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Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

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Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#211

Post by pytester »

verbify wrote: post #56
wastedhours wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't deny that Johnson is much smarter than he wants us to think. In playing the political game at least, definitely so. Lots of reports from coworkers (especially from the Foreign Office) that he is genuinely as clueless as he comes across when it comes to other elements of his job.

The news story that really made me believe that the bumbling fool shtick is real and not just an act was when he went to a buddhist temple in Myanmar and started reciting a colonial-era Kipling poem about a British soldier reminiscing about a Burmese girl that he kissed - until the ambassador intervened and told him it wasn't appropriate. If he understood the context of the poem (a lack of sensitivity to the three wa…

Precisely. The Boris Johnson who is acting off the cuff - reciting the myanmar poem or acting like a moron in portugal - is the real Boris Johnson. The Boris Johnson who uses "SEO tactics" has been programmed by advisors.

Portugal: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson...

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#212

Post by wastedhours »

rjf72 wrote: post #205
wastedhours wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't deny that Johnson is much smarter than he wants us to think. In playing the political game at least, definitely so. Lots of reports from coworkers (especially from the Foreign Office) that he is genuinely as clueless as he comes across when it comes to other elements of his job.

When a coworker chooses to negatively gossip to the media about somebody, and the media finds it click-worthy, do you think this is going to be a characteristic and unsampled bias of that person or other's perception of them?

True, if that were a one-off occurrence done under the guise of an anonymous or worthless tip-off from someone with an axe to grind.

When it's dozens of former colleagues, all calling someone out on their BS over the course of years, regarding unrelated incidents, and where a number of those incidents actually occurred in the public eye?

There's data points and a trend line...

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#213

Post by JshWright »

ganzuul wrote: post #177
JshWright wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no rule that says you can only reply to the primary point of a comment. Personally I found the clarification interesting, and learned something from it. Why do you think that detracts from the point about the potential motivation behind the rebranding? It's possible to learn more than one thing...

"Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

The more in-depth description of ENA is not unrelated, controversial, generic, or a tangent.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#214

Post by dajomu »

verbify wrote: post #102
drcongo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If he understood the context of the poem (a lack of sensitivity to the three wars the British fought to suppress Burmese independence) then he would've never recited the poem. That's exactly why he did it. He's a nasty, vindictive, racist colonialist.

I'm not saying he's not racist/colonialist. You only have to read his article about 'flag-waving piccaninnies... tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief...' https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3571742/If... . Or his argument that Obama hated the UK because he was Kenyan and had an 'ancestral dislike of the British empire'. Or any of the other dozens examples. I…

Isn't it much the same thing as Trump saying something racist that he can kind of get away with? Johnson can say it, incite some anger in people who won't vote for him anyway, get his name on the news again and appeal to his base. Many of his supporters are the kinds of people that want to "Make Britain Great Again". There isn't a vast constituency in Britain who love the poem, but there is a vast constituency who are mildly racist and look back to the "good old days".

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#215

Post by VBprogrammer »

afarrell wrote: post #50
rusk wrote: post #5

> I wonder why nobody else is willing to do this? Because it makes you look like a fool. Doesn’t mean it won’t work though. Bojo apparently targetting the segment for whom this kind thing goes over their heads

Because empirically, it doesn't work. The front page of google for [Boris Johnson bus] has stories about: - The failure of a busmaker - The brexit bus advert - The suspicion that his 'model bus' answer was this ploy.

I've just realised that another example of this was his momentary diversion on building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland. This reeks of an attempt to divert attention from his failed garden bridge project as London Major. Googling "boris johnson bridge" is filled with articles about he former for me at least.

The thing is, it doesn't have to be completely successful for it to be worth his while doing. It probably serves multiple purposes, like changing the current news cycle.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#217

Post by walshemj »

playpause wrote: post #89
dtf wrote: post #48

This is just silly. The last thing anyone would know about Arcuri is that she was very briefly a model. It would be like searching for info about (UK supreme court president) Lady Hale by Googling “barmaid”. Try instead searching for “Boris Johnson technology lessons”, or indeed “Boris Johnson thigh”. Has his team SEO’d that yet?

> The last thing anyone would know about Arcuri is that she was very briefly a model. Sky News: "Boris Johnson: 'No interest to declare' over links with former model Jennifer Arcuri" The Mirror: "Boris Johnson 'had affair with ex-model Jennifer Arcuri while London mayor'" The Sun: "Who is Jennifer Arcuri? Model connected to Boris Johnson" The Independent: "Jennifer Arcuri: Boris Johnson repeatedly refuses to deny aff…

In tabloid speak "model" has elements of "nudge nudge wink" here.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#218

Post by hdfbdtbcdg »

verbify wrote: post #56
wastedhours wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't deny that Johnson is much smarter than he wants us to think. In playing the political game at least, definitely so. Lots of reports from coworkers (especially from the Foreign Office) that he is genuinely as clueless as he comes across when it comes to other elements of his job.

The news story that really made me believe that the bumbling fool shtick is real and not just an act was when he went to a buddhist temple in Myanmar and started reciting a colonial-era Kipling poem about a British soldier reminiscing about a Burmese girl that he kissed - until the ambassador intervened and told him it wasn't appropriate. If he understood the context of the poem (a lack of sensitivity to the three wa…

I always assumed that that was a dog whistle to that large part of British society that wants the empire back.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#219

Post by walshemj »

mlang23 wrote: post #181

I don't care. I want BREXIT now, since the british voted for it. All these delays are poison for democracy. Hard brexit yesterday. And if the pro EU people want to join again, they can apply in 5 years if they manage to find a majority. And now, let the downvotes come.

Read the words on the paper it was an advisory vote not a binding one.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#220

Post by thaumasiotes »

meowface wrote: post #206
repolfx wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But using the word "model" to mean "a model of good behaviour" which is what it meant in that context is totally normal English. And Boris has been associated with buses for ages, in his time as London mayor a revamp of the buses became known as literally "Boris Buses". The idea he might have an eccentric hobby involving buses is entirely plausible. I don't think Boris says random baffling shit. I think the null hypo…

The thing is in this case, Boris has been caught red-handed doing very similar sorts of "cunning disguised as idiocy" ploys before. For example, feigning forgetting speeches. It seems plausible that it was intentional. Both sides of the political aisle are certainly highly susceptible to conspiracy theories about the opposition, but this case seems pretty interesting. It may be a wolf-crying situation, too: since Bor…

> The thing is in this case, Boris has been caught red-handed doing very similar sorts of "cunning disguised as idiocy" ploys before. For example, feigning forgetting speeches.

Seems hard to blame him for this. Compare https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnaccustomedAsIA... .

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