Boris Johnson has frequently used colourful metaphors to describe his views on Brexit – but his latest Shakespearian comparison has left people scratching their heads.
As the Prime Minister prepared to ram through his Brexit deal on the last day before Christmas, he reeled out a new one on us – Romeo and Juliet.
The PM told MPs the Bill must not be seen as a victory for one party or faction before adding: “This is the time when we move on and discard the old labels of Leave and Remain.
“In fact, the very words seem tired to me – as defunct as Big-enders and Little-enders, or Montagues and Capulets at the end of the play.”
Now, as any secondary school English student will tell you, they call Romeo and Juliet one of the Bard’s great tragedies for a reason.
And people watching the debate were quick to point out that the metaphor might not work in exactly the way Mr Johnson intended.
Mr Johnson also referred to the famous gag from the Peanuts comic strip, where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick, only to move it at the last moment sending him flying.
It’s possible Mr Johnson has not read the original strip that spawned the long-running joke, where Lucy pulls the ball away because she’s afraid that the stomping, clumsy child lumbering towards her at high speed will miss the target and cause her injury.
And he referred to the Greek myth of Prometheus – a comparison he first made in a widely ridiculed speech to the United Nations General Assembly this year.
In the myth, the immortal was punished by Zeus for stealing fire and chained to a rock – where his liver was pecked out by an eagle every day, only for it to grow back every night to be pecked out again.
