Well that’s the Great Comeback kiboshed:
It was kind of fun watching all the MPs who weren’t allowed to call him a liar in the House all these years suddenly freed by the report to call him a lying liar who lies lies lyingly.
Is Boris better, worse, or about the same as Trump? As a person/leader, I mean.
I have to think…a mite better?
Well, he hasn’t whipped up an armed crowd to storm Parliament (yet), so on that alone you’d think he qualifies as “better.”
Boris is less criminal. Not not criminal. But less criminal.
Here is a very useful summary of what Boris is like. I wish to make it clear that none of this is satire.
Well, I can’t believe I would ever defend him, but…
He’s not known for being xenophobic, and supported increased immigration as Mayor of London.
He’s socially liberal, supporting LGBT+ rights and NOT advocating for abortion bans.
He has become an advocate for climate action.
He endorsed Barack Obama for President.
He was quick in providing strong support for Ukraine.
He didn’t suggest injecting bleach to tackle covid.
However, at best he could be described as being ‘politically agile’ - he’ll do, say and back anything which will advance his own political career, including backing Brexit when he was not a hardened Euro-septic. Oh, he’s also a lying, scheming narcissist who lied to the Queen, had a party the night before the Queen buried her husband at a socially distanced funeral, and has elevated members of his family to the House of Lords, including his (alleged) 29 year old daughter.
He’s well educated and not stupid, a seasoned politician, so he knows what he is saying. Which either makes him more, or less, dangerous than Trump, depending on your perspective. The floppy hair thing is, apparently, a deliberate act to make people think he’s cute, as is his name (he’s known as Alex amongst friends and family). Unlike Trump who just has no clue how ridiculous he looks.
Though he has a long history of racial dogwhistling and outright slurs in his published columns, “P-----------s with watermelon smiles” being the most notable. I assume he was, as is totally normal for a rich posh dude in his forties, trying to project an edgelord image while throwing red meat to the extreme right of the Tory base. But I’m in the camp that believes that pandering to racists for power even when you don’t hold those feelings and actually being a blatant bigot aren’t notably different states of being.
Later, when Obama had a bust of Churchill removed from the Oval Office, Johnson wrote in his column that "Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.” which doesn’t exactly convey tons of respect.
So is most of his performance. This story is from years ago, but as it happens it foreshadows a lot about his handling of Covid:
I beg to differ on the question of “stupid”. I think there’s plenty of evidence out there that he is deeply unintelligent. Take, for example, his time as Foreign Minister, when he gleefully ran around insulting his European counterparts. Yeah, played well to a home audience, bolstering his ambition to be Prime Minister. And when he became Prime Minister? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9rPulxb6kY
Humiliated, as publicly as it was possible to be. Most people could have figured it out, but not Boris.
Like the COVID parties, and what might happen - most people could figure it out. But not Boris.
j
He is not unintelligent. He is lazy, he lies like a rug, and he is incredibly entitled. But he has demonstrated his intelligence many times—always for his own benefit, of course.
I thought that article was really interesting: it was a good window into who he is, as borne out by later events.
We’ll have to agree to differ. I would say that being too lazy to have a thought for the consequences of your actions is stupidity.
j
@aspenglow please change titles to a less ambiguous date format. The 6th of September has not happened yet but that is how most of the world would read the title. “Jun 9 2023” is just as short but is much less ambiguous.
Ok. Done.
Thanks, as a request, going forward please can you continue to use that format?
I’ve already gone through and changed mine that are within view, and I’ll fix others as they may pop up. Every mod does this a little differently, though, and I won’t “fix” theirs. I will do it as you ask going forward. I agree it’s more clear.
I don’t think that makes him stupid. I think it shows he doesn’t care, is lazy, will do and say anything to get to where he wants to. He isn’t Macron, who wants to be a global leader. He wanted to be Prime Minister, and would do anything to persuade the electorate that he was their man. He doesn’t care what the ‘eurocrats’ think of him. He’s the very definition of a populist.
How America would read it. Certainly not ‘most of the world’ which sensibly puts the day before the month. But I digress.
The title was originally edited to 06-09-23. That was exactly the point I was making as all of Aspenglow’s edits, in this and other threads, were to American shortform.
I am really not sure how you could possibly read that exchange and think I was asking for American formatting.
I didn’t see the original, and assumed, given how you wrote June 6 rather than 6 June, that you were referencing US formatting. I stand corrected.
He has an Eton-and-Oxford* intellectual flashiness, which has mostly got him by, but not the emotional intelligence, let alone the diligence necessary to deal with difficult problems affecting other people and requiring actual practical solutions for the long term, rather than temporary forms-of-words fixes to paper over the cracks. Whether that counts as stupidity…
*I speak from a grammar-school-and-Cambridge background, so I’m biased, I’ll admit.