Boris Johnson!

Freely admits that the whole Brexit thing was just to ‘win an argument’, like some massive sixth form debating society.

I stopped watching at that point, I may have been slightly irked, but what is it 8 years of shite we’ve endured and to him he was winning an argument.

I don’t think I have the words for what he said.

SBS jump in their RIB’s, charge up a Dutch canal, all the way until they come to the first lock gate…….

The rest of the plan was even better – return with the booty was via one of the channel ferries. It could be the first time a military strategy hinged on the use  public transport since the French army arrived at the front line by taxi in 1914.

Would I feel happy voting Y/N on it? Not remotely. It’s far too complex.

Entirely the same as the Brexit referendum – It was a choice between thinking- this is all very complicated therefore I think its best if I don’t interfere with it and thinking this is all very complicated therefore I should smash it. Destroying things is the only power many people have in their lives, the failure of everything that has followed Brexit hasn’t lessened the thrill of the destruction for anyone who voted for it. So in the eyes of some the EHCR is the perfect subject for a referendum

Destroying things is the only power many people have in their lives

Aye, I don’t understand it, I may never get it, so let’s just burn it down.

The lads from Poole getting the warning order…

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/oct/04/sky-news-pulls-out-of-boris-johnson-interview-over-recording-ban

TLDR: Johnson doesn’t want journalist to have a record of what he says to said journalist.

Two journalists who’ve had advance copies of his book – Matt Chorley on the BBC and John Crace in the Guardian – summed it up with the exact same comment

”it’s exactly what you’d expect from Boris Johnson”

The damage that man has done with his narcissistic need for constant attention and he doesn’t for a second give a thought to the lives he’s ruined. It’s all just a big game to him. I ****ing despise him!

The whole Beth Rigby thing was a PR stunt. Boris is a **** but not a stupid ****.   He would have know that a Sky journo would never agree to an off record interview. He also knows that unlike LK, Beth can’t stand him, is no tory shill and would probably ask some difficult questions which would be reported. Hence the impossible request which would obviously lead to cancellation but still give his dumb supporters plenty of material to use in order to construct their weird fantasies about how good old Boris is always slightly edgy and left field, doesn’t want to be bound by the staid old rules and too quick for ‘the establishment’.

There aren’t many people I hate, its such a wasteful emotion but he’s one. I wouldn’t even give him one second of my time except that he’s destroyed so much for so many people and actually properly impacted my life in a hugely negative way for no good reason other than his own vanity and narcissism whilst knowing full well the repercussions of his actions but not giving a frig.

Trust me.

Hahaha! pic.twitter.com/h2MuQlgxhi

— Esheru (@EsheruKwaku) October 4, 2024

200 pages into Boris book. First thoughts. Just as deluded and self serving as you would expect. But what’s most unforgivable is that it’s really boring

— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) October 3, 2024

Pretty sure that other people who did this much damage to the country got tried for treason….

He’s a nasty piece of work.

Anyone that tells me politicians are all the same needs to remember Boris Johnson and what he normalised.

Freely admits that the whole Brexit thing was just to ‘win an argument’, like some massive sixth form debating society.

Then, like the entitled arse that he is, expecting someone else to do the hard work. Cameron spiked that by throwing his toys out of the pram and resigning!

Freely admits that the whole Brexit thing was just to ‘win an argument’, like some massive sixth form debating society.

I dont believe this though. The alternative argument put forward by various columnists etc is that he expected to lose the referendum but it would set him up nicely for a future leadership run seems convincing to me. He didnt exactly look happy to win.

His face said it all. He was never meant to ‘win’ the referendum. It was a leadership bid, pure and simple. Typical of him to re-write history though, with his own fantasy version of what happened. Who on earth believes a word that comes out of his mouth any more (if they ever did)? He’s a pathological liar who seems to inhabit some kind of alternative universe

It is the 21st century, heads don’t get put on spikes here anymore.

Johnson should be grateful for this and shut up.

It is the 21st century, heads don’t get put on spikes here anymore.

Johnson should be grateful for this and shut up.

Generally speaking I am against things being revived or continued because ‘tradition’. But in this case I am willing to make an exception.

Sometimes the old ways are best “pour encourager les autres”.

Boris is a **** but not a stupid ****.

I disagree, his success is not built on intelligence and it definitely isn’t built on hard work, like Trump he has created a myth of intellect mainly by self promotion. Reality is his success is built on luck and opportunity, he hides from being challenged and difficult interviews to avoid the mask slipping from the remaining believers.

