The Guardian (June 3)
Covid-19 has not given Boris Johnson “the Churchillian moment that he imagined. It has proved too big for him.” Both “personally and politically, Johnson has had a bad pandemic. This is not what he thought being prime minister would be like.” At this point, Johnson just wants to wash his hands of Covid-19 and “get back to being the leader of Brexit Britain.”
Bloomberg (April 7)
“Welcome to the table, Mr. Abe. Japan’s been waiting” for leadership. The Prime Minister’s “fiscal package may look bold, but action is late.”
Tags: Abe, Action, Bold, Fiscal package, Japan, Leadership, Prime minister, Waiting
The Guardian (September 12)
“Here the issue… is that a British prime minister persists in asserting the impossible. He demands that Britain leave the European single market but with a gaping hole in its border, in Ireland. He wants a border and no border.” A no-deal Brexit would cause “chaos” in a worst case scenario, but “in Ireland it is physically impossible.”
Tags: Border, Brexit, Chaos, EU, Impossible, Ireland, No-deal, Prime minister, Single market, UK
New York Times (July 23)
“Boris Johnson, to whom lying comes as easily as breathing, is on the verge of becoming prime minister. He faces the most complex and intractable political crisis to affect Britain since 1945…. His premiership could bring about the end of Britain itself.”
Tags: Britain, Complex, End, Intractable, Johnson, Lying, Political crisis, Prime minister, UK
The Independent (June 19)
“In the Tory leadership debate, the rare glimmers of truth were even more painful than the lies. It was an ingenious new method of national torture. Five would be prime ministers, appealing to reason, but knowing that in the end, only the psychopaths will decide.”
Tags: Debate, Ingenious, Leadership, Lies, Painful, Prime minister, Psychopaths, Reason, Torture, Tory, Truth
The Times (December 9)
“This week, parliament’s Brexit drama reaches its climax, resulting perhaps in a nation set on a course that no one seems to think is in the national interest, or the collapse of a government, or the fall of a prime minister. Barring a last-minute miracle, Theresa May has lost her final battle. Her big push has failed.”
Tags: Brexit, Climax, Collapse, Failed, Government, May, National interest, Parliament, Prime minister
Wall Street Journal (October 22)
“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won his third consecutive landslide victory on Sunday. That doesn’t mean voters are enamored of the man who is on track to become Japan’s longest-serving leader. Local commentators attribute his victory to TINA, short for ‘there is no alternative,’ and they have a point.”
Tags: Abe, Alternative, Japan, Landslide, Prime minister, TINA, Victory, Voters
Reuters (June 9)
“Despite her dramatic electoral upset, British Prime Minister Theresa May appears determined to stay in office. In the short term, she could yet manage it. But the longer-term consequences may well be disastrous for her country.”
Tags: Consequences, Determined, Disastrous, Dramatic, May, Prime minister, UK, Upset
The Economist (January 28)
The upcoming White House visit by the UK’s Prime Minister will be “a study in awkwardness: the mother superior dropping in on the Playboy Mansion.” Theresa May is not a natural fan of the Donald. “So why is Mrs May hurrying to Washington? Because Brexit compels Britain’s leaders to show that the country has powerful allies.” She “is desperate to line up a Britain-America trade deal that can be closed as soon as Brexit takes place, probably in 2019.”
Tags: Allies, Awkwardness, Brexit, Desperate, Prime minister, Theresa May, Trade deal, UK, Visit, White House
Financial Times (October 3)
“By announcing that she will start the formal negotiations for Britain to leave the EU by March 2017, the prime minister has walked into a trap. She has given away what little leverage Britain has in the negotiations — without receiving any of the assurances that she needs to achieve a successful outcome.” This will allow the EU to “simply run the clock down — knowing that the UK will be in an increasingly difficult situation.”
Tags: Assurances, Britain, EU, Leverage, May, Negotiations, Outcome, Prime minister
