This was not just the best speech that Boris Johnson has given since becoming Prime Minister, it’s the first proper weapons-grade speech that he has given since running for the job. It showcased his gift of communication, his ability to mobilise language to uplift, enthuse and motivate. To convey a sense of cheerful mission – even when it comes to Brexit and correct the tone: seek to replace the acrimony with optimism. To say that we love Europe but after 45 years of constitutional change we need a new relationship with it. It showed use of comic metaphor.
‘If parliament were a laptop, the screen would be showing the pizza wheel of doom… if parliament were a reality TV show then the whole lot of us would have been voted out of the jungle by now.’
This teasing is so much more effective than excoriation and is a perfect antidote to the deranged, angry tone of his critics.
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