WHEN ministers continually press the line that it is time to “move on” from a particular topic, voters need no extraordinary gifts of perception to understand that it is one that does the government no favours, and probably one where they’ve already exhausted any line of defence they have to offer. But while it is in the nature of politics that things do move on, it does not mean that the issue, or public opinion of it, goes away.

Many of them irrevocably shape people’s judgments of individual politicians or do enormous long-term damage to parties – everyday politics eventually “moved on” after the Winter of Discontent, the Poll Tax Riots, Black Wednesday, and the Iraq War, and dozens of other damaging incidents, but that did not mean that large sections of the electorate either forgot or forgave them.

It is likely that, having escaped further penalty notices from the Metropolitan Police and, on the publication of Sue Gray’s report, having apologised (after a fashion) and offered an explanation for why he believed he had not misled the Commons (which, to say the least, not everyone found convincing), the Prime Minister will be able carry on.

Renewed and additional calls from backbench Tory MPs for him to go are not at a level that immediately endangers him, but that does not make his position comfortable, nor should it.

Many of the criticisms come from those who already hold Boris Johnson in contempt, or course, or who selectively ignore failings elsewhere. But this deplorable episode will have profoundly damaged him, and his administration, even with previous supporters, and the blame lies firmly at his own door. Even those who argue he should stay in office do so because of other factors; no one claims that what happened was anything but appalling.

It was notable that even the hapless politicians sent out to the TV studios to defend the behaviour in and around Number 10 frequently used the word “indefensible”. They had to, of course, because it was the only word for at least some of the events detailed by Ms Gray, and which led to dozens of police fines. The clearly excessive consumption of alcohol, the flagrant breaches of rules that they were imposing on the public, and the contempt for custodians and other junior members of staff who tried to object are all absolutely unforgivable.

Many opposition politicians (and some Tories) and media commentators have tried to suggest that the Met or Ms Gray’s approaches were inconsistent or inadequate, or attempted to get them to justify their conclusions. But even those who are prepared accept the view that a short toast at a leaving event might not technically have breached the rules, or at least reached the level of criminal sanction, can see that much of this behaviour clearly did.

And the facts are then stark and apparent. It does not matter if the rules were broken by special advisors and civil servants rather than politicians; it does not matter if the majority of people in a recognised “bubble” in and around Number 10 were working hard and successfully to deal with the pandemic; it does not matter if people from other political parties also broke rules, or escaped penalties.

What matters is that all of this was ultimately the responsibility of the Prime Minister (and to a certain extent, senior civil servants), and that ministers are expected to carry the can, rather than kick it down the road. Even if he did not know about the worst cases, the PM must have known that the general culture in Downing Street was altogether unacceptable, and not only a flagrant breach of the rules that his own government chose to impose, but an insult to those who, often at enormous personal cost, were abiding by them.

Mr Johnson’s longstanding belief that normal rules do not apply to him may previously have been vindicated at the polls, but he may have at last pushed that beyond breaking point. A very large number of people, justifiably incandescent about these disgraceful incidents on what is, at the least, his watch, will neither forget nor forgive him for them, even if the focus of politics moves on. If he survives to the next election, he may discover just how many.