A few years back when Boris was mayor, he was scheduled to call at the hospital dept I was then running. He turned up late, literally minutes before the press conference – he was handed a file to go through etc and he impressively proceeded to give a very thorough Q&A to the press .. the detail of what he read, and obviously understood, had my colleagues and myself surprised to say the least

It may not be what his detractors want to hear, but Boris is most definitely a very intelligent man ..

Maybe it was just a particularly good batch of charlie…?

TBH, I’ve never doubted a degree of intelligence – if you define intelligence as the ability to bluff convincingly with a brief to cover your inherent laziness and the ability to ‘read’ a potential mark and tailor your approach accordingly.

I’m sure there are many estate agents and second hand car salesmen who can do what you describe too.

I’ve no doubt that he is intelligent. That makes it all the worse really, that intelligence could have been used to good effect in whatever his chosen field was.

Instead, he’s used that intelligence to damage, lie and further purely selfish goals to the detriment of people around him and many more he will never meet.

A lot of sociopaths are pretty intelligent.

bluff convincingly

I guess thats suggesting he was not able to understand what he was given – and just winged it. Which he did not .. he clearly demonstrated a very good understanding of a very complex situation. Which given his very brief time to read/scour it, proved a very good intellect.

Boris plays his own game to good effect. It’s easy to underestimate him, and something I think is just part of his overall game.

A few years back when Boris was mayor, he was scheduled to call at the hospital dept I was then running. He turned up late, literally minutes before the press conference – he was handed a file to go through etc and he impressively proceeded to give a very thorough Q&A to the press .. the detail of what he read, and obviously understood, had my colleagues and myself surprised to say the least

It may not be what his detractors want to hear, but Boris is most definitely a very intelligent man ..

Are you absolutely sure you didn’t just get taken in by his carefully curated ‘appearance’.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-boris-johnson-story/

And I’m definitely not having a go at you if you did get taken in.  Johnson has basically made a career out of creating the image of a bumbling idiot with a lethal intelligence just under the surface.  Trouble is the lethal intelligence is more a sort of cunning whose only real genius is in being able to play the room like a fiddle.

Its a common mistake to dismiss and underestimate people we dislike. Intelligence, like beauty, is something we all consciously or unconsciously hold in high regard. And as such, is often the thing we instinctively claim the person we dislike lacks.

Its a common mistake to dismiss and underestimate people we dislike. Intelligence, like beauty, is something we all consciously or unconsciously hold in high regard. And as such, is often the thing we instinctively claim the person we dislike lacks.

It’s also a common mistake to dismiss out of hand evidence that doesn’t agree with your viewpoint.

It could be argued that becoming prime minister is evidence he is intelligent.  But then it would also be evidence that Liz Truss in intelligent and I am simply not buying that.

After reading Jeremy Vine’s account of basically the same thing you recounted, don’t you think it’s at least possible you got taken in by a performance that Johnson repeats almost everywhere he goes?

It’s possible to be genius in a particular area.  Some people can be have an incredible aptitude and intelligence when it comes to being a con-artist.  However, there’s a reason they make their living as con-artists and not as something better.

If there is any recorded evidence of this vast intelligence, I would be very interested in reading it.

Until then ,I will continue to believe that a lot of people were mugged by a world class bullshiter.

That’s (probably) why he was such a successful sex pest.

In another life he would  have been a fortune teller/palm reader.

I don’t doubt that Johnson isn’t clever. I am under no illusion that he is a lying narcissist with the morals of an alley cat.

A local lass that I know became a tory MP and worked quite closely with Johnson a few years ago. While I disagree with her politics I would regard her as fairly intelligent. I was chatting with her in the pub one night about Johnson at the time she was working with him and she was in no doubt at all that he was a highly intelligent man.

If anyone was ever in any doubt that the ‘bumbling lovable rogue’ image is anything but an act he puts on, have a read of this:

https://reaction.life/jeremy-vine-my-boris-story/

I was chatting with her in the pub one night about Johnson at the time she was working with him and she was in no doubt at all that he was a highly intelligent man.

Did that intelligence manifest itself by apparently being able to absorb information quickly and formulate responses with apparent ease despite just having rolled in the door amongst a cloud of disheveledness?

It’s a performance he seems to be very comfortable with and until people started realising that I suspect it’s a performance that would have taken in almost anyone.

It’s academic really.

