Boris’ hand is weaker than he pretends

Leon Gast’s 1996 When We Were Kings is one of the great sports films, indeed it may be one of the greatest of all films. It tells of the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle between the formidable George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. The received wisdom was that Foreman would be too powerful for an aging Ali trying to regain a title he had lost when he was jailed for refusing to fight in Vietnam. Ali unveiled his famous rope-a-dope ploy and encouraged Foreman to attack relentlessly — “That all you got George?” Foreman took the bait and when he was exhausted Ali knocked him out in the eighth round. Brains, tactics, courage, and focused patience won the day. Ali’s masterclass may help those trying to understand Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson’s sabre rattling, unchecked by his Brexit echo-chamber cabinet.

His brother in narcissism, President Trump, predictably, used Johnson’s appointment to tell his audience that Johnson was the “British Trump” and that “they like me over there”. However, speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi took an adult line and warned that Congress would not endorse a trade deal between Britain and America if the Belfast Agreement was jeopardised. Ms Pelosi warned that Northern Ireland was foremost in the mind of Congress as a no-deal Brexit seems ever more likely. This emasculates another Brexiteer promise — that Britain would easily strike a deal with the US after it quits the EU.