James O'Brien's Analysis Of Boris Johnson's U-Turn is Devastating
28 February 2018, 10:50
James O'Brien accused Boris Johnson of "weapons-grade imbecility" after making another U-turn on the issue of the Northern Irish border post-Brexit.
In a letter to Theresa May yesterday, the Foreign Secretary said a hard border with Ireland would not significantly affect trade across the UK's land border.
That is the precise opposite of what he argued about the border just three months ago, when he said it would be unthinkable and political madness.
Speaking on his LBC show, James said: "He has argued black and white. He has argued City and United. In binary terms, he has argued one and zero. He has actually managed to pin his colours to both masts.
"We sat here three shows running and asked people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland whether or not they could foresee any solution to these problems that didn't involve either building a hard border where there is currently none or moving the border essentially to the Irish Sea?
"The European Union has has endorsed that position by stating effectively that if you are to not have a hard border in place, then you would have to effectively keep Northern Ireland in the Customs Union and the Single Market.
"And today Boris Johnson agrees with them, although it doesn't look like that because what he's not saying is 'We have no choice'. What he is saying is 'Oh crikey, looks like I got it wrong on the hard border we are going to have to build it, because the alternative is to admit the truth, that we didn't understand what we were doing, that we still don't understand what we're doing, that we're utterly ill-equipped, that we're swapping a three-course dinner for a packet of crisps.'
"Either you start telling the truth now or you undertake epic u-turns. You undertake reverse ferrets that give reverse ferrets a bad name. And that's what Boris Johnson is doing.
"BorisJohnson is electing to contradict himself rather than tell the truth, because he believes he'll get away with it. And I think he's probably right.
"I don't think anybody now is going to turn around and say I believed him in November and I don't believe him now so I have to stop supporting him, I have to stop believing him. I think it's gone so psychological, it's gone so culty now that it doesn't matter what he says.
"He could literally jump out of an aeroplane with you and tell you that there's no such thing as gravity, Literally it's reached borderline Trumpian proportions when he talks about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters being so stupid that they still love him, they still believe he hadn't done it. That's where Boris Johnson is this morning."
