Even by the standards of the past six years in UK politics, the last 48 hours have been chaotic. The period began with the twin resignations of health secretary Sajid Javid and chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, the latter of whom had been hired in 2020 to replace the former. It ended with Boris Johnson holed up in Downing Street, eventually relenting his position after the resignation of dozens of ministers, including one, Michelle Donelan, the education secretary, who had been hired the day before.Like Donald Trump before him, Johnson has been accused of bringing his office – and by extension the whole British political system – into disrepute through constant circumvention of normal practice. But one way in which the two men and their respective jobs differ is the amount of democratic scrutiny that they received. Even as Johnson faced his most trying 24 hours in office on Wednesday, he couldn’t hide away; instead, he was required to go to parliament and answer questions in front of hundreds of MPs baying for his blood. Then, as if that weren’t enough interrogation for one afternoon, he was obliged to attend a hearing before the Liaison Committee to receive a more protracted and forensic dressing down.