What a turnaround for David Cameron. As his career burnt in the ashes of a party management tactic - the EU referendum of 2016 - he was destined to go down as the worst British prime minister of modern times.
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Three years later he is only the third worst. He lost the referendum.
Theresa May failed to deliver on the result and though there is some "poisoned chalice" sympathy, she nonetheless leaves office having failed in virtually everything she set out to do. The burning injustices still burn. Brexit has not been delivered.
Now Boris Johnson takes over. I see no way this can end well for him or, more importantly, for Britain. I predict he will be even worse than his predecessors.
Those of us on the losing side of many political arguments right now need to be humble enough to admit we could be wrong, and that he may prove us all wrong.
But I have known Johnson for a long time. First as fellow a journalist. Then with him covering the Labour government I worked for. Then with both of us on the political frontline. Now with me as a commentator cum anti-Brexit campaigner and him as Prime Minister. It is hard to compute.
For I can think of no other senior position being filled by someone so unqualified to do the job, especially at this crucial time for the country.
Older readers may remember when a businessman called Michael Knighton took over Manchester United.
When I think of Johnson I think of Knighton ball-juggling on the turf at Old Trafford. It ended badly, a short, embarrassing, messy interlude.
It has been wonderful to have been in Australia in recent days, on a mental health speaking, lobbying, campaign media tour for the youth mental health organisation Orygen, and to avoid most of the horror show back home.
The general impression I get from Aussies, politicians, media, business and the general public who came to my public events in Sydney and Melbourne, is that they think, what with Brexit and now Johnson, the Mother Country has gone bonkers.
In his head Johnson is Winston Churchill. In truth he is a poundshop Trump.
He lies with much the same ease as the US President, one set of lies told to win the referendum of the public replaced by a different set of lies to win over the Tory party membership who elected him leader.
He is lazy. That doesn't mean he can't put in the hours. But they are devoted to the game of politics and media, not the hard graft of policy and delivery.
Like Trump he seeks credit for anything good - as with the London Olympics in which he played a relatively minor role and used ruthlessly to promote himself, as he does with everything he touches.
Like Trump he shifts blame when it should be his - such as his failed vanity projects in the "Boris Island" airport or the "Boris garden bridge" over the Thames.
And also think of the British-Iranian dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe languishing in Iranian jails and psychiatric units while the man who made it so much worse for her enters Downing Street to take charge of UK foreign policy.
He is lazy. That doesn't mean he can't put in the hours. But they are devoted to the game of politics and media, not the hard graft of policy and delivery.
He is dismissive of detail. He is loose with his language as well as his morals.
He is a bad judge of character. He is untrustworthy.
He has no moral compass or fixed political beliefs - hence writing two articles three years ago, one for Remain, one for Leave, before deciding that his own interests in the referendum were best served by backing Leave.
Everything he has ever done in his life has been largely about himself, his profile, his career.
That same narcissism is reflected in his personal life where, as his current girlfriend Carrie Symonds revealed in their shouting match at her flat, to which police were called, it all has to be on his terms and to hell with the consequences for others.
Fair play to him on one level - everything he set out to do he has done. Got all the top positions he sought at Eton and Oxford.
Made a real name for himself as a journalist, not least in Brussels by making up stories and - to The Daily Telegraph's eternal shame - getting away with it. Edited a magazine. Won a seat in Parliament with ease. Won two terms as mayor of London, historically a Labour City, by putting on his progressive coat. Made history in leading the winning side in the referendum. Became foreign secretary. And now the job he has always seen as his destiny, sitting in Churchill's chair.
So he has won. But now he is there his mettle will be tested as never before.
He will continue to have a large number of right-wing press sycophants who will help cover up his failings and exaggerate his successes. For a while. We have already seen how Tory ministers with one set of principles will swap them for new ones now there is a new boss in town.
But the challenges of Brexit remain. The parliamentary arithmetic is even more complicated as he loses ministers on the back of his no deal bluster.
Most importantly, Brexit is still not sorted. To sort it requires the kind of qualities I saw when Tony Blair was dealing with the Northern Ireland peace process and Gordon Brown was dealing with the global financial crisis. Relentless focus. Being across a mind-blowing amount of detail. An ability to forge relationships of trust with people of different views.
I have seen close-up how hard it is to do the job of prime minister. I have seen Boris Johnson close-up, too, over several decades. I see no way in the world that this ends well. I hope I am proven wrong. But this is one of the darkest days of my, and more importantly, Britain's life.
- Alastair Campbell, a journalist, author and mental health and anti-Brexit campaigner, was press secretary and campaign director for former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair.
