Every once in a while there is some national event, often a state funeral or act of remembrance, where all the previous prime ministers or heads of state sill living are present. Watching on television it is interesting to see them gathered in one place, and one wonders what conversations might have taken place behind the scenes before or after the event.

It is also a convention that outgoing leaders who have retired from politics refrain from public comment on the actions of their successors; a convention mind, not by any means a rule.

In the UK, Boris Johnson’s predecessor still holds a seat in the House of Commons and is well within her rights to join in the debate in the chamber.

Today, however, something very unique in politics took place which I at least cannot remember ever happening before in the UK, and I’m not sure it has happened in the Netherlands either for that matter.

At the moment there are 5 former UK Prime Ministers ( 3 Conservative and 2 Labour) still living, and over the last few days, all of them have spoken out about Mr Johnson’s proposed bill to allow parliament to modify certain clauses in the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU retrospectively. All of them expressed misgivings, some indeed went a lot further in criticising the proposals.

David Cameron, the man responsible for actually having the Brexit referendum take place, and probably the man with more reason than most to keep out of the limelight, was restrained in his comments, but like his colleague former PMs, he did ring the alarm bell.

As Gordon Brown put it, it may be that this is a negotiating tactic (in respect of the trade agreement with the EU from 2021) and that Boris might be hoping that a figure like Angela Merkel might intervene to help the negotiations along.

Personally, I don’t see it. Why would Mrs Merkel want to burn her fingers on an issue where all the former holders of the office of PM in the UK, several of which she has worked alongside, have criticised the current PM’s tactics?

I am old fashioned. I like to see a leader that comes over as genuinely sympathetic to the people of the country. Of course any leader has to take tough decisions at times, be ruthless even. Boris Johnson is a loose cannon however. He opens his mouth and ends up contradicting himself further down the line. His infamous ‘oven-ready’ deal with the EU turned out to be a bogus promise – there was nothing oven-ready about it. Now he has the gall to suggest the UK will welch on an international treaty if it suits his purpose further down the road.

This is the man that got stuck half way along a zip wire when carrying out a photo opportunity as Mayor of London. The sight of him just hanging there gleefully waving a Union flag in each hand just never leaves one’s mind.

This is the man who just before the Brexit campaign had written conflicting articles, one supporting continued membership of the EU and the other arguing for leaving. Nobody knew right up to the last minute which way he would jump.

This is the man I thought might become a little milder following his spell in intensive care when he suffered from Covid-19. One of the very few national leaders in the world with such a personal brush with corona, surely that would have made him think? I have seen no evidence of that.

Even without the shadows of his predecessors behind him, even I can see that threatening to set aside clauses in an international treaty is a foolish path to go down. Sooner or later Mr Johnson is going to meet his Waterloo, and his entry in the history books will not be quite what he had been hoping for.