On the face of it I have no business discussing UK affairs, as I am neither a UK passport holder nor do I come from from one of the nations forming it. Having lived and worked for a large part of my adult life in England, however, I feel I am entitled to opinions about the UK and its future, especially as my currently estranged offspring is a citizen.
Boris Johnson is an intensely ambitious man whose every action seems to be based around the gratification of his needs. As Mayor of London he seemed to excel in the PR aspect of the job, portraying the eccentric Londoner to the world and en route gathering much-needed publicity, though I'm told that he was less than perfect regarding the practical side of the job; I have no way of evaluating this retrospectively, but I do like some of the things that became reality during his tenure like the 'Boris bikes' and the 'Boris buses'. As an MP he has not really had to work hard - he was initially handed a safe Tory seat which he gave up for the mayoralty - then took on another safe seat so he could ply his trade.
He has been proven to be dishonest in his career as a journalist, and has been fired from jobs for so being. While exuding charm and bonhomie he appears to have no moral compass whatsoever, routinely distorting facts to suit his purposes. His political positions seem to depend entirely on what would produce a result for him rather than anything so complicated as the future of his country and the people he represents. His support for Brexit is typical of this, as up to that point he had portrayed himself as a supporter of the European ideal, quickly swapping sides on spotting an opportunity to strengthen his prime-ministerial ambitions. Indeed Boris's charisma played a big part in the result of the Brexit referendum, swaying undecided voters with charm and dubious facts. His subsequent elevation to the post of Foreign Secretary was, if not a complete disaster, certainly not a success, with Boris raising peoples' hackles around the world with his tactlessness and lack of gravitas, achieving little or nothing where his personal input was needed.
Boris is attempting to make Brexit his great policy, his moment of history, his great achievement, yet it is unlikely that he actually believes in it. He makes big pronouncements but with little conviction and shows no sign of actually knowing how to realistically achieve an agreement with the EU; rather, he is playing word games as if he was in an Oxford debate being clever. Though I am personally against Brexit, believing it to be damaging to a country I love but have no vote in, I would welcome being shown a plan with a realistic way forward rather than slogans, empty words and references to 'doing trade with the rest of the world', something which was never a problem in my direct experience, with my UK manufacturing company exporting as far as Japan and New Zealand, the USA and Turkey (nothing if not up on the news, your scribe...!). But are we seriously talking about importing, say, tomatoes from a Commonwealth country half way around the world, rather than from Spain next door, in today's carbon footprint dominated world? Really?
While Boris is disappointingly similar in his treatment of facts to the orange person - you know, the one with the amazing brain, all the best words, the super rich one, running the show across the ocean - he seems to at least have a tiny bit of humanity and a sense of humour; perhaps I am politely saying that he hides his nastiness under a veneer of sophistication and civility, though I sincerely hope that his nastiness is at a lower level than that other man, the one across the pond, who astounds us every day with his bullying behaviour towards anyone not offering him 'respect', much like a 'Godfather' would expect.
Stop Press: Now Mr. Johnson has taken to attempting to blackmail Parliament, showing behaviour so far beneath of what is expected of a British Prime Minister as to be practically subterranean! A place in history indeed!
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