Clearly British humour has no boundaries

“Clearly British humour has no boundaries” was the immediate reaction of former Belgian PM and leader of the European Liberals, Guy Verhofstadt, to the appointment of Boris Johnson as the new UK Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

Verhofstadt’s view was echoed by other leading politicians, including Labour leadership contender Angela Eagle and SNP spokesman Pete Wishart. The latter said that “We thought the new prime minister [Theresa May] didn’t have a sense of humour – she’s only gone and proven that totally wrong”. Several British and international media outlets have begun publishing lists of all the countries and politicians that Boris Johnson has insulted during the last few years. Just a few months ago, he even won £1,000 in a contest for writing the best dirty limerick about touchy Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In contrast to Johnson’s appointment, Michael Gove, Minister of Justice in David Cameron’s last cabinet, got the sack following his role in the Leave campaign and his apparent deceit against Boris Johnson in the aftermath of the referendum. It would thus appear, that Gove went for the gold by standing for the Tory leadership, but eventually lost everything in doing so.

Even close Cameron allies George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Oliver Letwin (central policy adviser and Minister in charge of the Cabinet) has left government.

In order to ensure sufficient focus on what seems to be the most pressing tasks for the new Cabinet, Theresa May has appointed experienced MP and former Tory chairman David Davis for the new Cabinet job as Secretary of State for Leaving the EU, and former Minister of Defence, Dr. Liam Fox, as Secretary of State for International Trade. Fox and Davis have thus become the central persons in charge of completing the Brexit and negotiating trade deals to replace the existing European ones.

Photo By Andrew Parsons/ i-Images released under a  CC BY-ND 2.0 license.