Bloody hell.
Sorry, this is really long, but there is a piece in Libération on BJ's comparison between Brexit and Ukraine and I have never read anything like it in the French press. Gloves off, pull no punches. And all of it accurate:
Brexit-Ukraine: the indignity of Boris Johnson
In casually comparing the Ukrainian people's struggle to his country's exit from the European Union on Saturday, the British Prime Minister once again demonstrated his inconsistency. But this time the Churchill admirer has taken his abjectness to a new level that will be hard to forget.
It was nothing. A sentence in the middle of a speech. Carefully chosen to appeal to a specific audience, a very specific public, that of the members of the British Conservative Party as reshaped by Boris Johnson. A sentence in passing which, tomorrow or the day after, will be drowned out by dozens of others. The British Prime Minister believes in the collective amnesia of the masses, in the breath of time that erases yesterday's scandal in an instant. He is convinced that yesterday's outrage will be erased tomorrow by a new incident in the news or a new outrageous statement. So why deprive hold back? Boris Johnson is right, and he never holds back.
On Saturday, at the Conservative Party's spring conference, he said that the instinct of the British people is, "like the Ukrainian people, [to] choose freedom". Before giving a concrete example: "When the British people voted for Brexit in such large numbers, I don't think it was because they were hostile to foreigners. It was because they wanted the freedom to do things differently and for this country to run itself."
It was nothing. Just a few words thrown out there to a ready-made audience. It was nothing and yet it's too much. To suggest that the British have a greater desire for freedom than any other people in the world is in itself questionable. To compare the heroic resistance of the Ukrainians in the face of deadly Russian military aggression to the British vote for Brexit is just unworthy. The terror of the bombs, the injuries, the destruction, the deaths, the frantic flight, the war, in fact. And, on the other hand, Brexit. Shameful.
These words, intended - as always with Boris Johnson - to be a meaningless quip, are an insult. To the Ukrainians, of course, who are at war precisely because they dream of joining the European Union, which for them means peace and security. But also to the British, whose Prime Minister did not bat an eyelid at the idea of attending a dinner with generous donors to the Conservative Party, attended by Lubov Chernukhin, wife of a former Russian finance minister, on the same evening that Vladimir Putin launched his offensive against Ukraine. Whose Prime Minister refused to follow the advice of Britain's domestic security services and persisted in appointing his friend and donor Evgeny Lebedev - now Baron Lebedev of Siberia -, the son of a former KGB agent, to the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament, in 2020. Whose government has dragged its feet in recent weeks over finally sanctioning the dozens of oligarchs who have been hiding their millions in the UK for years - while the reception of Ukrainian refugees is subject to extremely severe entry restrictions.
The war in Ukraine is proving to be a welcome distraction for Boris Johnson from the countless scandals that haunt him. He even hoped to seize the moment to don the costume of his hero, Winston Churchill. He failed. At this game, Volodymyr Zelensky beats him hands down. The Ukrainian president was able to bring his people together with a pride and unity unseen in his country. Beneath the Russian bombs.
What has Boris Johnson done for his country? He has divided it in the face of an EU referendum orchestrated on false pretences of his own making. He has partied while the rest of the country shut itself up because of the Covid pandemic. He has mocked the Queen, the British people and the rest of the world. Now he invokes his role model. But he is no Churchill, not even a Zelensky. No courage, no bravery, not even a modicum of decency.