History will be kind to Boris Johnson: Paul Bristow MP

 In 2019, Boris Johnson secured the biggest Tory majority since the Eighties, winning the hearts and minds of a nation with his positivity and “cheeky chap” charisma. When we look back years from now, history will be kind.

By 

Paul Bristow 9 July 2022

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson sacked Michael Gove as he tried to sling on to his job (Gareth Fuller/PA)

 / PA Wire

In two-and-a-half years, and during a pandemic, our Prime Minister was delivering what Great Britain wanted. Investment in our NHS; a tougher stance on law and order (with thousands more police officers); legislation to crackdown on illegal immigration; huge investment in housing, schools and infrastructure. And, perhaps most importantly, he ‘got Brexit done’, overcoming toxic political deadlock to ensure the UK would be what its citizens demanded — an independent, sovereign nation.

Yet he was also astute enough to understand that the independence and sovereignty of other nations were worth defending. With Johnson at the helm, the UK led the way in offering Ukraine its full support to oppose Vladimir Putin’s brutal, unprovoked invasion. Under his leadership, Ukraine has received game-changing military equipment, training, and humanitarian aid — significantly helping Ukrainian troops and civilians defend against the mad man of Moscow. Subsequently, Johnson has garnered respect and admiration across Ukraine, with Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday calling him a ‘true friend of Ukraine’ and expressing his ‘sadness’ over the Prime Minister’s resignation.

I share this sadness. We cannot underestimate the resignation’s potential implications, not only for the UK but for Ukraine. Johnson’s departure may send ripples throughout Europe at a time when unity and leadership is a necessity.

It is a shame that those who toiled so relentlessly in pursuit of his downfall have failed to acknowledge this. Many have struggled to reconcile themselves with Brexit — embarking on a calculated, often obsessive, campaign of revenge. Rather than focusing on the war and massacre of Ukrainians, they have displayed an alarming negligence in priorities. Cake over Kyiv. Beer over Bucha.

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However, our eyes remain open to the horrors taking place in Ukraine and as the Prime Minister reiterated in his resignation speech yesterday, the Conservative Party, and the people of Great Britain, will “continue to back Ukraine’s fight for freedom for as long as it takes”.

Paul Bristow is the Conservative MP for Peterborough

https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/paul-bristow-mp-history-will-be-kind-to-boris-johnson-b1011100.html?

Brexit: UK leaves the European Union single market

31 Dec 2020

Evening Standard

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Subscribe to the Evening Standard on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RQ... The UK is free to pursue independent trade policies for the first time in more than four decades after the Brexit transition period with the European Union came to an end. Membership of the single market and customs union expired at 11pm – four and a half years after the in-out referendum which sought to settle the issue but sparked political turmoil. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the EU had provided the UK with a “safe European home” during the 1970s, but the country has now “changed out of all recognition” with global perspectives. His Christmas Eve deal with Brussels, which comes into effect immediately, allows for the continuation of tariff-free trade with the EU single market – though businesses and individuals will have to follow new rules. Read more: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/fi... Correction: At 0:10, the word January should say December

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Brexit leaves Emmanuel Macron with a dilemma

Given recent cross-channel provocations, it would hardly be surprising to learn that the French are quite happy to see the back of us. 

4 March 2020

SOPHIE PEDDER 

French President Emmanuel Macron ( AFP via Getty Images )

Boris Johnson last year referred to our nearest neighbours as “turds”, in a comment that had to be cut from a BBC documentary. French President Emmanuel Macron is playing tough on a new trade deal, has accused Leavers of lying and only just managed a friendly word on our departure.

In reality, the French have long had mixed feeling about our presence in Europe. They twice refused to let us in. Two years before the referendum, the former French PM Michel Rocard spoke for many when he wrote: “Amis anglais: Just leave, before you break everything”. 

But now that we have gone, I think that a sense of loss is dawning on the French. Around 60 per cent told a recent poll that Brexit would be bad for France. “The void left by the British departure is of an almost philosophical order,” Le Monde reported.

The British are those pesky outspoken neighbours that everyone grumbles about until they move on and are strangely missed. “I will never celebrate Brexit,” Macron told me in January at his new year’s press reception. 

The truth is that Brexit leaves the French with a dilemma. Without the UK, France finds itself in an awkward place inside Europe: alone as a big power, face-to-face with Germany. Given current tensions, this is not a comfortable spot to be. The Germans feel the same way.

On the future trade deal, the French will certainly push Brussels to act tough. The French want their fishermen to keep trawling in British waters and will insist on “level playing-field” rules in return for preferential access to the single market. Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian thinks that the two sides will “rip each other apart”.

