Nobody should be surprised that a Prime Minister with a track record of lying should build his speech on a fiction.
Boris Johnson wants you to believe that Britain will be a happier, more confident place once the nightmare of Brexit is over.
That is why, he said, we will exit the European on October 31 “come what may.”
There are two major problems with these claims. Firstly, there is no guarantee we will leave on Halloween.
Secondly, Johnson knows full well, but was unwilling to share this with his audience, that when we do finally fix a departure date that will not bring any form of closure.
The next stage of Brexit will be if anything more tortuous, divisive and ugly than the last three years.
Our trading partnership, security and defence ties, data flows and customs controls with the EU all have to be negotiated.
And that is before we try to strike new trade deals with the United States, Australia, India and China.
He wants to get Brexit done without having the courage either to say how it will be done or the consequences that will follow.
In the face of gravity Johnson resorted to levity.
Completely absent from his speech was any great theme or an over-arching vision for the country anchored to a deeply-held ideology.
Johnson will always be a showman rather than a statesman.
His only substantial achievement is the creation of the stage persona known as “Boris” - a vaudeville act where you invite the audience to laugh along at your incompetence.
If a few lame jokes, bad tricks and sunny optimism are the requirements for leadership then we would have Tommy Cooper as our Prime Minister.
But Johnson’s gags were written with a poison pen.
The attacks on Parliament were no less nasty and dangerous because they were wrapped up in humour.
Johnson’s aim in this rambling and incoherent speech was dispel criticisms that he is a pound shop Donald Trump who has turned his party into a populist rump of angry, white men.
But the greatest fiction yesterday was that the country will come together again under his leadership if he ever gets Brexit over the line.
The divisions he’s sowed and the language he’s used have only created divisions rather than healed them.
