{UAH} The full text: Boris Johnson's previously secret article backing Britain in the EU

Moses Nekyon,/ Frank Mujabi/ Semuwemba/ Edward p'Ojim/ Akim Jags Odong

 Boris Johnson is the arch-opportunist- a chameleon politician without any principles whatsover. The man is simply interested in power- but  like Museveni Kayiobanda-, does not believe in anything- except only if it helps him get closer to, and capture and retain power. Such men are very dangerous, as we are seeing with kayibanda.

Have a look at some of the articles I will post about Boris Johnson and his attitude towards the EU.

 Johnson worked as a journalist at the EU HQ in Brussels for many years, and was known at the time as a strong  Europhile. When he became Mayor of London, he developed ambitions to become Prime Minister, but realised that he did not really have any base in the Conservative party- which has always had two wings- a very entrenched, traditional, nationalist,and hard right made up of mainly the old- and a socially liberal pro-free trade and pro-market wing.

Johnson tried to build up his own support base by toying with both of these wings of the party- but he always made himself very elusive and could never be pinned down to any policy position. He was a buccaneering, rabble-rousing, loutish,  buffoon, appealing for the populist vote and affection. His populism certainly cut a thread, but it never won him the hearts of the ideologically driven members of a party that regards itself as a party of government and of power.

In the Brexit debate, Boris Johnson took a gamble. He did not have any strong beliefs either for REMAINING or for BREXIT. In fact he was more of a Remainer before the referendum campaign started. But he calculated that the Remain campaign would win, and if David Cameron won, he was never going to be his successor as he had already chosen his Chanchellor George Osborne to succeed him,. He therefore decided to pitch his tent in the Brexit Camp, knowing that even if they lost the referendum, he would emerge from it as the undoubted leader of the right wing faction and would be able to challenge George Osborne for the leadership of the party and for the office of Prime Minister. 

Unfortunately for him- he made mistake after mistake, despite being the face of the Brexit campaign- his political strategies were so naive and amateurish, in the end he was betrayed by Michael Gove and outwitted by  Theresa May, and saw his chance of replacing David Cameron snatched away from his very nose.

Boris Johnson is not a man any person would trust. Not even those who genuinely want a break from the UK. The red-haired tele-tubby would sup with the devil if it can get him the keys to No 10 Downing Street.

Bobby.

The full text: Boris Johnson's previously secret article backing Britain in ...

https://www.standard.co.uk › News › Politics

16 Oct 2016 - Here is Boris Johnson's previously unpublished pro-Remain article that .... This is not a fundamental reform of Britain's position in the EU, and ...

The full text: Boris Johnson's previously secret article backing Britain in the EU

Here is Boris Johnson's previously unpublished pro-Remain article that appears in The Sunday Times. The piece is revealed in a new book, All Out War, by the newspaper's political editor, Tim Shipman.

• Sunday 16 October 2016 07:45 
• 9 comments

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Boris Johnson's previously unseen article backing Britain to remain in the EU has emerged. 

The now-Foreign Secretary wrote the column just two days before firing up the Brexit debate by backing the Leave campaign. 

He announced his decision to back Brexit in a newspaper column - but also produced a separate draft backing the Remain cause.

The former Mayor's previously unseen piece is reproduced in full below:

OK OK, I admit it. If you gave him a truth drug, or hypnotised him, I don't think even the prime minister would really deny it.

This European Union deal is not perhaps everything that we would have liked. It is not what we Eurosceptics were hoping, not when the process kicked off. We were hoping he was going to get really deep down and dirty, in the way that the Bloomberg speech seemed to indicate. He was going to probe the belly of the beast and bring back British sovereignty, like Hercules bringing Eurydice (sic) back from the underworld. I had the impression that this was going to be the beginning of a wholesale repatriation of powers - over fisheries, farming, the social chapter, border controls, you name it: all those political hostages joyfully returning home like the end of Raid on Entebbe.

