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Post 14 Jul 2016, 5:32 am

What is the world coming to?
People like Trump and Johnson used to be made fun of, now they are (or may be) in positions of power. People who insult others are now thought of as diplomats?

I thought we in the US were a bit crazy to even consider Trump, it looks like our British pals think much like we do???
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Post 14 Jul 2016, 11:21 am

Give Boris a break. He's refreshing to say the least. At least he doesn't pretend to know what he is doing. I respect him for that.
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Post 14 Jul 2016, 12:35 pm

The mistake you're making here Tom (and you're not the only one) is assuming that Boris is now in a position of power. That's not really the case. Foreign Secretary is a prestigious post, but the reality is that it isn't one that will give him any actual power at all. Over the last decade or so the Foreign Office has been steadily stripped of meaningful power. First they lost all control of foreign aid to the Dept for International Development. The DfID budget is vastly bigger than the Foreign Office budget (which is bonkers in my opinion, but nevertheless the case). Then on top of that we've just seen the creation of two new cabinet level posts with their own departments. There's the new Dept for International Trade, with responsibility for making trade agreements around the world and promoting British business. That used to be a core FO competency but will now be taken away. More importantly, we've also seen the creation of a brand new ministry responsible for handling our exit from the EU. When you strip away those responsibilities it's difficult to see what Boris is left with, especially since it's always been the case that in the event of an actual foreign policy crisis Number 10 will step in and take over. Granted, Boris is the notional head of MI6, but in reality there are all kinds of protocols for oversight of the security services which mean that he won't really have any control over them.

Boris Johnson has just been promoted to a job in which he's essentially just going to be a glorified cheerleader for Britain. I happen to think that's a job he'll be well suited to. He's fluent in French, German and Russian and he has an easy charm which people warm to. He ought to be pretty good at schmoozing dignitaries while others get on with the serious business.
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Post 17 Jul 2016, 3:32 am

dag hammarsjkold wrote:Give Boris a break. He's refreshing to say the least. At least he doesn't pretend to know what he is doing. I respect him for that.

No, he pretends he doesn't know what he's doing.