In the course of a bizarre two hours before the Liaison Committee, Johnson showed undiminished abilities as a performer.
The Commons needs to go back to the drawing board and review flawed investigatory and recall arrangements.
It’s a terrible milestone and Ministers throughout the UK will be blamed. How could our governments and administrations do better next time?
This rebellion had little in common with most others, but the names of many who oppose the Government now show a certain predictability.
Growing anti-lockdown sentiment among northern Labour mayors and councils offer him new opportunities – and dangers.
If he is to take the necessary steps to get a Brexit deal (and I hope he does), he is going to have to defy those instincts on a second issue, too.
Over a third of those who asked a question during a Hancock statement yesterday were to some degree resistant to such shutdowns.
When such Brexiteers as Michael Howard and Norman Lamont are tearing into you over international law, you have just a bit of problem.
For the Party to take it off him is one thing; for the Government to recast the committee, or try to, would be quite another.
And the threat to the NHS seems distant enough to experiment with the relaxation of the two metre rule.
He would not conciliate the Liaison Committee by promising to meet it three times a year, let alone by holding an inquiry into Cummings.
A successful test, track and quarantine policy would open the door to local paths out of this national shutdown.
Amidst verbal and actual violence, it is tempting to seek to shut down, say, Farage or Lammy altogether. But politics without anger would be impossible – and undesirable.