Jan 21st 2021

Boris Johnson Must Change His Act 

by Chris Patten

Chris Patten is a former EU Commissioner for External Relations, Chairman of the British Conservative Party, and was the last British Governor of Hong Kong. He is currently Chancellor of Oxford University and a member of the British House of Lords.

 

LONDON – Some of the United Kingdom’s right-wing newspapers – supporters of both Brexit and its principal advocate, Prime Minister Boris Johnson – have been quick to assure us that US President Joe Biden has already forgiven the Conservative government for its obsequious cheerleading for the departed Donald Trump. The new Democratic administration, they claim, will want to do business with a UK that is now distanced from the European Union and ready to assume a new role as an influential global fixer.

Let’s hope those newspapers are correct. But Biden and his team will have to overlook quite a lot for the sake of such transatlantic goodwill. They will certainly have to turn the other cheek and forget about the UK government’s embrace of a policy that required special pleading to Trump rather than a special relationship with the United States.

That dispiriting story began with an embarrassed-looking Theresa May, Johnson’s predecessor, being told that the UK’s national interest required her to get along with the misogynist Trump. May was even prevailed upon to invite him to Britain for a sort of semi-state visit, without a carriage ride through London with the Queen but including a speech to both Houses of Parliament.

The then-Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, saved Parliament’s dignity by vetoing this idea, a decision for which he was widely criticized. Bercow now deserves some apologies from those who doubted his ability to detect a rogue.

May, a decent and honest woman, was far outdistanced by her successor and his colleagues in the Trump sycophancy stakes. In January 2017, Johnson’s senior fellow Brexiteer and principal ministerial fixer, Michael Gove (a former journalist with The Times newspaper), conducted an interview with then President-elect Trump that plumbed new depths of oleaginous toadyism.

Gove wallowed in Trump’s endorsement of Brexit. It subsequently came to light that Gove’s then-employer, Rupert Murdoch, was in the room while the interview took place. And why not? The owner of Fox News as well as The Times was entitled to keep an eye on his two protégés.

But Johnson has more substantive issues to try to explain away or forget as he seeks to build good relations with Biden. His problem is not just the contrast between what he wrote and said about Trump and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama (under whom Biden served as vice president). What really matters is what Johnson stands for and the way he behaves, which inevitably invite comparisons to Trump.

If the US-UK relationship is to be as close and productive as all who believe in liberal democracy should want, Johnson must change three aspects of his approach. First, Johnson has – to put it politely – a rather distant relationship with the truth. But as the Yale historian Tim Snyder has pointed out, post-truth politics can easily drift into something far more dangerous and sinister, particularly on the back of social media. Sooner or later, a political Pinocchio can do a great deal of damage.

Second, Johnson and most of his Brexit colleagues do not respect the UK’s vital national institutions. They have demeaned Parliament, attacked the UK’s independent judiciary, dismissed senior civil servants for ministers’ political errors, and pilloried Britain’s renowned public broadcaster – the BBC – for its efforts to provide balanced news coverage. In any liberal democracy, majoritarianism needs to be checked and balanced by the very institutions that Conservative ministers and the right-wing press have rubbished.

Third, Johnson’s government reflects too many aspects of Trumpian nativism. For “Make America Great Again,” read “Make England Great Again,” or MEGA. Johnson’s government bears the stamp of English nationalism like the words embedded in a stick of seaside rock (a hard, sugary candy sold at British coastal resorts).

We British are outside the EU now and must make the best of this self-defeating choice. But leaving Europe is an impossibility, because we remain geographically, economically, politically, and culturally part of it. We must work with our European friends – our closest neighbors and largest trade partners – in order to advance our national interest and show others that we understand how to cooperate on the international stage.

Above all, the UK needs to show a grasp of the disciplines and manners of partnership, whether we are trying to augment our soft power or use our hard power carefully and responsibly. The habit of cooperation is indispensable, whether we are addressing trade, security, or the environment; seeking to constrain brutish behavior by China and Russia; or navigating the perils of Middle East politics.

