THERE are supermarket customers who employ more deliberation and discernment when buying a melon than Boris Johnson does when selecting his trade envoys for post-Brexit UK.
The Prime Minister has apparently appointed ten new trade envoys who will be charged with the thankless task of presenting the UK as an outward looking, dynamic economy at a time when supermarket shelves lie empty and its reputation on the international stage lies in tatters due to swingeing cuts to the international aid budget and a veritable leadership vacuum regarding the ongoing chaos in Afghanistan.
Closer examination reveals that characters of well documented jingoistic and prejudiced views such as the leader of the antediluvian DUP, Jeffrey Donaldson and Brexit’s version of Vera Lynn, Labour’s Kate Hooey are to become trade envoys for Cameroon and Ghana respectively. Whatever did these countries do to deserve this?
READ MORE: David Mundell handed top trade role by Boris Johnson's government
Ludicrously, these two flag waving throwbacks are not the worst of Johnson’s appointments. Trade envoy for Australia will be Ian Botham, an aggressive Brexiteer who admitted recently to knowing nothing of how trade agreements work or why anyone like him would be involved in them. He sounds like a perfect choice in Johnson’s Britain; intellectually challenged, an arrogant and loud mouthed boor and a man noted for his unbridled support for the Conservative party and the royal family.
Just in case anyone thought it couldn’t get worse David Mundell, erstwhile Secretary of State for Scotland pops up as trade envoy for New Zealand. Mr Mundell was as effective as a cat flap in an elephant house when promoting Scotland’s interests on the domestic and international front and I can only guess that the Prime Minister has offered him this post as a sop to get rid of him for a while to stop his perpetual threats of resignation from whatever post he finds himself in at present.
In a dysfunctional UK defined by Johnson’s distant relationship with the truth, corruption and moral cowardice, it is pathetic yet fitting to consider his choice of trade envoys. Perhaps it’s a cunning ploy to make Liz Truss appear competent. Or perhaps he recognises that previous appointees such as Prince Andrew are not really a hard act to follow.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
OVERWHELMED by the multifarious demands of being Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s aversion to due diligence may not be due to his laziness, but to his dubious mental capacity.
When Johnson was Foreign Secretary, John McKendrick, Attorney General of Anguilla said of him, “The worst Foreign Secretary we’ve ever had ... Disinterested and out of his depth.” The latter explains the former combined with chaotic work practices from Johnson’s time as a journalist with The Daily Telegraph as his boss Sir Max Hastings knows only too well.
Civil servants said that Johnson used to go to meetings “woefully underprepared”. Ex Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: “I’m afraid he’s [Johnson] shown, especially during his period as Foreign Secretary, that he doesn’t have the necessary skills and capacity [to be a leader].” Johnson’s dilatory behaviour is symptomatic of his inability to absorb detailed information and therefore he has a limited understanding of his extensive brief.
As ex-Chancellor, Philip Hammond once said “Boris has no grasp of detail.”
Sandy Gordon
Edinburgh
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