Not mine, off social media, but very good input on your question:
There are many examples in history of wise advice to kings or those who aspired to kingship. I wondered what advice, in times of yore, a wiser and less indulgent parent than Stanley Johnson might have imparted to Boris, at this stage in his kingship of his little part of the world. I think it might have gone something like this:
“From the Christian canon, fornicate not, be not a glutton, and be not proud. Shit not upon thy friends, or verily, even thy enemies, as ye ascend, for surely, they will shit upon thee tenfold as ye pass the other way. Treat the fair sex with chivalry and throw not wine upon their furnishings when in your cups.
“Prate not: eschew flowery modes of discourse and the speech of knaves, viz. ‘picanninies’ and such, and boast not that thy realm exceeds all other realms, for surely, thy subjects do don a clout one leg at a time, as do all other men. If thou knowest not whereof thou speak, say nought, especially of science and natural philosophy.
“Speak the truth in all things, and reflect on the wise words of the pugilist sage, Michaelus Tysonius, who said ‘Yea, every man hath a plan, until he be smitten in the mouth’, for verily ye know the truth of this by now. Lastly consider the wisdom of the Buddha of the East, whose teachings to his followers can be condensed thus: ‘Try in all things not to be as a phallus’. Fare thee well, my son.”
John Hall ● 2336d