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Ministers are our servants, not our masters. They serve at Her Majesty’s — that is, the nation’s — pleasure. Today’s headlines are all about “massacre” and “carnage”, but by dismissing

virtually the entire Cabinet of his predecessor, Boris Johnson is reassuring the public that the very British principle of accountability is alive and kicking. Theresa May’s Government

failed. It has now been unceremoniously sent packing. That principle of accountability is, as he reminded us, our bone of contention with Europe, the real rationale of Brexit — “a

fundamental decision by the British people that they wanted their laws made by people that they can elect and they can remove from office”. And remove them he has, just as he knows that he

will be removed if he too fails “to fulfil the repeated promises of Parliament to the people”. When he echoes Harry Truman’s line “the buck stops here”, Boris means that his own job, too, is

at stake. By coincidence, while Boris was putting democracy into practice by sacking one minister after another, across the Channel something superficially similar was occurring in

Brussels. The incoming President of the European Commission, Dr Ursula von der Leyen, was dispatching its Secretary General, Professor Dr Martin Selmayr, to head its mission in Vienna. The

banishment of Selmayr, nicknamed “the Monster” or “the Beast of the Berlaymont”, might be seen as an olive branch to the British, who blamed him for damaging leaks during the Brexit

negotiations. But in reality this was merely the demotion of one Eurocrat as the price of another’s appointment. Mrs von der Leyen was installed against the wishes of the EU Parliament. In

return, MEPs demanded Selmayr’s head. Such politicking among unelected officials is a caricature of democratic accountability. So much for this neat contrast between British democracy and

Brussels bureaucracy in action. Boris now has three short months to do something Mrs May could not do in three long years — despite a vanishingly small majority and an army of enemies. Can

it be done? The answer was affirmative: action this day. Boris has shed blood and promised sweat. Will it end in tears? The speech in Downing Street was replete with Churchillian echoes and

delivered with gusto. “With high hearts and growing confidence we will now accelerate the work of getting ready and the ports will be ready and the banks will be ready and the factories will

be ready and business will be ready.” Such an accumulation of short Anglo-Saxon phrases is a homage to the Prime Minister who declared in 1940 that “we shall fight with growing confidence

and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and

in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” By putting Michael Gove in charge of preparing for the eventuality of a no-deal Brexit, Boris has appointed the only

minister with a track record of bending “the Blob” to his will. And by assigning overall planning to Gove’s protégé, Dominic Cummings, he hopes to repeat the success of the Vote Leave

campaign. Priti Patel as Home Secretary will keep order on the streets and Ben Wallace, a former Scots Guard, is entrusted with preparing the armed forces for emergencies. Dominic Raab at

the FCO will help, not hinder, Stephen Barclay’s bid to broker a new deal. Above all, Sajid Javid can be relied on to stop the Treasury from sabotaging no-deal preparations. Brussels now

knows that Boris means business. In his interview with Nick Robinson, Selmayr revealed that a big factor in the game of brinkmanship played last March by the Commission was the knowledge

that, while the EU was ready for no-deal, the UK was not. Now he is gone and the tables are being turned. Will Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel act quickly to head off the “disorderly”

Brexit they profess to deplore? Only the coming days and weeks will tell. To reinforce the message that this time we are serious, the “Rolls-Royce” Whitehall machine will be on its mettle as

never before. We need to know what the calculations are in the chancelleries of Europe — and how to keep one step ahead at every turn. But it is British democracy, not British diplomacy,

that will be decisive. For if Parliament decides to bottle it, Boris will be ready to go to the country. The threat of a general election, like that of no-deal, must be a credible one if it

is to concentrate Tory minds. We have the new PM’s word for it that, at his audience, the Queen told him: “I don’t know why anyone would want the job.” Never mind the breach of protocol.

(David Cameron’s was far worse: remembered him boasting that the monarch had “purred down the line” after the Scottish referendum?) As usual, the Queen spoke for her subjects. To be Prime

Minister is a beastly job just now. But Boris is a big beast and he seems up for it. We shall soon see if he is up to it. It could all end in tears. For the moment, though, it is all about

blood and sweat.