Name? Boris Johnson
Westphalian identity? British
Age? 56
Why is he in the news? This time we would like to hold him accountable for his actions, more specifically, Brexit. For the past three nights in a row, violence has dominated Belfast, stemming from anger over the Northern Ireland (Brexit) Protocol and a non-Covid friendly funeral for a former leading IRA figure..
Why do we care? It was clear from day one that a Brexit á la Johnson would remind the people of Northern Ireland of their divisions. Two months ago we warned that the tensions over the Northern Ireland (Brexit) Protocol had the potential to spark violence and unfortunately, two months later we see exactly that…Sometimes we hate being right.
Why should you care? BoJo’s actions throughout the Brexit negotiations have damaged trust between the UK and the EU. This is largely due to Bojo’s sacrificing a better solution for Northern Ireland in exchange for his hard Brexit; damaging the trust between the UK government and the Northern Irish population. Damaged trust is not a good basis for solutions and scores a 4/10 on our how much you should care scale.
Who else cares? US President Joe Biden. On Saint Patrick’s day he reiterated the importance of the Good Friday Agreement and urged all sides to remember the critical importance of it. Some have already pointed to him as mediator between the EU, the UK and the Northern Irish groups. A man with proud Irish roots and someone neither the UK nor the EU want to have on their bad side might be able to keep Boris in check (especially given that he wants a trade deal with the US).
Any further comments? We cannot stress enough how predictable and therefore preventable this mess was that Boris Johnson created. Already one year and two months ago we wrote a daily foreseeing violence…Maybe Boris should read our dailies?
