I don’t mean in narrow political terms, though it would clearly boost Johnson’s prospects of retaining his job. That’s a question we can ask with or without the Gray report. Will the Johnson effect spread beyond Westminster, so that even among regular people the taboo on lying erodes? That requires trust, and trust requires truth-telling.”But there is a third zone, between parliament and day-to-day life: namely, our public institutions. If Johnson’s lies go unpunished, that will surely alter the norms that currently govern, say, senior civil servants.

Source: The Guardian January 29, 2022 11:09 UTC