Sunday 20 March 2022

Johnson - 'crass' and 'insane'

If you haven’t yet heard or seen Johnson’s comments from the Conservative party conference, comparing Ukraine’s bloody struggle to throw off the massed hoards of Russian invaders with Britain’s vote for Brexit in 2016, there is a video clip below. For sheer crassness it takes some beating, even by his own abysmally low  standards. The inference is that the EU is somehow equivalent to Putin’s Russia as a belligerent, expansionist, imperial power intent on subjugating a continent. When you think he's reached an absolute low, he always manages to plumb new depths.

The actual clip is here:

You have to watch it and pinch yourself to believe he actually spoke the words.

To say it’s insulting is a gross understatement and would be at any time, but coming in the middle of a global crisis where the world is on the edge of a Third World War, is just incredible.

And his comments were not off the cuff. It was a prepared speech and although being political, I assume it wasn’t drafted and checked by civil servants, but presumably somebody in his entourage had a look and thought it was alright.  Or maybe they didn't. This wouldn't surprise me at all.

The speech was probably written just like his Telegraph columns, at the last minute and without much thought. The reaction this morning is incredible. There has been a tremendous backlash.

If Putin is to be defeated, and Johnson has already said he must fail, must fail, there will need to be unity among western powers, the EU, the G7, NATO and so on. But the idiot Johnson seems to think appealing to his narrow, right-wing EU-hating base in this country is more important, regardless of the damage done to the fantastic unity shown so far by most if not all democratic countries..

Wherever he goes, divisions follow.

There is a NATO meeting in Brussels next week. Biden is coming over for that and afterwards, EU leaders are expected to meet. Johnson will be at the NATO meeting and was, by some accounts, expecting to be invited to the EU’s meeting too.

I think it’s safe to assume he won’t get an invite now.

A few comments from Twitter:

The BBC:

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood:

Fabian Zuleeg:

Annette Dittert and Carl Bildt:

Guy Verhofstadt described the comments as "insane" and Donald Tusk said his words offended "Ukrainians, the British and common sense."  The commentator David Aaronovitch said, "When a statesman might make a push for unity, the PM instead insults half the population and Britain’s European allies. And for what?"

As is he couldn't make matters worse, he even went on to claim that Labour and Kier Starmer would raise a white flag to Putin:

In 1940 we had a government of national unity with both Labour, Liberal and Tory ministers working for the common good against a common enemy. We may well need one again very soon. How could that happen under Johnson?  He is totally partisan and can't see the need to demonstrate national or international unity at this critical moment.

The Sunday Times are also reporting this morning that Johnson attended a fund raising event on the night Russia invaded Ukraine. According to the paper, high-profile donors seen at the event included Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former Russian deputy finance minister.

Johnson apparently gave an introductory speech, which by all accounts amounted to listing the party’s achievements in delivering Brexit and keeping Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street.  The first 'achievement' of course had been Russia's main foreign policy objective for years and the Tories are awash with Russian money and Russian connections.

Have we ever had a worse prime minister - ever?

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