Appointing Boris Johnson shows new British PM committed to Brexit-Steinmeier

Many economists have lowered growth forecasts for Britain and broader European Union after the referendum vote, and some predicted a recession in Britain by early 2017, as consumers and businesses might postpone spending and investment due to uncertainty, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.

“Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender”, Johnson wrote in the Sun about Obama’s purported removal of a Churchill bust from the White House.

“During the campaign he lied a lot to the British people and now it is he who has his back against the wall, his back against the wall to defend his country but also with his back against the wall so this relationship with Europe should be clear”, Ayrault told French media.

But her decision to put Johnson on the world stage dealing with foreign leaders is raising questions, largely because of Johnson’s propensity for saying exactly wrong thing at the wrong time, sometimes in the most provocative way.

The reaction to his surprise appointment as foreign secretary in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s new Conservative Cabinet has been swift and blunt: His French counterpart called him a liar, the Germans say he’s irresponsible, and a British legislator believes it’s the worst political appointment since Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.

Steinmeier said of Johnson: “He is a crafty politician, he is experienced enough…” To be honest, I find this outrageous. But it’s not just bitter for Britain.

Some of the most senior members of European governments have rounded on Johnson for the tactics he deployed during the referendum campaign.

“Astonishing” was how one MEP from Angela Merkel’s CDU party, Kai Whittaker, described Johnson’s appointment.

May said on Friday that she would not trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, a procedure through which a country withdraws from the European Union, until her government has “a United Kingdom approach and objectives for negotiations”.

Mrs May has said immigration could rise in the short term if EU citizens feel they need to get to Britain before it leaves and can impose controls on European immigration.

The man at the centre of the storm said on Thursday that given the referendum result, it was inevitable that there would be “plaster coming off the ceiling in the chancelleries of Europe”. “Clearly they are making their views known in a frank and free way”, Boris Johnson said.

“I was very pleased to receive a phone call from Secretary (John) Kerry of the United States who totally agreed with that analysis”.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner smiled widely and seemed to be holding back laughter at the news of Johnson’s appointment Wednesday, in a video that caught attention on the internet.

In a short session with reporters outside the British Foreign Office on Thursday, Johnson shrugged off in his typically colorful fashion the European expressions of horror at his appointment.

A year later, Johnson would go on to describe Hillary Clinton, who could potentially be the USA’s next president as having “dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”.

She removed long-serving finance minister George Osborne and Brexit-campaigning justice secretary Michael Gove – and stunned commentators by giving Johnson the diplomatic brief.

“His negative comments on Erdogan and Turkey are unacceptable…” “With his new responsibilities we are expecting a more positive attitude from Mr Johnson”.

But one of the most egregious comments made by the new Foreign Secretary relates to England’s colonial history in Africa.

May’s move – bravery or folly, time will tell – means Johnson will be able to command TV news coverage with a series of foreign trips.