The most alarming thing about another Johnson government: we do not yet know if this is peak authoritarianism or merely the watershed

What happens to someone who lives his life seemingly oblivious to his obligation to truth, decency or other people? What happens if, after each misdemeanour, he not only escapes censure but earns reward? Does he change his ways? Or do they become worse? This week we are about to find out.

The key to understanding Boris Johnson is that he appears never to have taken responsibility for anything he has said or done. This is anchored in his professional life but extends beyond that. His rackety personal relationships are well documented. He has not taken responsibility for any of the Conservatives’ policies over nine years of austerity, or indeed his own “do or die” failure to take us out of the EU on 31st October. He has even refused to take responsibility for his own words. When recently challenged on his many offensive opinion columns, in which he deployed racist and homophobic terms, he declared that they had been taken out of context and could be “made to seem offensive." This, in reality, is the core of Johnson. It is not his fault for lying or being offensive, it is ours for being lied to and being offended. The problem is never him, but us.

The issue springs from two basic, interwoven cultures: the culture of entitlement and the culture of impunity. Because you can break any rule without consequence, there are no rules.

We see his venality. Johnson received £10,000 from JCB, owned by a prominent Brexit supporter and Tory donor, three days before he informally launched his six-month-long leadership campaign in front of a row of JCB diggers and repeatedly praised the company in his speech.

We see his cynicism. He has decried Labour anti-semitism despite his own use of racist language and failure to stand up to the open anti-semitism of his ally Viktor Orbán. He publicised the leaking of Jon Ashworth’s private conversations about Jeremy Corbyn even though they were secured dishonestly. Perhaps gravest of all, he seized upon the murder of two people at London Bridge to score political points in a way that traduced what the victims stood for. Dave Merritt this week pronounced the devastating indictment that after his son’s death Johnson had not seen a tragedy but an opportunity.

We see his evasion of scrutiny. The issue of the Andrew Neil interview was not trivial. Every leader signed up to one in principle. Johnson let Corbyn undergo a grilling, mocked his performance on social media, and then declined to sit down for the same treatment himself.

Johnson displays who he is quite openly. He will say that he is “perfectly happy to be interviewed by any interviewer called Andrew from the BBC” even as the anonymous Downing Street sources are confirming that he will not be grilled by Neil. He will tell a man in a hospital that there are no journalists present while they are both being filmed by news cameras. He will declare that his Brexit deal requires no checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland even though they are a requirement of the treaty and it cannot function without them. This is gaslighting so pure that Orwell terrified an entire generation with it: to try and convince people literally not to believe their own eyes.

Johnson is equally comfortable to display what he might do. Last week Britain’s lead Brexit counsellor in Washington, Alexandra Hall Hall, resigned and wrote that if the government’s “behaviour towards our institutions... were happening in another country... diplomats [would] have received instructions to register our concern."

This summer saw the prorogation of parliament deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court. That took place against the backdrop of a hung parliament. Armed with a majority, Johnson will in effect have unlimited power. His manifesto shows that the party intends, ominously, to “look at the broader aspects of our constitution: the relationship between the government, parliament and the courts; the functioning of the royal prerogative.” The justice secretary has even hinted at curbing tactical voting campaigns.

We do not yet know if this is peak authoritarianism or merely the watershed. The point is, it is entirely in the Conservatives’ gift. The Tory rebels have now been purged. This week they will be replaced by sycophants who owe their new careers to the prime minister. Like Trump’s Republicans, any sense of integrity or the national interest will defer to naked loyalty both to their party and leader.

Johnson would not be treated like this if he came from any other background, nor if he were a woman. The prime minister dedicates himself to nothing except his own power and his relaxed insouciance relaxes others too. The carefully dishevelled appearance and perfectly timed bumbling have been designed to amuse, and Johnson is a very accomplished comic actor. He knows only too well that people will fear him unless he makes them laugh. Then he can activate that dormant stream of the English tradition: the instinct to know your place and defer to your hereditary superiors. His genius is to convince the people that he is on their side even as they give him what he wants.

The key difference between David Cameron, Theresa May and Johnson is that Cameron and May sacrificed the country for the Conservative Party and Johnson is sacrificing it for himself. And yet he has already managed to reshape the party. Under Johnson the Tories have given way to an unyielding fanaticism.

It remains the case in this country that a jar of Marmite faces tighter advertising regulations than British democracy. The organisation First Draft, cited by the BBC, found that in the first four days of December 88 per cent of the Conservatives’ Facebook adverts contained misleading information (in that the claims had been flagged by respected fact-checking services). Without a commitment to the truth, the Conservatives are free simply to commit to winning.

This is not just about Johnson as an individual, but the normalisation of the culture he propagates. Ordinary standards simply no longer apply. His contempt for political norms and his lack of punishment for it feed each other. Party, policies and the people all become a vehicle he has free licence to drive. In just five months, Johnson has captured Britain. But this week we can choose to take it back.