Boris Johnson only benefits from the idea he might be merely a semi-comic buffoon as well as a wit. Clearly, he has wit but he uses the comic mask as one that enables him to move around behind it in ways that are quite ruthless. If Johnson is both comic and provocative, it means he can portray opponents as boring comic book leftists.
Whether of not Johnson has a 'Churchill Factor' is highly dubious. He's clearly manoeuvring himself towards becoming PM in future and seemed quite amused that the snap election called by May backfired on her badly. He looked quite perky, grinning as he denied any ambition to take over from May.
Even so, Johnson is dangerous. In his foreign policy, he would seem to be quite supportive of President Trump. At present, there is a diplomatic war between Qatar And Saudi Arabia and while he has called for a resolution of this, he has tended to align with both Trump and Netanyahu in regarding Iran as the major threat.
Qatar's tilt towards Iran against Saudi Arabia, and the scramble for control between Iranian backed forces and US supported ones in eastern Syria as the power of ISIS collapses, could mean a clash between the Western Powers an Iran is brewing in the near future. A Third Lebanon War is looming closer as well.
Trump is not well regarded in Britain, so if May and Johnson were to try to pledge British support for US over military strikes against either Assad or Iran, this would detonate controversy within Britain and the opportunity for Johnson, flanked by Gove, to try and bring out divisions within the PLP over the 'special relationship'.
Johnson might be considered a comic figure. But it's in the serious political poses he might strike where he is at his most buffoonish, in line with large number of Britain's incompetent governing elites as they lurch from crisis to crisis domestically. In both the US and Britain, the potential of blundering into war abroad is increasing.
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