The Churchill Factor
But 2021 is nothing like 1941
Seven years ago, Boris Johnson published ‘The Churchill Factor’, a book that one erudite reviewer described as “a self-aggrandising pot-boiler”.
Today, he gets to channel his hero alongside US president Joe Biden.
In a somewhat self-regarding reprisal, Mr Johnson will play Churchill to Mr Biden’s Roosevelt as the two men sign a new Atlantic charter.
The original 1941 document prefigured a new world order after the second world war. The 2021 version is supposed to show that the US and UK can help frame a post-Covid order.
Pomp and circumstance are the currency of politics — its business is premised on leveraging imagery. Human beings have a visual culture- thousands of years ago, it was cave paintings; today, it’s selfies. Political images are often carefully chosen to convey a very specific message.
Signing a new Atlantic charter is meant to convey an image of power, strength — and resolve — o…
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