“I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

Post by Bakary » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 12:31 PM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #142

philjohn wrote: post #120

The thing people need to know about Boris is that 99% of what you see in public is a carefuly crafted image of a harmless, and somewhat likeable buffoon. If you listen to the recording of where he was talking with an acquaitance about supplying him with the address of a reporter for said acquaintance to "rough up" an entirely different man emerges, one who doesn't stammer and ham things up. Boris is a very calculatin…

So Boris, the Oxford man, has an "Everyman" shtick that has wide appeal. Smart man. Politicians who are so smart as to become something else are a bit scary, hard to trust if they are mostly an act. I suspect this is mostly for public consumption and he dropped this when actually working. Thus maybe it is just his interfacing with the people shtick. And then it is mostly harmless.

Post by growlist » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 12:52 PM UTC

vidarh wrote: post #148

growlist wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did pretty well in London - certainly better than Kahn, who has been disastrous.

The office of mayor in London does not carry enough powers for any mayor to be "disastrous". That's just ridiculous hyperbole. Other than that, the views on London mayors tends to mostly follow party lines, so it's not a particularly worthwhile discussion.

Post by Nexxxeh » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 1:11 PM UTC

crdoconnor wrote: post #36

ruytlm wrote: post #29

I am reminded of a post I once read[0] on how coyotes are 'too clever by half'; smart enough to realise how to win each skirmish, but without realising they're losing the metagame. Johnson strikes me as someone who has learned to 'hack' the skirmishes (e.g. by playing the fool when giving speeches as discussed) in order to win in the short term, but who seems oblivious to (or to be willfully disregarding) the long te…

He is a fool who pretends to be playing one. The upper echelons of the conservative party are not at all meritocratic - you do not have to be whip smart to get there, but being personable counts. He's made enough self inflicted strategic blunders. Nonetheless he holds a certain appeal for the upper classes in the UK. I don't think his appeal translates down to people who work for a living though.

Post by Nexxxeh » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 1:15 PM UTC

growlist wrote: post #147

0815test wrote: post #146

> Johnson excelled in English and Classics English and Classics... seriously, dude? That's good enough for working at Starbucks and McDonalds, I guess, but not for much else. Least of all for effective policymaking.

Not sure if you're kidding, but Eton is one of the finest schools in the UK, probably the world, so it's a bit much to be quite so disparaging. Also I'm guessing you've never heard of CP Snow: 'The Two Cultures is the first part of an influential 1959 Rede Lecture by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow. Its thesis was that "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" was split into two cultures – the…

Post by mayniac » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 1:20 PM UTC

growlist wrote: post #153

vidarh wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The office of mayor in London does not carry enough powers for any mayor to be "disastrous". That's just ridiculous hyperbole. Other than that, the views on London mayors tends to mostly follow party lines, so it's not a particularly worthwhile discussion.

Objective measures say different. Just look at the bloodbath on the streets, about which Kahn appears to be perfectly sanguine.