To convince the Biden administration at meetings like the planned G7 summit in June and November’s COP26 climate-change conference (both of which the UK will chair), we should first demonstrate that we are not as reckless and feckless as Trump in the way we treat allies. After all, taking cheap shots at your friends damages you more than it does them. And they will remember the patronizing insults when you next ask for their assistance.

Unfortunately, the Johnson government still has much to do to show that it can be a trusted partner. Above all, it must persuade the US and Europe that it does not regard Trump as a fitting role model for a twenty-first-century liberal democracy.


Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong and a former EU commissioner for external affairs, is Chancellor of the University of Oxford. 

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2021.
www.project-syndicate.org
 

 


This article is brought to you by Project Syndicate that is a not for profit organization.

Project Syndicate brings original, engaging, and thought-provoking commentaries by esteemed leaders and thinkers from around the world to readers everywhere. By offering incisive perspectives on our changing world from those who are shaping its economics, politics, science, and culture, Project Syndicate has created an unrivalled venue for informed public debate. Please see: www.project-syndicate.org.

Should you want to support Project Syndicate you can do it by using the PayPal icon below. Your donation is paid to Project Syndicate in full after PayPal has deducted its transaction fee. Facts & Arts neither receives information about your donation nor a commission.

 

 

Browse articles by author

More Current Affairs

Apr 27th 2009

LONDON - George W. Bush has started work on his memoirs. Count to ten before you respond.

Apr 27th 2009

The anxiety over Jacob Zuma's election as president of South Africa obscures a significant milestone: for the first time in decades, a sub-Saharan nation has at its helm a champion of ordinary people.

Apr 24th 2009

Barack Obama's initial statement on the torture memos and his remarks at CIA headquarters suggested that the release of the facts of the case would be accompanied by a policy of refraining from prosecutions.

Apr 23rd 2009

Former CIA Director Hayden and Bush's Attorney General Mukasey published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week that argued, in essence, that using torture works.

Apr 22nd 2009

One of the more momentous power shifts in the last 500 years is taking place as we sift through the debris of America's busted credit bubble.

Apr 22nd 2009

Salman Rushdie's latest novel "The Enchantress of Florence", is a magical flight of the imagination that amounts to more than fine literature. It is a rare feat of mental discipline, produced as a fatwa hangs over the author.

Apr 21st 2009

LONDON - All epoch-defining events are the result of conjunctures - the correlation of normally unconnected events that jolt humanity out of a rut.

Apr 20th 2009

President Obama's recent trips to the G-20 in Europe and the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad have underscored his fundamental realignment of American foreign policy - a shift that will make America both militarily and economically more secure.

Apr 18th 2009

President Obama's statement on releasing the Bush-era torture memos is a curious and depressing document, but it bears the marks of having been revised with care by the president himself. He takes the occasion to assure the country that a dark age has passed.

Apr 17th 2009

Several callers ringing the middle-brow Radio 4 station in England a fortnight ago were concerned about one thing: that placing disestablishment of the Church of England back on the agenda was a serious mistake.

Apr 15th 2009

PRINCETON - Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation.

Apr 14th 2009
Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere.
· It is a country of 8.2 million people ..
    Apr 14th 2009

    While the President is off being the leader of the free world and trying to restore prosperity at home, someone needs to manage the blind trust of the Democratic Party before its assets dwindle like shares of Citigroup.

    Apr 14th 2009

    NEW YORK - Mild signs that the rate of economic contraction is slowing in the United States, China, and other parts of the world have led many economists to forecast that positive growth will return to the US in the second half of the year, and that a similar recovery w

    Apr 11th 2009

    Knowledge workers of all varieties are reviving the old chest-high desk as the best way to stay on their toes. Indeed, if you're having trouble keeping a clear mind when you stare at your computer screen (now, for example), maybe it's not your eyes.

    Apr 9th 2009

    NEW YORK - This year is likely to be the worst for the global economy since World War II, with the World Bank estimating a decline of up to 2%.