubtful Statements: Non-fiction, 1990-2013