*15 June 2023* Former UK PM Boris Johnson resigned from Parliament last week in a fit of rage, blaming everyone and everything apart from himself. Max Hastings wrote a trenchant analysis of Johnson’s character in [The Times](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5389e1cc-0890-11ee-997e-7710367054a0?shareToken=0c580d69318a09a6462d77f3de47e741) “He is perhaps the most selfish human being I have ever met, indifferent to the welfare of anyone save himself… He is a stranger to truth, a lifelong liar about big things and small.” This mirrors what a former journalist who knew Johnson quite well told me a few years ago - namely that he was the most amoral person he had ever met. I met Johnson when he was President of the Oxford Union and I was earnestly trying (wearing my MRA hat) to reach out to students with a message that positive change in the world depends on each of us starting with change in the way we live our lives. E.g. choosing to be unselfish rather than selfish. Clearly, my efforts to get this across to Johnson were ineffective! I happened to read this article recently [https://www.iofc.ch/stories/1966-buth-diu](https://www.iofc.ch/stories/1966-buth-diu) about a South Sudanese leader 50 years ago who forged friendships with political rivals. What struck me most was what one of them said: ‘I learned from Buth Diu’s example that the settling of problems does not depend primarily on technicalities and formal approaches.  Basic solutions come from a cure to the weaknesses of human nature – pride, fear, hatred and suspicion. These can be replaced by forgiveness, love and common targets for the wellbeing of a nation…” Perhaps we may be coming to a point in history where the importance of honesty, trustworthiness, selflessness, etc, are better understood as the most essential characteristics for political leadership - and by extension for all of us - if our democracy is to survive.