Why is Boris Johnson so scared of Emmanuel Macron?

New Statesman​

16 hours ago

Brexitworld is in a state of outrage. It is bad enough that the French president was granted a State visit to the UK in which there are fancy dinners, speeches to Parliament, meetings with the King and everyone speaks fondly of his nation. Entente amicale, indeed. But then our guest had the temerity to point out that Brexit has not gone entirely to plan.
'Many people in your country explained that Brexit would make it possible to fight more effectively against illegal immigration,' said President Macron, 'but since Brexit the UK has no migratory agreement with the EU.' This, he argued, in combination with the absence of legal routes within Europe to come to the UK, 'makes an incentive to make the crossing, precisely the opposite of what the pro-Brexit people promised.' Not done there, Macron went on to say that the British people were 'sold a lie…which is that the problem was Europe, but the problem has become Brexit'.
How very dare he? In some of our newspapers, the GB News studios and on social media, Brexiteer fury has been unconstrained. He is 'arrogant and condescending'; he is 'insulting the British people'; he has 'libelled half the country as dunces', particularly the working-classes; he has committed a 'grotesque offence against diplomacy'; his comments, according to the Shadow Home Secretary, no less, are 'damaging to democracy'; he is 'an enemy and should be treated as such'.
Not to miss out on this sudden revival of 2019 rhetoric, our former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has waded in. 'The French president is blatantly using this crisis to make a political point – namely that Brexit Britain has been unable to control its borders', thunders Johnson in the Daily Mail, shocked that anyone could stoop so low as to use a crisis to make a political point.
In the interests of his readers, however, Johnson overcomes his scruples to ask who is the 'evil genius' behind the arrival of thousands of migrants on the Kent shore, a 'daily humiliation of the British state' and a 'moral, political and economic disaster'. It is all a giant conspiracy, you see, masterminded by a 'Mr Big' (or 'Monsieur Petit', hoho!), to discredit Brexit. It is President Macron who is to blame. All these young men in boats have been 'effectively recruited by Macron to embarrass the UK'; they are his 'shock troops in his continuing jihad against Brexit'.
Having established his credentials as a statesman and serious thinker with all the authority of a distinguished former Prime Minister, Johnson proceeds to give his views on the UK-France migrant deal agreed last week. He points out that if the scheme is approved, the French expect to take about 50 people per week and that, on current numbers of migrants, only 6 per cent would be deported. This is a perfectly reasonable point. When it comes to addressing these crossings, it is not a silver bullet, as Ministers have acknowledged.
Johnson, however, does have a silver bullet. The Rwanda scheme, he says, 'doesn't mean sending back six per cent of illegals; it means sending 100 per cent of them from Kent to Kigali'.
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This is very evidently untrue. At best, Rwanda had capacity for 500 migrants in the first year, the equivalent of ten weeks of the new French arrangement. If the scale of the new deal with France is insufficient to deter migrants from crossing the channel, so was the Rwanda scheme.
Who would have expected a blatant untruth on immigration from Johnson? Truly, it is just like old times – as is the general tenor of the debate.
Macron's central argument is that the leave campaign promised that Brexit would deliver simple answers to complex problems. Sufficient numbers of people believed the promises for the country to leave, Brexit was delivered, but the problems – including illegal migration – have got worse, not better. He has a point.
What is fascinating is to observe how the Brexiteers – those who made the unfulfilled promises – have reacted. It is not to claim that Brexit has been a success and to reassure leave-voters that they have been vindicated. If pressed, many acknowledge that it has not gone well, but claim that it just has not been implemented properly.
Instead, it is to fall back on the argument that Brexit is the 'will of the people'; that the narrow victory on 23 June 2016 was a statement of eternal truth that must be forever revered and unquestioned. Our politicians might seek to divine what it means (and, obviously, those who were supportive of Brexit from the start are best placed to do so), but should not question the judgement. It has become a matter of faith.
And then comes along Emmanuel Macron. He says that the people (52 per cent of those who voted nine years ago) were wrong, that their decision was based upon untruths. Rather than venerate the wisdom of the people, he is – according to his critics – calling them stupid. He is a blasphemer from a foreign land.
For advocates of Brexit, the referendum result settled the matter. To question the decision, to compare the promises made at the time and the subsequent reality is an offensive attack on democracy. The debate must be closed down.
To some extent, as a tactic, it continues to work. Few mainstream British politicians make the argument that the 2016 result was a mistake, even if most of the public would agree. For those who remain Brexit-supporters, any criticism of Brexit is taken personally. But a mistake it surely was, and it should not be left to just President Macron to say so.
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