The chaos in No 10 proves that Britain cannot muddle along without a written constitution any longer

The increasing fluidity of the UK system – as the ‘gentlemanly’ norms of the past hold less and less sway – cries out for a set of written rules, writes Mary Dejevsky

Maybe there are, and always were, similarities between Johnson and Trump, in their political instincts, and their view of their own exceptionalism (AP)

Calm down everyone, the UK really hasn’t been experiencing its very own “Trump moment”. No one, not even Boris Johnson, was trying to seize power, defy an election result, nor act outside the constitution. Until, and including, the moment he resigned, the prime minister was “playing within the rules”. Everything proceeded as it should have done. Crisis? What crisis?

Thus runs what might be called the “establishment” view of recent events. It is also, of course, the Johnson defence – but it goes much further than any prime ministerial self-justification. Here, speaking on the BBC Today programme on Thursday morning, as the last act of the drama was unfolding, was Lord O’Donnell, a former cabinet secretary and self-appointed keeper of the constitutional flame.

Asked for his reaction to what was going on, he suggested it was all rather “bizarre”, but that, while it was “pushing our constitutional boundaries further than probably it should”, hey – “in the end ... our system is pretty straightforward and pretty robust”. So, no, he could reassure us, he did not think there was any “Trump” moment.