It's the same old song

Not Tom Watson

By Thursday night's Newsnight  we were getting the following from Evan Davis:

For our European colleagues the British situation raises all sorts of questions - not always very welcome ones. And now they find themselves working with a foreign secretary who has, over the years, treated the EU with derision. 

A little earlier I spoke to the Lithuanian foreign secretary, Linas Linkevicius. What does he think of Boris Johnson's past indiscretions? And will they make it difficult to take him or British foreign policy seriously? 

It's the same question - and tone - as Gavin Esler and Chris Mason this morning.

And how did Evan go on from that? By asking Mr Linkevicius the following question: 

The German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called some of the things he had said in the Referendum campaign "irresponsible and monstrous". And it is true that Boris Johnson has been (laughing), well, a critic of the European Union...let's say. Does that bother you? Does that make it harder to work with him, do you think?

Mr Linkevicius (who sounded a whole lot nicer than Tom Watson) said Britain leaving the EU "leaves a small hole in the hearts" of Lithuanians. "We belong together", he said. "I'm hearing your message very clearly. Linas Linkevicius, thanks very much for talking to us", said Evan.

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That same edition of Newsnight also featured the booing of Boris at the French embassy (at some length) in its introduction, with Evan quipping (somewhat gloatingly to my ears), "But at the French embassy tonight the Foreign Secretary was already experiencing life on the outside".