Strange though it might seem now, at the beginning of 2020 Boris Johnson came close to achieving his childhood ambition of being ‘World King’. Johnson had led the Conservative party to its first decent majority since 1987 the previous month, was in the process of ‘getting Brexit done’ with an ‘oven-ready deal’ and was airily dismissing rumours about the ‘Wu-Flu’ with the indomitable air of a winner who will not have his victory lap interrupted by anyone or anything.