It's that he's so great he really doesn't mind who gets the credit for his greatness. He's the type of guy who can make history on a Monday afternoon and by Tuesday morning just rather you talked about something else because, come on, this really isn't all about him. Because none of this is about him. It really isn't. He's not in it for himself. He just wants to do right by the people of Northern Ireland and now he's gone there just to tell them exactly that.
The morning after the historic announcement of the historic Windsor Framework, there he was, doing a BBC radio interview in Belfast, telling them: "This isn't about me, this is about the people of Northern Ireland and what's best for them." And you can forgive him the pious tone, the studied manner of the Man Who Just Cared Too Much About Everybody Else. He only cares about others. And the people of Northern Ireland can now be left in no doubt about who's got their best interests at heart.
It's definitely not, for example, John Major, or Tony Blair, who went there in 2016 to issue a very loud warning that Brexit would be an unmitigated disaster for the country, which it has. And it's definitely not the vast majority of people who actually live there, who voted to remain in the European Union. No, actually, it turns out it's Rishi Sunak, who ignored all these warnings, campaigned for (and voted for) Brexit - and now imagines himself to have received some kind of beatification for partly ameliorating a very small amount of the damage he has done.
This story is from the March 01, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the March 01, 2023 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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