It has been nauseating and excruciating in broadly equal measure to observe Boris Johnson trying to claim Brexit has somehow been positive as he has done the rounds of media outlets in recent days.

In an interview with radio station LBC, the former prime minister claimed Brexit had been a “great thing”.

He was rather short of things with which to back up this preposterous claim but that has not stopped him before.

What we got was the usual rambunctious performance.

However, it seemed telling that, when pressed by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari to give Brexit a score out of 10, he seemed reluctant indeed to do so.

He qualified his answer, and it was only after he was asked if he would give it four or three out of 10, after quite the pantomime, that he went for nine.

Mr Johnson gave Brexit 10 out of 10 for “constitutional purity”, whatever that means.

He did not respond directly to the huge hit to UK gross domestic product from Brexit, put by Mr Ferrari at 3.9%. Several heavyweight forecasters have estimated the impact of Brexit on UK economic output at a similar quantum or even greater.

And Mr Johnson did not engage with the presenter’s point that only a small minority of people in the UK now believe Brexit has gone well.

Rather, instead of addressing the huge impact on the UK economy, the former prime minister favoured some whataboutery, talking about the performance of Germany and noting it was in the European Union.

It was typical fare from Mr Johnson, pretty much exactly the sort of........

© Herald Scotland