Why Britain, with a Prime Minister called Boris Johnson, is no country for a very old man called Alfred Walden

Alfred Walden, who is 97 years old and lives in the village of Harleston in Suffolk, was born in 1924 and during his long life, Alfred has lived in a Britain governed by 19 different Prime Ministers in 21 separate governments. 

When he was a baby and boy in the 1920s Stanley Baldwin was Conservative Prime Minister. As a teenager in the 1930s it was the Labour PM Ramsay MacDonald followed by the Conservative Stanley Baldwin again and then Neville Chamberlain. When he was called up at the age of 18 in 1942 to fight in the Second World War, it was  Winston Churchill and the Coalition Government. 

After the War, when he was in his twenties, it was Clement Atlee as Labour Prime Minister followed by PM Churchill as a Conservative, followed by the Conservatives Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home. When he was in his 40s in the 1960s it was the Labour PM Harold Wilson followed by the Conservative, Edward Heath. In his 50s Labour's Jim Callaghan was followed by the Conservative Margaret Thatcher. In his mid 60s it was the Conservative PM. John Major followed in his 70s by the Labour PM, Tony Blair. When in his 80s it was Gordon Brown the Labour PM, followed by the Conservative, David Cameron. Now in his 90s, Conservative PM, Theresa May has been followed by the present Conservative incumbent Boris Johnson.

Today, Alfred had this letter published in the Guardian : 

'I am 97 this year, and have lived through the War and a lot of political turmoil over the years, but never have I felt more ashamed to be English, being represented by such a charlatan as Boris Johnson and his cronies, and their crass actions. It feels very personal that he can be so casual with our lives and livelihoods. I deserve better than this, and so does the British public'.

Alfred Walden

Definition of 'charlatan' : 

In the Middle Ages, people claiming medical skills they did not have, roamed throughout Italy, selling "medicine" that was often completely without worth. Many of these pretenders reputedly came from a village called Cerreto, and as a result, cerretano (meaning "inhabitant of Cerreto") became an epithet for a quack physician. In addition, these frauds used a practiced patter to attract customers, rather like the chatter of a circus barker. The Italian word for "chatter" is 'ciarlare', and chattering was so associated with the 'cerretano' that the spelling of the word shifted to 'ciarlatano'. By the early 17th century, we had anglicized the Italian word to 'charlatan' and adopted it as our own.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary : 'One making usually showy pretenses to knowledge or ability : FRAUD, FAKER. A charlatan willing to do and say virtually anything to remain in the spotlight'.