The howls of outrage at Boris’s appointment as Foreign Secretary were barely quieter than they were at the prospect, two short weeks ago, of his becoming our next prime minister.

Where does the Boris hatred come from? If it’s rooted in his belated support for Brexit, that seems rather short-sighted. Britain is, after all, about to leave the EU, so it makes perfect sense to put the most high profile Brexiteer in charge of the Foreign Office. The new prime minister, in promoting Boris, has sent a very clear and unambiguous signal to our foreign allies: it’s happening, get used to it.

So is commentators’ hostility to the Foreign Secretary based on his being a particularly Right-wing sort of Tory? That would make some sense if there were any substance to the accusation. But Johnson isn’t easily associated with any particular wing of the party – perhaps that’s a source of irritation too. If anything, his political instincts seem to be fairly socially liberal (notwithstanding his various attempts at humorous buffoonery, with unwise references to“piccaninnies” and “watermelon smiles”).
Perhaps the most serious criticism is of his failure, thus far in his career, to have actually run anything. As mayor, he was famously prone to delegate the running of London to others, preferring the publicity, the flag-waving and the zip wire act (at which he was very well suited).

Prime minister May might have been tempted to test his abilities to the limit by offering him a genuinely tough post like health or transport, forcing him to deliver in actual, measurable outcomes. But why waste Boris’s strengths and this opportunity? A genuine cosmopolitan intellectual, it’s already hard to imagine him as anything other than the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

I think this is another very sensible choice by Prime Minister May.  Boris is a high-profile maverick, with a shrewd brain behind the colourful presence.  People in other countries will be curious about him and he will attract media interest.  This is very different from the dry, understated and almost invisible Foreign Office officials during and after WWII, and so be it.  

David Fuller's view

Harried EU officials, who don’t know whether to keep bailing or jump ship, are annoyed and distracted by Boris’ appointment, although the experienced David Davis will do most of the hard Brexit negotiating.

These two columns from The Observer are amusing and revealing.