Welcome to Boris Johnson’s theatre of the absurd. But no one should laugh
- It is Britain’s funeral if it crashes out of the EU – recession and a break-up of the UK are the more likely outcomes, rather than the new prime minister’s promise of a magical revolution
- Worse, Britain risks losing its voice in the international, rules-based order it helped to build, just when the unravelling system most needs support
Within minutes of gaining Queen Elizabeth’s blessing and before entering 10 Downing Street, Johnson promised a magical revolution, in which Britain will be transformed by increased spending on education, health and social care, establishing free ports, putting 20,000 more police on the streets, and by leaving the European Union within 99 days.
Is it the promise of magic or the theatre of the absurd? Being both British and Irish, I do not know whether to laugh or to cry. Johnson’s games herald danger far beyond the small misty island that still thinks it is the centre of the earth.
So why, when everything is so economically wonderful, is Trump so determinedly destructive? He has failed to turn “Make America Great Again” into a system of government, as he fulminates against friends, frenemies and foes alike.
With his Trump-first policies, he does not care if he blows up the post-war world order, based on a common set of rules and global institutions, with US leadership of multilateral alliances.
That is why the terminal circus of British democracy matters far beyond Britain.
R.I.P. Pax Americana under Trump, a tweeting force of destruction
Cynical Johnson supporters joke that he would be happy to be governor of the 51st American state; but he may end up as its puppy poodle, given Trump’s savage xenophobic mood.
It is Britain’s funeral if it turns its back on centuries of a policy of engagement with Europe.
Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech setting out her vision for a glorious post-Brexit age with Britain as a global power, echoed by Johnson’s dream of free-trade Britain, is a deluded imperial vision at least 100 years out of date.
There is also a price for the world to pay for London’s desperate search for the rainbow of “sovereignty”.
The other looming global trade crisis created by Trump
Britain is risking its most important contribution to the post-war world – its leadership in setting up an international rules-based order, with the creation of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other institutions.
Britain allied to its French, German and other European friends could make a difference in trying to work with China and India to repair an imperilled global system.
How long will Johnson’s absurd theatre play run? It depends largely on whether any sacked member of May’s cabinet has the guts to point out that the man who told his sister he wanted to be “king of the world” has threadbare clothes, and for how long he may be able to bamboozle the British people.
But the rest of the world should not be laughing.
Kevin Rafferty has reported on the world for more than 50 years, including editing daily newspapers in more than 30 cities on six continents