Boris Johnson on Brexit: both nauseating and atrocious

He rather lacked evidence to support this absurd claim, but that didn't stop him before.

What we got was the usual rowdy performance.

However, it seems telling that when LBC presenter Nick Ferrari asked him to give Brexit a rating out of 10, he actually seemed reluctant to do so.

He qualified his answer, and it was only after he was asked whether he would give four or three out of ten, after a whole pantomime, that he opted for nine.

Mr Johnson gave Brexit a 10 out of 10 for constitutional purity, whatever that means.

He did not react directly to the huge hit to Britain's gross domestic product from Brexit, estimated by Mr Ferrari at 3.9%. Several leading forecasters have estimated the impact of Brexit on British economic output at a similar or even higher level.

And Mr Johnson did not address the presenters' argument that only a small minority of people in the UK now think Brexit went well.

Instead of addressing the huge impact on the British economy, the former prime minister instead opted to make a few jokes, talking about Germany's performance and emphasizing that it was part of the European Union.

It was typical conduct from Mr. Johnson, pretty much exactly the kind of grand proclamations and avoidance of crucial economic points that we saw when he led the country.

---

Learn more

---

He said: It's 10 out of 10 for constitutional purity.

Then we received this from Mr Johnson: In terms of outcomes for the country, it will clearly take time before it realizes its potential.

It has been more than eight years since the Brexiteers won the referendum in June 2016. And it has been almost four years since Mr Johnson and his government took the UK out of the single market at the end of 2020. He and his fellow Leavers had their technical Brexit on January 31 of the same year, but fortunately nothing much changed for the worse until the end of 2020 – at least we had another 11 months to actually benefit from the enormous benefits of being in the EU .

In case anyone forgot what those benefits were, they were the free movement of people between the UK and the European Economic Area and frictionless trade with the country's largest trading partner.

We also heard this from Mr Johnson, on Brexit, in the LBC interview: I would give him 10 out of 10 for what he allowed us to do during the pandemic and that was the biggest problem that I had during my time in government. »

Oh dear. Grasping at straws doesn't even come close.

Mr Johnson continued: I think the problem is not with the decision itself, or even the implementation of the decision, the problem is with our current use of it and the promotion of Brexit .

The problem, when considering the economic and societal damage, clearly lies in the decision itself and its implementation.

Mr Johnson's future rhetoric about defending Brexit is just hot air.

And why would anyone defend failure?

---

Learn more

---

This brings us neatly to another interview Mr Johnson has had in recent days in which Brexit was discussed, with GB News.

Mr Johnson said in that interview that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was of course seeking to reverse Brexit.

This is a baffling statement.

Sir Keir, in a position that appears extremely reckless from an economic and societal perspective, has ruled out the possibility of the UK joining the EU, the single market or even the customs union.

It's hard to know how much more specific he could have been about this.

And it is worth noting that even if Sir Keir decided to bring the UK back into the European single market (rather than the EU), as absolutely unimaginable as it may seem, he would still not reverse Brexit. on which Mr. Johnson bases his assertion.

Mr Johnson told the same things about coronavirus vaccines in his interview with GB News.

It is a very different story to the talk of ambitious and courageous new free trade deals that were launched by Mr Johnson and his fellow Brexiteers before ripping the UK out of the single market.

Of course, Brexit supporters have nowhere to hide on this issue, although that probably won't stop many of them from continuing to try to put on a good show on the trade front.

The benefits brought by the Tories' new post-Brexit free trade deals with countries like Australia and New Zealand are absolutely minimal, by the Tories' own calculations.

The trade deal promised by the United States never materialized. Regardless, the benefits estimated by the Conservatives when in power from such a deal were also absolutely insignificant compared to what was lost in terms of UK economic output as a result of Brexit.

Sir Keir, for his part, continues to talk about Brexit being a success, and did so again during his visit to Brussels earlier this month. It's an incredible notion.

The damage from Brexit was inevitable and happened exactly as expected.

Mr Johnson is grasping at straws as he continues to try to pretend Brexit was a good thing.

Yet Sir Keir refuses to do anything significant to mitigate the colossal damage underway.

He has a warmer tone towards the EU than the Tories were, and that's better than being hostile, but it amounts to a hill of beans in terms of a response with very large effects, real and ongoing Brexit.

Sir Keir wants to make some changes to the Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister may not be defending Brexit, to use Mr Johnson's own words. Perhaps it is because he knows, deep down, the damage caused by Brexit. He certainly argued quite vehemently against this madness when he was in opposition in late 2019.

However, let us make no mistake: Sir Keir has fully embraced Mr Johnson's proposed hard Brexit, which is greatly damaging to the British economy and society.