It was going to be a moment for the ringing of church bells and bonfires on beacons, and union flags flying from every steeple, and peasants blind drunk on non-EU approved scrumpy and beating the hedgerows with staves while singing patriotic songs about Dave the hero.

I don't think we can pretend that this is how things have turned out. This is not a fundamental reform of Britain's position in the EU, and no-one could credibly claim it is.

It is not pointless; it is not wholly insignificant; it is by no means a waste of time. But it will not stop the great machine of EU integration, and it will not stop the production of ever more EU laws - at least some of which will have deleterious effects on the economy of this country and the rest of Europe.

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Never mind the Tusk deal; look at the elephant in the room: the great beast still trampling happily on British parliamentary sovereignty, and British democracy. So there are likely to be a significant number of people - perhaps including you - who will feel that in all honour we can now only do one thing.

We said we wanted a reformed EU. We said that if we failed to get reform, then Britain could have a great future outside. We have not got a reformed EU - so: nothing for it, then - ho for the open seas! Viva Brexit! That would seem to be the logic, and yet I wonder if it is wholly correct.

Shut your eyes. Hold your breath. Think of Britain. Think of the rest of the EU. Think of the future. Think of the desire of your children and your grandchildren to live and work in other European countries; to sell things there, to make friends and perhaps to find partners there.

Ask yourself: despite all the defects and disappointments of this exercise - do you really, truly, definitely want Britain to pull out of the EU ? Now? This is a big thing to do, and there is certainly a strong political-philosophical imperative leading us to the door.

We are being outvoted ever more frequently. The ratchet of integration clicks remorselessly forward. More and more questions are now justiciable by the European Court of Justice, including that extraordinary document, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. This bestows on every one of our 500m EU citizens a legally enforceable right to do all sorts of things across all 28 states: to start a business, to choose any occupation they like, to found any type of religious school, to enjoy "academic freedom". I shudder to think what is going to happen when UK citizens start vindicating these new "rights" in Luxembourg.

Boris Johnson speech on Brexit

There is going to be more and more of this stuff ; and I can see why people might just think, to hell with it. I want out. I want to take back control of our democracy and our country.

If you feel that, I perfectly understand - because half the time I have been feeling that myself. And then the other half of the time, I have been thinking: hmmm. I like the sound of freedom; I like the sound of restoring democracy. But what are the downsides - and here we must be honest.

There are some big questions that the "out" side need to answer. Almost everyone expects there to be some sort of economic shock as a result of a Brexit. How big would it be? I am sure that the doomsters are exaggerating the fallout - but are they completely wrong? And how can we know?

And then there is the worry about Scotland, and the possibility that an English-only "leave" vote could lead to the break-up of the union. There is the Putin factor: we don't want to do anything to encourage more shirtless swaggering from the Russian leader, not in the Middle East, not anywhere.

And then there is the whole geostrategic anxiety. Britain is a great nation, a global force for good. It is surely a boon for the world and for Europe that she should be intimately engaged in the EU. This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms: the membership fee seems rather small for all that access.

Why are we so determined to turn our back on it? Shouldn't our policy be like our policy on cake - pro having it and pro eating it? Pro Europe and pro the rest of the world?

If sovereignty is the problem - and it certainly is - then maybe it is worth looking again at the prime minister's deal, because there is a case for saying it is not quite as contemptible as all that. He is the first prime minister to get us out of ever closer union, which is potentially very important with the European Court of Justice and how it interprets EU law. He has some good stuff on competition, and repealing legislation, and on protecting Britain from further integration of the euro group.

Now if this were baked into a real EU treaty, it would be very powerful. Taken together with the sovereignty clauses - which are not wholly platitudinous - you can see the outlines of a new role for Britain: friendly, involved, but not part of the federalist project.

Yes, folks, the deal's a bit of a dud, but it contains the germ of something really good. I am going to muffle my disappointment and back the prime minister.

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