Like it or not, Boris Johnson won’t be short of offers when he leaves office

At a recent meeting in Downing Street with the head of one of the world’s largest industrial corporations, Boris Johnson was on his usual, jokey form. That would be fine, except his guest was a serious businessman, a thinker as well as a doer.

I am told the subject of the aviation sector came up. The multinational chieftain said the market had changed, demand for wide-bodied aircraft had slipped. Mr Johnson fixed him a stare and apparently said that was a pity, since “I like a wide-body”.

His visitor was nonplussed, in all his years meeting world leaders he’d never encountered one like Mr Johnson, except for Donald Trump maybe. For three years we’ve had a comedian in Number 10. Perhaps that’s why Mr Johnson relates to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky so, that Mr Zelensky was a professional comic. But it’s hard to imagine Mr Johnson maintaining the prolonged level of intensity and selfless courage that the embattled Ukrainian leader has displayed.

Those of us who have witnessed Mr Johnson at close quarters have always known that. As a journalist he would wing it, not read reports, ignoring the detail.

As Mayor of London, his two big claims to fame were the “Boris bikes” and the Olympics of 2012. If anyone deserved credit for them it was his predecessor, Ken Livingstone – having bikes available to all in central London was dreamed up on Livingstone’s watch, and he campaigned vigorously for the games to come to London.

When Mr Johnson was in City Hall, too, I witnessed him deliver the same speech three or four times in the same year. It was the one about how he could claim to be the fourth biggest mayor in France, such were the numbers of French people to relocate to London. He also trotted out boasts about the capital being the destination of choice for oligarchs, rich Arabs and Chinese.

That’s all it was, boosterism splurged out at the rate of knots. There was no depth to his words and he made little attempt to temper what he was saying for his audience.

One was for a children’s reading charity. Some of us were wondering what on earth any of this had to do with helping disadvantaged children learn to read and obtain access to books, when, at the end, he referred to how vital it was that children learned to read, that reading was tremendously important, and wrapped up. He offered no insight whatsoever as to how this could be achieved.

People applauded, as they always do with Mr Johnson. It was a knockabout turn and yes, in a way, refreshing, compared to many of the dull speeches they were forced to endure. Good old Boris, always amusing.

God forbid, he was even clapped when he gave his “Peppa Pig” address to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). It was polite, but they showed their appreciation. As far as he was concerned, it went okay, he got through it, he entertained. On, to the next one.

That was the prevailing attitude, too, whenever you criticised Mr Johnson to his professional enablers and supporters. Their stock retort would be to listen, nod and say, “that’s Boris”. So that’s okay, then.

Seemingly, it did not matter that we had a prime minister who was unfocused, who made us the subject of ridicule on the international stage, who dealt only in quips and platitudes, who put self-interest and the pursuit of power before the national interest. Interestingly, when challenged on this, they would say that his shortcomings were of little consequence since the machinery of government would carry on regardless. This would be the same civil service for which he and his colleagues repeatedly exhibited disdain.

Apparently, according to some commentators, Mr Johnson can now look forward to earning millions on the lecture circuit. But who is going to pay a substantial fee to someone who will not have studied the brief, will, if they’re lucky, have dashed off some notes shortly before, and will not supply any takeaway message? In short, who will cough up for a re-run of Peppa Pig?

Not business, not companies or organisations that take themselves seriously, that’s for sure. Mr Johnson has expressed his contempt for them anyway by saying “fuck business”. Are they now going to turn round and reward him handsomely?

Wait, though, there will be those who crave a giggle, who see Mr Johnson as a breath of fresh air, and will stump up accordingly. In the celebrity-obsessed world in which we live, Mr Johnson is a star name. To many he’s an exotic, fascinating figure. The international community will lap up his charm and predilection for florid language. They’re not used to seeing anyone like him; he ticks the box marked “English, eccentric”.

So, he probably will not be short of offers. Perhaps he won’t be invited to give the centrepiece at Davos or the CEOs’ chief executives’ annual gathering at Sun Valley, and not the CBI, not again. It’s difficult, too, to imagine him being wooed by Chatham House to give a landmark analysis of foreign affairs or a United Nations climate change conference (early promise has given way to his usual lack of follow through in this respect). But you can see him being a draw at the fundraising gala in Scottsdale, Arizona.

They will adore him and giggle along. To think, they will doubtless say, he was once the prime minister. Sadly, we won’t be laughing.