Cheer up Boris, the French still like you

If, as many are predicting, the wheels are about to come off Boris Johnson’s premiership, few world leaders will be as indifferent as Emmanuel Macron. He and the PM have rarely seen eye to eye. 

It may very well have been more than just a coincidence that Johnson yesterday declared Britain was ‘open for business’ just as France’s full vaccine pass came into force. The contrast is clear, as the Prime Minister surely intended. While Britain — or at least, England — is emerging from the Covid crisis, France, has in place some of the most stringent restrictions in the West. Masks remain mandatory outdoors and adults without three jabs to their arms can do little other than shop for groceries or go for a walk in the park.

But while Macron imposes on the French what some liken to China’s social credit system, his arch-enemy Johnson used a visit to a hospital in Milton Keynes on Monday to declare that ‘things are starting to get better’.