Yet, at a time of shifting geopolitical forces, the French are also acutely aware of the need to keep working closely with the UK on diplomacy and defence and security policy. Over Iran or climate change, Britain is more closely aligned with France than the US. Ask any senior French military figure which other European armed forces they would choose to work alongside and there is no hesitation, it is Britain’s.

Macron is still trying to work Johnson out. They may be polar opposites yet they are also both “insider-outsiders”, members of an educational elite who seized power by political insurrection. And each is pragmatic. They may end up working surprisingly well together.

My best bet is that the pair will tread warily, at times hugging each other close, at others turning their backs on one another. But Brexit will prompt neither unqualified French relief nor rejection. The French kept us out. Once in, many wanted us to leave. Now that we’re off, au revoir is tinged with regret.

Sophie Pedder is The Economist Paris bureau chief and author of “Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the quest to reinvent a nation” (Bloomsbury, 2018)​

https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/brexit-leaves-emmanuel-macron-with-a-dilemma-a4377111.html

Huw Edwards defends BBC against accusations of bias in General Election campaign coverage

Huw Edwards has hit back at suggestions of BBC bias during coverage of the General Election campaign.


STEPHANIE COCKROFT 

• 6 days ago

Huw Edwards has spoken out after the BBC was accused of bias ( BBC )

Huw Edwards has hit back at suggestions of BBC bias during coverage of the General Election campaign.

The broadcaster was criticised by both the Left and the Right in the weeks before the poll.

Edwards, 58, who led the BBC's coverage on the night after taking over from David Dimbleby, criticised "toxic cynicism and accusations of bias (from all sides)".

He wrote on LinkedIn: "You realise yet again that the real purpose of many of the attacks is to undermine trust in institutions which have been sources of stability over many decades.

"The apparent purpose, in short, is to cause chaos and confusion."

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald accused the BBC of not being impartial (PA Archive/PA Images)

He said colleagues had to resist "relentlessly vitriolic attacks" and "the sometimes appalling levels of pressure from political parties and their puppets in parts of the press and elsewhere".

Edwards, who has covered every general election since 1987, said: "We sometimes make mistakes which we deeply regret."

But the News At Ten presenter denied "the most curious notion of all (promoted with great energy by the BBC's critics on both left and right) ... that these mistakes are often 'deliberate', carefully planned to undermine one party and boost another."

His comments came as former BBC chairman Lord Grade criticised broadcasters for their response to politicians who turn down appearances or interviews.

Laura Kuenssberg

✔@bbclaurak

Worth a read in the post election rumpus on all sides https://twitter.com/huwbbc/status/1206362039544942592 …

Huw Edwards

✔@huwbbc

We are very far from being perfect at ⁦@BBCNews⁩ — but the bilge about ‘bias’ needs a response. @"GE19 - from the presenter's chair "https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ge19-from-presenters-chair-huw-edwards … on @LinkedIn

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Andrew Neil was wrong to broadcast a monologue after Boris Johnson snubbed his programme and Channel 4 should not have replaced the Prime Minister with an ice sculpture when he refused to take part in a debate , the Conservative peer said.

"The issue here is impartiality, and broadcasters have a statutory duty to respect that.

"It is not their job to use the airwaves to cajole and try to coerce politicians into interviews or to shame them publicly if they exercise their right to refuse," he wrote in the Daily Mail.

Elsewhere, senior Labour MP Andy McDonald accused the BBC of "consciously" playing a role in the party's defeat at the General Election .

During an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, presenter Justin Webb asked Mr McDonald about Labour's heavy losses and whether the party's leader played a part in that.

General Election Night: December 2019 - In pictures

Mr McDonald said: "Don't get me started on the media, Justin. I'm very worried about our public service broadcaster."

"Are you saying that the BBC was in part responsible for Mr Corbyn's loss?" Webb asked.

Mr McDonald replied: "I am saying that they played a part. I'm really worried about the drift. You've seen the catalogue of criticisms that we're making.

"We've accepted that the print media are rained against us, but my goodness me. I'm going to look at us.

"We're the important part here. We got this wrong, but if the BBC are going to hold themselves out as somehow having conducted themselves in an impartial manner, I think they've really got to have a look in the mirror. We've got a lot to say about this."

Asked if the BBC "consciously" played a part, Mr McDonald replied: "Consciously, yes."

The Prime Minister is reported to be looking into consulting on whether people who do not pay the £154.50 licence fee for watching television or BBC's iPlayer catch-up service should be prosecuted .

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/huw-edwards-bbc-election-coverage-bias-a4314586.html