“To govern,” Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France wrote, after the devastating French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, “is to choose.” France eventually chose de Gaulle and a new republican constitution. After the Brexit referendum of 2016, a divided parliament, like the French Fourth Republic, chose indecision. The clarifying election of December 2019 changed all that, but beyond leaving the European Union and redefining its relationship with Europe, the Johnson government faces a number of hard choices. Some, like the HS2 project linking London to the North are of a domestic nature; others, like the roll-out of 5G broadband,…