An idiot abroad, Part 2

[Emrys]

It's gotten too hot for Johnson at home, so he's headed off to Ukraine for some peace and quiet:

Ukraine crisis latest: Boris Johnson tells Vladimir Putin that Russian invasion would be a 'tragic miscalculation'

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a "tragic miscalculation."

In a statement after their phone call this evening, Downing Street said: "The leaders agreed that aggravation was in no one's interest," adding that they would work towards a "peaceful resolution" of the crisis.

However, a readout from the Kremlin said: "the unwillingness of Nato to adequately respond to the well-founded Russian concerns was noted."

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia mocked Mr Johnson as "utterly confused" and ridiculed British politicians for their "stupidity and ignorance", hurling more scorn at the West after accusing Washington of trying to provoke war.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/02/russia-ukraine-news-invasion-sanctions-nato-putin-boris-latest/

How on earth could the Russians have gained the impression that Johnson was "utterly confused" and our politicians have a tendency to to "stupidity and ignorance"?

Maybe they've been eavesdropping on our media.

Oh, God. They've found out about Liz Truss. Duck and cover!

The Russians escaped lightly, as she'd have accompanied Johnson on his trip if she hadn't caught a dose of the 'vid. As it happens, she got her sabre-rattling in pre-emptively:



Unfortunately, she tried to follow up this threat to stop laundering quite so much of Putin's cronies' dirty lucre (and presumably refusing to accept any more Tory Party donations in rubles) at some point in the indeterminate future by venturing into joined-up thinking. It didn't go well ...



The Daily Mail, not usually known for being over-critical of the Tories, treated this to a banner headline and the dreaded Bullet Points of Doom:

Russia mocks 'utterly confused' Boris Johnson and ridicules Liz Truss for her 'poor geography knowledge' after she boasted UK would supply 'our Baltic allies across the Black Sea'

* Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, attacked Boris Johnson as 'utterly confused'
* Comes after PM cancelled a call with Putin on Monday amid partygate scandal
* Russian foreign ministry slammed Liz Truss for 'poor geography knowledge'
* Comes after she said UK backs 'Baltic allies across the Black Sea' - two different bodies of water located 700 miles apart

Johnson himself, grinning like a vapid goon, was relegated to economy class for a confab with an unimpressed Russian bigwig:



This was a little less embarrassing than his arrival to meet Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine:

Link to tweet

What indeed! A longer clip shows the speedy interloper haring at Olympic pace all the way from around the corner of the building.

It was not, in fact, a mugger, but Johnson's Head of Operations, Shelley Williams-Walker. Who's she?



If she'd stuck like glue to him on this occasion, she could have saved herself some sprinting.

Williams-Walker is a woman of many talents. Her most recent previous claim to fame came when details were revealed about the party at Downing Street on the night before Prince Philip's funeral:

Fortunately for Johnson, he was absent at Chequers during those revels. “Everyone was lathered,” said one who went. Shelley Williams-Walker, Johnson’s head of operations, has been identified as the DJ and as the person who broke a swing belonging to Wilfred, the prime minister’s toddler, as the event spiralled out of control.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-boris-johnson-finally-sunk-t9ndpfwks

So what was in the red folder Williams-Walker was so desperate to snatch from Johnson? We can only conjecture. It looks similar to, but less bulky than, the red folder he's resting his hand on in the plane meeting pictured above, so he's obviously allowed some written materials, if only as a prop. But he does have form for having a big loose-lipped mouth (as a result, during his term as Foreign Secretary, Theresa May restricted the government materials he had access to) and being habitually careless, to say the least, with official papers at his Downing Street flat:

Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former senior aide, has signalled that further revelations about the prime minister’s chaotic administration are likely as long as he remains in post. This weekend two sources have revealed that in early 2020 Cummings ordered a crackdown on highly classified intelligence papers being put in Johnson’s ministerial red box.

It is understood that he acted after visiting the family flat and finding highly classified “STRAP” material, easily identifiable because it is printed on pink paper, lying around where it could be read by any visitor. It was also found in the upstairs quarters at Chequers.

One source compared the scene, where Carrie Johnson entertained friends, to “a frat house”.

Cummings and Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s principal private secretary, agreed the prime minister should only be given sensitive papers for signature in his office. “Cummings spoke to the PPS and they agreed on new protocols to stop sensitive STRAP material going to the flat or upstairs at Chequers,” one former No 10 source said. “Instead material was to be shown to the PM downstairs in No 10 or Chequers then immediately returned to safekeeping.”

A third source said Johnson’s ministerial box was left outside the door of the flat on Saturdays. “It would be there in the morning and often still there in the evening,” the official said. “He wouldn’t have touched it.”

STRAP-level papers are typically documents classified as “top secret”, which require a greater level of vetting to access and they are distributed only to named individuals on a tightly controlled list.

However, it has now emerged that, as part of Sue Gray’s investigation into lockdown socialising in the flat, “several” of Carrie Johnson’s friends were given the access code Pin to go in and out of the Downing Street flat at will.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-boris-johnson-wriggling-free-of-partygate-hn9rlbkrw

Much as Johnson's capable of wandering around a hospital during the COVID crisis without a mask despite repeated reminders, he's no doubt capable of wandering into high-stakes meetings with sensitive papers, and conceivably forgetting to take them with him when he takes his leave. Who knows? This may have happened before. Or maybe they've been told to tighten things up after the Times's revelations.

Anyway, I guess we'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out how he intends to embarrass the country next.

[Ziggysmom]

1. I thought this would be about Karl Pilkington. He's adorable 🥰 Boris, not cute at all.