What does Boris Johnson stand for? Perhaps his admiration for Britain’s wartime leader reveals some clues as to where the new prime minister will take the country in the 2020s

I first met Boris Johnson in early 1988. Johnson was a slightly chubby trainee reporter with The Times; I was a staff journalist with the Financial Times. He was not long out of university; I had some years under my belt. We both had a good head of hair.