Inside Out | Boris Johnson’s election victory in Brexit Britain shows the way for a gridlocked Hong Kong

After months of railing against Boris Johnson and his Rottweiler campaign to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union (EU), I stand humbled. British voters have put their trust in a political opportunist who by reputation cannot be trusted. They have provided a clear and irreversible mandate to take the UK out of the EU.

In a world riven by indecisive drift – whether over the largely theatrical impeachment of the president of the United States, the bunker paralysis of Hong Kong’s administration, the US-China trade war, or world leaders’ incapacity to wrestle with the existential challenge of climate change – the decisive closure on Brexit feels deeply cleansing.

For Britain’s endangered democracy, the Johnson landslide is profoundly important. After the biggest victory since Margaret Thatcher in 1987, Britain’s Conservative government now has an 80-seat majority to act freely on its own mandate. No fudge and muddle with uncomfortable coalition partners. No ruinous gridlock in Westminster or mind-numbing obsession with constitutional protocols.

That is the upside for Johnson. The downside is that he can no longer pin failure to progress on anyone but himself. As the SCMP’s editorial emphasised on Saturday: “A new era has begun”. After a weekend to savour his sweeping victory, Johnson returns to 10 Downing Street with a set of sobering political challenges that will test his government’s mettle.