With or Without Boris, Britain Is Just Old Fashioned Cool

Let’s start with the fact that, whether his name is preceded by an impressive title or not, Boris Johnson is way cooler than Joe Biden.Who can forget the sight of the larger-than-life politician, who is still prime minister despite his spectacular tumble from the pinnacle of British politics last week, walking side by side with Volodymr Zelensky in the streets of Kyiv on the first of his two trips to meet with the Ukrainian president in the aftermath of the Russian invasion? The closest Mr. Biden has gotten to Ukraine is a town on the Polish side of the border, though there have been phone calls between the two.Even Mr. Johnson’s detractors would be hard pressed to say that he ever just phoned it in. The kind of camaraderie that existed and that will likely endure between Messrs. Johnson and Zelensky is something that is a rarity in politics today: authenticity. Alone it cannot demolish Russian tanks or missiles, but it telegraphs to the world that what is happening in one accursed corner of it is not in the least bit abstract, and that something ought to be done about it beyond seizing yachts and writing checks. “The UK stands with Ukraine” reads the header on Mr. Johnson’s official LinkedIn page.Vladimir Putin’s comrades at the Kremlin, angered by Mr. Johnson’s insistence on spiriting weapons to Ukraine swifly and continuously, called him a “stupid clown” and said they didn’t care about his resignation, which, of course, means that they do. Was Mr. Johnson’s going all-in on Ukraine partly driven by the desire to look like a global leader at a time when the vultures were circling above Downing Street?No doubt, but then a British prime minister is a global leader by default. Mr. Johnson was doing his job, and quite capably at that. Throwing Mr. Putin’s camarilla into a fit is something about which he will tell his grandchildren with relish.“Boris’s faults got the better of his virtues, but his political genius will be hard to replicate,” the pro-Tory Telegraph newspaper averred. From the Spectator: “How Boris Johnson Saved My Life.” If that seems like a stretch, try substituting the subject with “Joe Biden.”Not that it is all praise. The high-octane Briton might have been ousted from his perch for reasons that seem middling compared to the problems Britain and the rest of the world are currently facing, but the chop he did get nevertheless: “Boris the cat with nine lives has finally been neutered,” the Times of London meowed. This is a man of remarkably good humor. A photo made the rounds of the British papers of the hastily called meeting last week at which Mr. Johnson realized he would not be able to plug the holes in his Conservative cabinet and the time was nigh to prepare to pass the torch. Remarkably though, everyone around that table was having a bit of a laugh — not that they were making fun of their boss, but because they are British: a nation that knows that to be serious 100 percent of the time, even in turbulent times, can be a bit of a bore.And it is Cool Britannia, lest we forget, not Boring Britannia. American politics likely won’t be half as interesting in two year’s time as it is in England right now, with all the jockeying for the top spot recalling a Shakespearean drama with all the cloaks but none of the daggers.Boris Johnson is also, for what it’s worth, cooler than President Trump. Well, maybe not as cool as the Don was back in the 1980s when his deal-making and amorous escapades put the raison in the New York Post’s d’être, but a considerably cooler cat than the tired Donald Trump who almost had to be dragged from the Oval Office when it was clearly time to go.Speaking of Mr. Trump, is there any photographic evidence of even a single cabinet meeting where his staffers looked like they were actually enjoying themselves? Does that void not say something about the state of the country he was supposedly leading?There is only one America, but at the end of the day it was Britain that gave us the Beatles. That says a lot, but not everything. Boris Johnson made good on Brexit, the United Kingdom’s exit from an economically sluggish, strategically foundering European bloc, even if a detail or two still needs to get “sorted,” as the Brits like to phrase it. But the energy, the mop of unruly hair, the global shuttle diplomacy when it was needed most — all this helped build up Britain’s brand in the post-Brexit era. Anyone who has been to London lately can attest that it is the absolute least inward-looking of any city in Europe. More than ever before, it is the place where people who want to get things done know they need to be. How ironic that Mr. Johnson, a native of New York City after all, injected some of the New York state of mind into the cosmopolis of London. It would be cool if any American politician of any political stripe could work even half that magic in Washington.

With or Without Boris, Britain Is Just Old Fashioned Cool

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