BritainBagehotA certain idea of BritainGeneral de Gaulle has some important lessons for Boris JohnsonBoris johnson is taking a fortnight’s holiday in Scotland,armed with a volume of Lucretius, William Boyd’s novel “Any Human Heart” and Brendan Simms’s “Britain’s Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation”.Few would begrudge him his break:he has lived a lifetime in the past year, having got divorced and remarried, had another child,almost died of covid-19 and struggled with the worst crisis since the second world war.But Bagehot would nevertheless suggest adding a fourth book to his pile―Julian Jackson’s “A Certain Idea of France: The Life of De Gaulle”.Though hefty, the book is enthralling, and offers a wealth of ideas with which to fill the empty box labelled “Johnsonism”.Mr Johnson is keen on great men.He has written a biography of his hero Churchilland, modesty not coming naturally to a man who as a child announced that he would become “world king”,has recently taken to comparing himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt.But in many ways de Gaulle is a better fit than either.The French president saw eye to eye with Britain’s prime minister on the biggest issues.He regarded the nation-state as the basic building-block of civilisation.He opposed Britain’s membership of the EU on the grounds that Britain by its nature “looks to the sea, towards wider horizons”.
英国板块白芝浩专栏对英国的某种看法戴高乐将军对鲍里斯・约翰逊的一些重要的借鉴作用鲍里斯・约翰逊正在苏格兰度假两周，他带着一本卢克莱修的书、还有威廉・博伊德的《赤子之心》、以及布伦丹・西姆斯的《Britain’s Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation》。几乎没有人会对他的休假感到不满：在过去的一年里，他把自己的一生都给过了，离婚又再婚，又生了一个孩子，几乎死于新冠肺炎，还与二战以来爆发的最严重的危机作斗争。但是笔者还是建议在他的书集里再加上第四本书――朱利安・杰克逊的《法国的一个想法:夏尔・戴高乐的生活》。这本书虽然篇幅宏大，却引人入胜，还蕴含丰富的思想，可以填补“约翰逊主义”的空白。约翰逊崇敬伟人。他曾为英雄丘吉尔写了一本传记，约翰逊并不是天性谦逊的的人，他打小就宣称自己将成为“世界之王”，他最近将自己自比为富兰克林・德拉诺・罗斯福。但从很多方面来看，相比这两者，约翰逊更像戴高乐。这位法国总统在一些最大的问题上，与英国首相意见一致。戴高乐认为单一民族的独立国家是文明的基本组成部分。他反对英国加入欧盟，理由是英国本质上“以英吉利海峡为天堑，冷眼旁观于欧陆霸权棋局之外”。
