Boris Johnson’s majority wasn’t the worst result – his bluff has been called Things will go very wrong. A large majority allows them, at least, to go very wrong quickly and clearly

It was a terrible result. But it wasn’t the worst result. Because it was clear and there is solace in clarity.

For some time now, I have been wargaming the three possible election outcomes. Like everyone who had looked at polling in any detail, or had talked to any Labour canvassers, those three outcomes all involved Johnson winning. With no majority, with a small majority, with a large majority. For some time now, I have thought that Boris Johnson with a small majority was the worst of those three outcomes.

It’s a strange thing for a progressive to say: “if we must lose, let us at least lose badly”. But imagine for a moment Johnson with a small majority, at the mercy of the most extreme forces in politics, within and outwith his party. At the wheel, with the ERG as navigator. Needing the DUP. Terrified of Nigel Farage. Having promised an impossible trade deal by the end of 2020 and hostage to people who would have no deal rather than extend.

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The ERG is firmly back in its box. The DUP returns to a position in which its regressive views will carry the tiny weight they deserve. Nigel Farage is a laughing stock and his Brexit Party will no longer exist in a year. All this is as it should be.

Now, I’m not one of those people who think being in public office somehow magically transforms the basic character of a person for the better. We tried soothing ourselves with that fairytale when Donald Trump was first elected. Stress usually has the opposite effect.

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Nor do I think Johnson is a closet liberal, who – unshackled from the ERG – will show his true Europhile colours. But I would like Johnson to at least have the option to be a better Prime Minister than I expect him to be. It is better for the country for him to have that option. An unpopular populist can be a far more dangerous animal than a popular one.

This truly abysmal result also has the potential to cauterise the gaping wound of ineffective opposition that has plagued our body politic for so long. The simple, inescapable truth is that Johnson managed to unite the minority who still want Brexit, while Jeremy Corbyn and Swinson failed to unite the majority who do not.

Again, this is not to predict that Labour will suddenly see the light. All the early signs are that they won’t. Most people from the Jeremy Corbyn camp, this morning, have been blaming everything except their camp. “Our videos were seen by 70 million viewers”, said Momentum’s Laura Parker on the BBC this morning. Well, millions of people watched the video of Burger, the very angry cat, and it didn’t make Burger prime minister.

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Fifty three per cent of voters yesterday voted for parties that advocate a second referendum. It will, unfortunately, count for little. Ironic that while Brexiters have complained for years about their vote being ignored, the most ignored voters throughout this period are the millions of people – a majority – who continue to think Brexit is a terrible idea.

And this last point is the most dangerous pitfall a large majority carries for Johnson. He is architect and owner of Brexit and he is fresh out of excuses. There is now no obstacle in his way. No “remoaner Parliament”, no judicial reviews, no Theresa May. His bluff has been called.

He now has one year to deliver the magical Brexitland he promised. A Brexitland with no downsides; a Brexitland defended by an invisible border; in which migrants are always doctors and nurses, but never patients; which forces economic giants like the EU and the US to bend to our trading wishes. No more “the dog ate my homework”. The people expect.

The weight of such undeliverable expectation has crushed much sterner men than Johnson. Things will go very wrong. A large majority allows them, at least, to go very wrong quickly and clearly.

Alex Andreou is a writer and co-host of the Remainiacs podcast