May makes Boris Johnson foreign secretary

Teetonetal

ICBM said:

It's a brilliant move. It puts a huge amount of responsibility on him, makes his followers think he's got a big reward and neutralises him as a threat to her leadership all at the same time. He's well-known and popular abroad, and if it all goes wrong with the EU negotiations, guess who gets the blame…

And he gets to feel very uncomfortable talking to Obama.

Win.

Although, it means that the position of foreign secretary is held by an d absolute idiot. In the countries best interest? not so sure.

Heartfeltdawn

Teetonetal said:

ICBM said:

It's a brilliant move. It puts a huge amount of responsibility on him, makes his followers think he's got a big reward and neutralises him as a threat to her leadership all at the same time. He's well-known and popular abroad, and if it all goes wrong with the EU negotiations, guess who gets the blame…

And he gets to feel very uncomfortable talking to Obama.

Win.

Although, it means that the position of foreign secretary is held by an d absolute idiot. In the countries best interest? not so sure.

If the EU negotiations go wrong, then it'll land at the feet of David Davis. You don't bring a guy like that back into the fold and render him neutral in terms of power, same with Liam Fox. Boris is there as the frontman, the bloke they can parachute into Shanghai to big up Britain. The hard talk will come from others.

hungrymark

Come off it, Boris is no idiot. I actually think he'll do OK. He's a smart chap who'll know to toe May's line. Good move by May, if you ask me, who apparently doesn't like him much. Keeps him on something of a leash, and foreign secretary isn't really a high profile position as far as the UK media is concerned (how often do you see them in the news?), so it keeps him out of the way too. 

ESchap

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer .....

JezWynd

quarky said:

Gove takes Boris out of the running for PM to pave the way for May. May needs to give Boris a position in the cabinet, where he can rehabilitate himself to some degree, allow May to ride out the storm of the next year or so, and then challenge for leadership shortly after, the next election, where he will give Gove a senior position in the cabinet. the drippings off his nose.

FTFY.

Smart move on May's part.

Nitefly

I don't think he'll do too badly - he seemed to do a good job in China when London picked up the Olympics from Beijing.

monquixote

It's either inspired, or insane and possibly both.

NickL

It's quite a clever tactical move, and Obama did the same with Hillary Clinton in his first term. Give the biggest rival the foreign ministry - it's too big a job for them to turn down without looking petulant, they're bound by collective cabinet responsibility and they're out of the country (and the media) a lot of the time. The EU negotiations have been spun off to a new department and if anything important happens number 10 takes over foreign affairs anyway.

monquixote

If you think his meeting with Obama will be frosty then imagine what his Turkey trip will be like

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/19/boris-johnson-wins-most-offensive-erdogan-poem-competition

littlegreenman

He'll need to step up, drop the public persona of Bumbling Idiot and start acting like a proper grown-up politician, which is a good thing as he's had it too easy in the game for too long. Time to start earning his keep, as it were.

Shrewd moves all round from May it seems. Sky cycling may have a contender for the moniker of Team Death Star

Axe_meister

I would have stuck him in education. He's good at union negotiations, would be a welcome change from the last few ministers and the kids like him

scrumhalf

paulk said:

Bojo is in charge of MI6. Just think about that.

I  think that the opposite may prove to be true.

It's a very clever move, it's time for him to pee or get off the pot.

Lodious

I think she put Boris in post to make it really, really obvious to Gove that he's fucked his career :-)

DesVegas

He's got to be only a few years away from the Prince Philip mentality of foreign policy. Hooray!

HAL9000

Mayday! Mayday!

Heartfeltdawn

Lodious said:

I think she put Boris in post to make it really, really obvious to Gove that he's fucked his career :-)

That's be the same Boris who in the last four months or so has gone from various stages of career:

-the brave man risking it all by joining Leave
-the heir aparent now Leave has won
-career absolutely fucked after Gove denoucned him
-the Sun saying that his career was in tatters and that he was at the end of his political life. 
-And now Foreign Secretary

Joining Boris in the career revival bar today has been Liam Fox and David Davis. 

So having seen those three coming back from the dead, what makes you so sure that Gove is now fucked forever? 

nickb_boy

Not a fan of Angela but her reaction is priceless about Boris' new appointment

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2016/jul/14/theyve-made-him-foreign-secretary-boris-johnsons-elevation-stuns-angela-eagle-video?CMP

siremoon

paulk said:

Bojo is in charge of MI6. Just think about that.

Not really.  The security services are largely overseen by the JIC which comes under the Cabinet Office

siremoon

Obama is going to be off the scene in a few months and in any event the opposite number in the US Government to the Foreign Secretary is the Secretary of State not the president

Chalky

You've got to hand it to Boris - he is exceptionally well known on the world stage. His opposite numbers in other countries probably envy his public recognition levels.