No matter how intelligent you are, if you’re only prepared to use it exclusively for your own self-serving ends, in the total absence of even the remotest trace of any moral standards, then what’s the point?

Personally I’ll go with Ian Hislop on this one…

I think Michel Barnier had it about right – “boucaniers”, bucanneers. Johnson could bluster through fine relying on his staff until both he and his staff bit off more than they could chew.

He rose to power through the old school tie network getting jobs he would never have got on merit. But served his paymasters well enough with columbs full of bollocks and outright lies – his forte.

And screwed nearly all of you all over. He came close to screwing me over too but Barnier wrote a very good withdrawal agreement. It’s only very recently that I’ve had any kind of info that my UK pension shouldn’t be affected by Brexit. For a while it looked like it might not be indexed linked like say Australia where Brits only get a tiny non-indexed proportion of their UK pension, but it looks like Barnier and his team protected the interests of Brits already established in Europe – fingers crossed, I still can’t find anything beyond press articles. Barnier did a far better job of protecting Brits’ interests than British PMs Johnson and May.

Personally I’ll go with Ian Hislop on this one…

Well, to be a confidence trixter/ good shmoozer requires a certain amount of inteligence, academic genius not necessarily required to be a good manipulator.

He rose to power through the old school tie network getting jobs he would never have got on merit. But served his paymasters well enough with columbs full of bollocks and outright lies – his forte.

The old school tie network certainly played a big part – there’s no way a kid from a comprehensive could have had the ‘career’ he has had. But you overlook shameless self-promotion as well. Back in the naughties he would crop up constantly as the ‘colour’ in broadcast debates, shows etc. He realised early on that shameless self-promotion was the fast track to high office (as a substitute for working up from diligence as a constituency MP etc).

I’ve no doubt he possesses some intelligence. But it is of the con artist type. Understanding dupes and how to manipulate them en masse.

He looked an utter pillock suspended from that wire, but it played well to his dupes who would say “well, that’s Boris” and “you wouldn’t see David Cameron up there”. Ed Davey deployed this basic line of tactics in the GE just gone. Some people lap it up – the question is merely “is ‘some’ the same as ‘enough’?”

Isn’t he really one of the first U.K. ‘celebrity’ politicians, who have used their ‘celebrity’ entertainment valueas opposed to actual political ability.

Getting on the telly at every opportunity and playing the jolly hockey sticks japster.

HIGNFY probably made him.

Trump would be the non U.K. one I think of that used the apprentice to mould an image of self made success 🙂

I think Farage is also similar and know he has his own show,has four years to polish the act before the curtain rise 🙁

Well, to be a confidence trixter/ good shmoozer requires a certain amount of inteligence, academic genius not necessarily required to be a good manipulator.

I can think of someone I’ve know since childhood who has had a very successful career (in sales) that’s provided a very comfortable lifestyle for him, despite the fact that he’s (academically)  as thick as mince.

He reminds me of Johnson in many ways, mainly in the fact that he’s a pathological liar and I wouldn’t believe a single word that ever came out of his mouth. He’s also a true blue Tory and behind his apparent breezy  ‘charm’ is a truly vile human being

HIGNFY probably made him.

Knowing what they know now, I wonder if they’d have still given him all that exposure in the way that they did?

I think Farage is also similar and know he has his own show,has four years to polish the act before the curtain rise 🙁

I see he’s started the campaign trail already with a Party Political Broadcast last night, regurgitating his vile rhetoric.

If there is any recorded evidence of this vast intelligence, I would be very interested in reading it.

I can recommend Johnson at 10 By Anthony Seldon. I think he agrees broadly with the assessment of some on this thread, that while he’s not stupid, and generally intelligent enough to have managed a long career in journalism and politics. His other more obvious faults; idleness, fickleness, inability to concentrate, poor impulse control, and lack of judgement make for a combination that overshadows any other qualities like how clever he is.

HIGNFY probably made him.

Knowing what they know now, I wonder if they’d have still given him all that exposure in the way that they did?

I’m pretty sure Ian Hislop is on the record as saying one of his main regrets/mistakes in his career was to act as an enabler to Johnson’s rise to being PM.

And I agree, it was a huge enabler – HIGNIFY was the absolute perfect vehicle at that time for Johnson to use.

Parasites are very adept at finding the right host organism.

I can recommend Johnson at 10 By Anthony Seldon

Just started listening to this. Even the first chapter reciting the list of ‘main players’ had me labelling each “corrupt”, “liar”, “Incompetent”, “WTF?” or, in some cases, all 4.