Boris Johnson: Foreign Secretary...

[TonyGosling]

Boris Johnson blames EU 'pretensions' for Ukraine crisis
Written by: John Ashmore Posted On: 9th May 2016
Boris Johnson today ramped up the Brexit debate by claiming the European Union was responsible for the crisis in the Ukraine.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/europe/eu-policy-agenda/internationa l-affairs/news/74771/boris-johnson-blames-eu-pretensions

Boris Johnson speaking in London this morning Boris Johnson speaking in London this morning. Credit: PA
His remarks were partly a response to a speech earlier today from David Cameron in which the Prime Minister claimed Britain leaving the EU could cause a war on the continent.
In a question-and-answer session after his own speech on Europe, the former Mayor of London argued it was the EU that was itself provoking conflict.
Mr Johnson said Nato, not the EU, was the real “guarantor of peace” on the continent, and warned that the EU should not try to encroach on the alliance’s peacekeeping role.
“If you want an example of EU foreign policymaking on the hoof and the EU’s pretensions to running a defence policy that have caused real trouble, then look at what has happened in Ukraine,” he told reporters.
“I think it’s very, very important we don’t muddle up the role of the EU with the role of Nato and to say that the EU has been the guarantor of peace on our continent risks, in my view, undermining that fundamental defence architecture that is the North Atlantic Treaty alliance that has been primarily responsible for peace in our time.”
Britain Stronger in Europe spokesman James McGrory tweeted that the former London mayor was peddling a “Putin-apologist” line reminiscent of the leader of France’s far-right Front National, Marine Le Pen.

Extraordinary that in Q&A, Boris blames the EU for Ukraine. The Putin-apologist line we have seen before from Farage, Le Pen et al.

— James McGrory (@JamesMcGrory) May 9, 2016

Mr Johnson also implied that the Prime Minister had been dishonest in his speech earlier, in which he said the UK could “come to regret” leaving the bloc if it resulted in conflict.
“I don’t think the Prime Minister can seriously believe that leaving the EU would trigger war on the European continent, given that he was prepared only a few months ago to urge that people should vote Leave if they fail to get a substantially reformed EU,” Mr Johnson said.
“We have not got a substantially reformed EU, the thing is virtually identical to before. I think it’s very, very curious that the Prime Minister is now calling this referendum and warning us that World War Three is about to break out unless we vote to remain."

[TonyGosling]

Bravo for Assad – he is a vile tyrant but he has saved Palmyra from Isil
BORIS JOHNSON
Boris Johnson 27 MARCH 2016 • 10:00PM
Hostilities between the Syrian government army and ISIL militants at Fakhr al-Din al-Maani Citadel (dating back to 1230) in Palmyra
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/03/27/bravo-for-assad--he-is-a -vile-tyrant-but-he-has-saved-palmyra-fr/

I suppose it is bizarre to feel such joy at the military success of one of the vilest regimes on earth. But I cannot conceal my elation as the news comes in from Palmyra and it is reported that the Syrian army is genuinely back in control of the entire Unesco site.

There may be booby traps in the ruins, but the terrorists are at last on the run. Hooray, I say. Bravo – and keep going. Yes, I know. Assad is a monster, a dictator. He barrel-bombs his own people. His jails are full of tortured opponents. He and his father ruled for generations by the application of terror and violence – and yet there are at least two reasons why any sane person should feel a sense of satisfaction at what Assad’s troops have accomplished.

The first is that no matter how repulsive the Assad regime may be – and it is – their opponents in Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) are far, far worse. These are the people who have carved out this foul statelet in the desert, this dark star whose tractor beam of evil has sucked in so many pathetic would-be jihadists from Britain and other countries in western Europe. These are the nutjobs whose hideous ideology expressed itself again last week at Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station.

They somehow claim a religious justification for the murder and maiming of hundreds of innocent civilians. Assad’s regime may be thuggish and brutal and callous and evil in its own way. But these people are warped and sick almost beyond belief. They burn people alive – simply for holding to a slightly different version of Islam. They throw gays off cliffs or out of windows. They put their opponents in cages and then lower those cages into swimming pools, all filmed to the accompaniment of their droning music and their pompous commentary.




Let’s deal with the Devil: we should work with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad in Syria
It is time to set aside our Cold War mindset and stop being picky about our allies if we are to defeat Isil before they kill thousands more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12036184/Le ts-deal-with-the-Devil-we-should-work-with-Vladimir-Putin-and-Bashar-a l-Assad-in-Syria.html
What did Greta Garbo and Winston Churchill have in common?
They were so different in many ways yet they loved one very special town
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Boris Johnson By Boris Johnson10:00PM GMT 06 Dec 2015 CommentsComment
In the last couple of days, young people have been coming up to me in the street and asking in an accusing way: “Oi, Boris, why did you vote for war?” And I try as ever to explain that I was not voting for war. There currently is a war that is taking place in Syria.
That bestial conflict has already claimed a quarter of a million lives. I was voting to stop the war. I was voting for peace. “Yeah,” they say, “but what about the bombing? What about all the innocent people who will die? It will be their blood on your hands.”
To which I respond that innocent lives are being lost now: tens of thousands of people butchered just because they are women, or disabled, or gay, or because they belong to the wrong strand of Islam. I don’t want to have them on my conscience, and I don’t want these sickos from Daesh/Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) to continue to exult in their so‑called caliphate, and to be allowed indefinitely to promote their terrorist campaigns.....

[TonyGosling]

Boris Johnson's story-book past -
Who could have written the lugubrious and unbelievable Salisbury script?
Bo-Jo?