Bozo EU Membership Hypocrisy

Why, the question was asked at the time, had London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, someone who had previously appeared to favour Britain’s EU membership despite the tone of many of those columns he had written for the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, come out for the Leave campaign?

After all, Bozo had also advocated for Turkey to be allowed into the European club, that the EU should not end just short of the Bosphorus. The reality, long denied by those in and around our free and fearless press, was that, as with so much else in the Johnson Oeuvre, it was all about the shameless promotion of Himself Personally Now. And it still is.

No matter that the disgraced and now former alleged Prime Minister presided over a Brexit deal that was not “oven ready” as he claimed - as if Bozo had bothered to read a word of the text - and then presided over a culture of freeloading and lawbreaking during the Pandemic while his fellow citizens, unlike him, obeyed the rules, the media still loves him.

So when he rocked up in the USA recently - being allowed in despite that criminal record, which would have led to ordinary folks being denied entry to the country - there were the local press and broadcasters, eager to hang on his every word, no matter how little the value in their transmission. Especially when the conversation turned to the conflict in Ukraine.

Bozo had been at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC. Here, he gave a speech, which was followed by a discussion with John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine. He was sound on the behaviour of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: “How can we seriously worry about provoking him when we have seen what he will do without the slightest provocation?” Indeed.

He justified leaving the EU thus: “Johnson, who served as prime minister during the war’s early months before resigning amid scandal in July, claimed that ‘it was because of Brexit’ that the United Kingdom was able to make decisions and take approaches that were ‘distinct from the old EU [European Union] approach’ on Ukraine. ‘If we’d stuck to that,’ he said, ‘I don’t believe we would have delivered’ next generation light anti-tank weapons (NLAWs)”.

So he was all in favour of leaving the EU. Or was he? “While he said he doesn’t believe that Ukraine ‘should be admitted forthwith’ into NATO, he explained that ‘once the Ukrainians have won’ the war, they should ‘begin the process of induction, both to NATO and of course to the EU.’”

So Bozo is now in favour of EU membership. But not for the UK. And his comments about what the UK could do when outside the EU should be taken with a very large pinch of salt: after all, his claim about rolling out Covid vaccines turned out to be yet another of those whoppers for which he has become, as the late Russell Harty might have put it, “famous, nay, notorious”.

The Tweeter known as Otto English was dismissive, but not surprised: “Why would Boris Johnson want Ukraine to join the EU? Why does he want it to sacrifice its sovereignty? Doesn't he want it to be free to make deals with…. Oh right yeah that was all nonsense”. It was indeed nonsense. But it got Bozo a little more time in the limelight. He was, once more, the centre of attention.

Marina Purkiss, meanwhile, was sceptical. “Boris Johnson here… Saying that Ukraine should join the EU … Does he not care about their sovereignty? Is he saying they don’t need to take back control? What if one day they need a vaccine rollout?” So why no media coverage? Over to the LBC Twitter feed.

“'Huge swathes of media can't tell you the truth about one man because they're so caught up in the corruption that he has caused.’ James O'Brien reacts to the lack of media coverage on the 'ball of grossness' that is Boris Johnson's call for Ukraine to join the EU”. It was never about principle.

No, Bozo’s advocacy of the Leave campaign was so he could promote himself. Just as he used his two terms as London Mayor to promote himself. Just like he used his editorship of the Spectator magazine to promote himself. Just like he used his time as MP for Henley to promote himself.

Hello Brexiteer Bozo boosters. You’ve been had. Have a nice day.

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