President Donald J. Trump and the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly (Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen)
In The American Spectator, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., explains that with the ascension of Boris Johnson to the Prime Ministership, the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom will be as strong as ever. He writes (abridged):
There is the musty smell of a police state here in old London, or should I say an inchoate police state? The present mayor, Sadiq Khan, is of the Left and he shares the Left’s lust for power.
Boris Johnson is headed for the helm of the Conservative Party. In two weeks, some 160,000 Conservative Party members will vote for their next leader, and it looks today like it will be Boris. He will take over from Prime Minister Theresa May, who was undone by Brexit.
As surely as Donald Trump enlivened American government, Boris will enliven British government and in time even send the statists in London packing.
Last week, as things looked better and better for Boris, he said in an enthusiastic interview with London’s Daily Telegraph that “I will set out a vision for Britain as the greatest place on earth. The greatest place to be, the greatest place to live, to raise a family. The greatest place to send your kids to school, the greatest, the greatest place to breathe clean air … ” He went on like that, introducing each thought or rather each offering with “the greatest.” It was probably the longest concatenation of “the greatest”s on record. Once again, he put me in mind of Donald Trump.
Boris will end Britain’s entanglement with the European Union, and for those “remainers” who object to leaving the EU and worry that Brexit will damage the economy, he points out that there is no sign of that danger and Brexit has been in the air for some two years. Moreover, Boris plans half a dozen tax-free zones throughout Britain where trade will be tax-free, much as Singapore is tax-free.
Our president and Boris have talked about things they have in common. Boris knows that the president brought the bust of Winston Churchill back into the White House after President Barack Obama exiled Winston for his colonial policies — or maybe because Obama did not like Winston’s cigar smoke.
I have been visiting London for a week to see old friends and to attend the London Spectator’s annual party. Boris was once editor, from 1999 to 2005. So when I gathered with the assembled Spectatorians, I expected to find a lot of support for Boris — but it turns out there was support not only for Boris but for President Trump, as well. In the past here in the UK, Spectatorians have usually been tepid toward our president. Some would even be categorized as Never Trumpers. The winds of history have shifted once again. Now they accept our president and, of course, welcome Boris to Number 10. Some even applaud our president. The special relationship between these two English-speaking countries that Obama had sought to end is as strong as ever.
Read more here.
