Johnson is causing Brextreme damage
BREXIT and coronavirus are twin monsters which together illuminate the fatal incompetence of Boris Johnson.
The desperate, high-stakes brinkmanship to salvage a vital EU trade agreement is a reminder that the PM’s election-winning, oven-ready deal was another one of his lies.
Johnson, a lazy chancer who makes things up as he goes along then shirks responsibility when they go wrong, is unable to charm EU chiefs Michel Barnier and Ursula von der Leyen.
They are serious operators at a serious moment. Charlatan Johnson was heard singing Waltzing Matilda in Downing Street, preparing to scream that he has secured an Australian-type pact if talks collapse.
The Oz wheeze would be another Johnson distortion, no comprehensive free trade deal existing and Australia relying largely on job- destroying, price-rising WTO terms. UK chief negotiator David Frost’s prediction four years ago that Britain would be forced into concessions by 27 other countries is the key to a deal, however it is dressed up by No10.
Nostalgic sovereignty fanned by Johnson would not pay for another 2% fall in national income on top of 4% already lost, or the wages of 50,000 new customs agents checking forms.
The jobs of 12,000 fisher folk are not on the line, but he is prepared to throw us overboard, his false promises, betraying everyone.
The fact remains that erecting trading barriers with neighbours would inflict permanent harm. We would suf fer graver economic damage than that inflicted by the virus, when much – not all, but most – of the Covidsuppressed business will bounce back.
Johnson and his referendum henchman Michael Gove are despairing, realising the technicolour vision painted in 2016 was a myth.
The worry is they don’t know what they are doing, confidence in them further dented by Brextremist Environment Minister George Eustice appearing to be unaware our European Health Insurance Cards will be useless on the Continent with no deal.
Johnson was unlucky to be swamped by Covid, but he is an author of Brexit. Britain’s misfortune is that a grievously flawed man is Prime Minister during both.