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

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

#181

Post by vidarh »

growlist wrote: post #179
vidarh wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think there is a 'bloodbath on the streets' of London you just demonstrate that you have no clue what London is like. And even if you had been right, the office of the mayor only has oversight powers and limited powers to set priorities and shift some resources. Most of the Met budget and control of their day to day operations is outside the mayors purview. EDIT: Here's a wikipedia page with info on the media…

Sure, sadly lots of crime and drugs in Sussex - I'd imagine Brighton on its own accounts for a lot of it, and there is the county lines phenomenon everywhere. That doesn't change the upsurge in London. I'd also be extremely suspicious about taking the official crime statistics at face value - the history of their manipulation is long and detailed.

Whatever you might think about it, it does however change the nature of your narrative of blaming Khan for it when London does in fact not stand out.

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

#182

Post by seanmcdirmid »

neonate wrote: post #65
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sociopathy isn’t associated with empathy impairment like psychopathy is. Sociopaths understand empathy well, and can use it like a weapon.

What's your source for that? It's not how I've understood the distinction between sociopaths and psychopaths. In fact, it's not clear that there is a well-defined distinction. Everybody seems to draw the line differently.

https://www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/psychopat...

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

#183

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Retra wrote: post #161
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are referring to sociopaths and not psychopaths, the latter of which are associated with empathy impairment and aren’t as great manipulators as the former.

The APA considers them the same thing.

Source? There are lots of articles that describe the difference between the two:

https://www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/psychopat...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disor...

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

#184

Post by dang »

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.

Please keep this sort of trollish flamebait far away from this site.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20284021 and marked it off-topic.

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

#185

Post by growlist »

mayniac wrote: post #180
growlist wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ok, I prefer England.

Do you want to explain why you don't think London is English?

Err, perhaps the fact that the majority of the population are not ethnic English people?

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

#186

Post by vidarh »

growlist wrote: post #185
mayniac wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want to explain why you don't think London is English?

Err, perhaps the fact that the majority of the population are not ethnic English people?

Thank you for confirming what it's clear several of us suspected.

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

#187

Post by dang »

growlist wrote: post #185
mayniac wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want to explain why you don't think London is English?

Err, perhaps the fact that the majority of the population are not ethnic English people?

Please keep regional and ethnical flamewar off HN. Not wanted here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#188

Post by grey-area »

growlist wrote: post #144
grey-area wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but who seems oblivious to (or to be willfully disregarding) the long term detrimental effect his skirmishing has on the UK. He's not oblivious to it, he just doesn't care. Why should he? His ego is the only thing that matters, other people are a means to an end. He has the same low cunning as trump, I think he's quite good at reading people, and manipulating them, but others are just tools to him. He is remarkably s…

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

Just to add the opinion of someone who actually lived in london under both mayors - this is false.

Johnson's time as mayor was marked by trying to claim the successes of others (buses and bikes introduced by Livingstone), and failed initiatives like the expensive garden bridge which was never built or buying illegal water canons which could not be used, and addressing non-problems like drinking on the tube.

Khan's London has been professionally run and is tackling real problems like air quality and too many cars.

Both suffered from problems with crime caused by a decade of police cuts imposed by central government. London is still dramatically safer than any large US city though, including New York.

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

#189

Post by grey-area »

vidarh wrote: post #186
growlist wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, perhaps the fact that the majority of the population are not ethnic English people?

Thank you for confirming what it's clear several of us suspected.

Yes, QED on why he really dislikes Khan - the colour of his skin.

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

#190

Post by 0815test »

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…

> Not sure if you're kidding

I was obviously engaging in some hyperbole to make my point as clear as possible, but the basic issue stands AFAICT. Is there any evidence we could look at of Boris Johnson's expertise in policymaking? So far I haven't really seen it, and "Eton and Oxford are great places and Johnson definitely knows his English/Classics/philosophy", while definitely impressive in some sense, is just not relevant to the issue. It's a bit like saying "Donald Trump is great at making deals and building things!", like, that just doesn't cut it. About the most I can say for him is that he may have learned some journalism on the job, which is a bit more relevant to current issues than anything about ancient philosophy - but no one sane would trust the average journalist to be an effective policymaker, either!

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