Sir, – In his leaving speech, Boris Johnson described the Tory political system as Darwinian. He may be misunderstanding survival of fittest as selection of the best. The process does not drive improvements in quite that way.
Nevertheless the comparison may be apt.
In a Darwinian system, whatever lends an advantage over direct competitors in a given environment may be preferentially selected, although that does not mean a characteristic that has served a creature well in the past will continue to be an advantage in the future, or that increases in that characteristic are always beneficial .
A certain comfort with lying probably confers some advantages in politics and may be selected for. However, there may also be a point where lying becomes too much. In that sense Johnson’s supposed eccentric relationship with the truth might place him in a similar category as the Irish Elk, which once found itself in demand for its large antlers, but eventually went extinct after it allowed them grow too big. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Dublin 6W.