By Eric King-
The UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has been accused of ”wild and inappropriate comments” after making reference to a world war 2 style movie .
Johnson made the reference when asked for his reaction to Francois Holland’s comments that leaving the EU would not be easy for Britain. Johnson had been wiser than usual in his response when he referred to EU leaders as the UK’s ”friends and partners”, saying it would not be in the interest of all concerned to take a beating. However, the mere reference to world war 2 appears to have been a misjudgment on the part of the Foreign Secretary, giving the serious nature of the issues at hand and the magnitude of world war 2 and all it implied.
Downing street for once jumped to the Foreign Secretary’s defence, stating that he was making a theatrical comparison, and that there is no law banning reference to wars. However, that has done little to question the discretion of the foreign secretary who is known for making alarming blunders over very serious issues from time to time. Johnson was right when he said that punitive action directed against Britain for leaving would be wrong, but the terminology used by Boris Johnson was ”escape”.
This term suggests running away from captivity, which could be considered very offensive to EU leaders and EU supporters. Most Brexiters like Johnson will indeed consider leaving the EU an escape, but supporters of the EU will see things differently. Sensitive topics like this needs to be dealt with appropriately and sensitively, something Boris Johnson often struggles to do. A bright politician he is, a skilled diplomat, he currently isn’t, but must gradually evolve into one. Whilst in the middle of negotiations, and despite the glaring opposition in sight, Boris Johnson needs to stomach some of the comments made by many of these EU leaders. They only speak from their understanding, and nobody’s understanding is so perfect that it is above flaws. Johnson has several times been accused for his once derogatory comments against President Obama, in which he accused the
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U.S president of taking the picture of Winston Churchill from the inside of the White house to outside because of his Kenyan roots. His statement was considered both offensive and misguided because it appeared to be a covert approval of the slave trade. The imprudence of Johnson’s remarks was further emphasised by the fact that he had political ambitions to become UK prime minister, an achievement he very nearly made before it eluded him at the last moment. Johnson would have had to relate directly with Obama in what would have been particularly awkward for both after such hurtful comments, but the Foreign Secretary did not consider the importance of keeping their relationship unharmed.
Boris Johnson also recently criticised the Muslim culture in Dubai
That lack of foresight was not as heightened in his last comments, but had potentially damaging effects on the negotiation process. EU leaders do not in any way want to be compared with world war 2 in any way, especially after their deep disappointment that Boris Johnson was given the post of Foreign Secretary.
The former mayor of London was accused by EU leaders of lying to British people during his campaign, and wholly exaggerating problems posed by the EU to Britain. Johnson will disagree to that charge, but cannot argue against some of the blunders that have caused great concern and been the source of embarrassment to the UK government who distanced themselves from his comments. EU leaders have been acting vindictively in their rhetoric for a while now.
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Johnson may be itching to express some critical words, but diplomacy is the precise opposite of that. Many will wonder why he chose world war 2 as his anecdote because of the potentially loaded implications that attend it. The bottom line is that whether Johnson made those comments or not, the path of Brexit is poised to be quite challenging.
Theresa May yesterday declared the inevitable position that Britain will give up on the single market since it can’t have one leg in the EU and one leg out. She expressed an optimistic outlook in which Britain will trade with the rest of the world. President-elect Trump recently announced a willingness to quickly get trade deals under way with Britain once Article 50 is triggered, an announcement that would have put an added smile on Theresa May’s face. Only time will tell how things will play out, the clock has already started ticking faster since we entered 2017.
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