United Kingdom and Gibraltar European Union membership referendum
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It is the role of his life: Boris Johnson gives Winston Churchill the way he imagines him: unconventional, egomaniac, alone against all.
Alone against the appeasement politicians at home, but against the overpowering enemy out there on the continent: Hitler at that time. Today the EU.
Years ago, Johnson wrote a biography of his hero, and since he finally arrived in the Prime Minister's office, he staged more than ever as a revenant of the British war premier.
In the parliamentary debate on Tuesday, it seemed as if Johnson had finally reached that great moment, which he had feverishly pursued as an emulator and fan for many years.
JESSICA TAYLOR / UK PARLIAMENT / HANDOUT / EPA-EFE / REX
There they were, unmistakable, on the other side: the No-Deal-Preventers. The Britain traitors. "That's it," he shouted in the face of his opponents, "Jeremy Corbyn's surrender!" What this proposal means for the kingdom is "rolling out the white flag".
The crazy thing about this scene: Here Johnson probably did not play after the historical Churchill in the first place. But the Cinema-Churchill, for whom Gary Oldman won the Oscar for best actor in the Churchill drama "The Darkest Hour" last year.
Oldman actually gives Churchill something better than Johnson does now. Perhaps the filmmakers themselves had already seen Johnson, the cheap Churchill copy of the present, at the shoot. For example, when they introduce him by saying, "He stands only for one thing, for one thing and nothing else - Himself."
The climax of the film is Churchill's famous sub-speech of 4 July 1940, when he swore the people of the need for the Great War without negotiations. "Some may never learn it - you can not reason with a tiger when your own head is in its mouth," roars the film's Churchill. "We will defend our island, no matter what it costs!" And finally - the finale: "We will never surrender!"
Boris Johnson has certainly seen this movie. It is the role of his life.