Johnson

[bensherman]

An interesting review of Anthony Selsdon's Book. It is truly incredible that we let this buffoon be our Prime Minister for so long.

If the reign of Bad King Boris looked dreadful from the outside, it was even more diabolical viewed from the inside. This is an authoritative, gripping and often jaw-dropping account of the bedlam behind the black door of Number 10 and it confirms that we did not really have a government during his trashy reign. It was an anarchy presided over by a fervently frivolous, frantically floundering and deeply decadent lord of misrule.

As Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell relate it, never in modern times has the premiership been occupied by someone so fundamentally unfit to hold the office. That may not be a wholly original observation, but the great merit of their account is the weight of evidence they marshal to support the contention that Johnson was an utterly incapable prime minister. The authors say they have gathered testimony from more than 200 witnesses, a lot of them officials and aides, “the silent voices of those who will never publish memoirs and diaries”. While this necessarily means that a lot of the sourcing is anonymous, it all rings horribly true.

During one of many episodes of derangement in Downing Street, Johnson is to be found raving: “I am meant to be in control. I am the führer. I’m the king who takes the decisions.” The would-be great dictator was never in control because he was incapable of performing even some of the most basic functions of a leader.

He had no clue how to be an effective prime minister and no idea what he wanted to do with the role other than satisfy his lust for its status and perks. One of his cabinet ministers, who was also a friend, is quoted saying: “Boris absolutely loved being prime minister, its prestige and the trappings. He revelled in it… His philosophy on the way up had been to do, pledge, say anything to get over the line because I’m the best, I deserve it. Now I’m here in No 10 without any core beliefs, I can do and say whatever I need to remain here.”

Johnson deliberately stuffed his cabinets with mediocrities who knew they were expected to be “nodding dogs”
He was as woeful at applying himself to official papers as he was hopeless at assembling a stable and productive team at Number 10. He was almost pathologically incapable of making and sticking to decisions, especially when confronted with choices that were in any way difficult. “Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge” was his motto for governing, aping a line from one of his favourite films, the sports comedy Dodgeball. Most of the time, he was just making stuff up as he went along. “Wow, where the hell did that come from?” was the reaction from his staff when he suddenly announced that he had a plan to fix social care. No such plan existed. “Put down in 3,000 words what you think my foreign policy should be,” he told startled officials at Number 10 soon after becoming prime minister. He did not form a serious relationship with any of his international peer group. Calls with Emmanuel Macron would regularly feature the French president saying: “Boris, you’re just not being serious.”


Appointing capable senior ministers might have compensated for some of his weaknesses. Johnson deliberately stuffed his cabinets with mediocrities who knew they were expected to be “nodding dogs” and whom he disdained as “the stooges”. “We don’t want young, hungry lions”, an aide recalls him saying when Rishi Sunak proved to be a less pliable and more popular chancellor than Johnson had anticipated.

The authors explore whether he believed in anything except the satisfaction of his own appetites and come back from their search for a Johnsonian philosophy as empty-handed as all the other people who have pursued this vain quest. There may have been a sliver of sincerity in the rhetoric about levelling up, but his ideas for realising it were inchoate and he wasn’t prepared to put in the requisite thought and application to turn idle boosterism into action. Johnson and Brexit are “inextricably intertwined in history”. Brexit would not have happened without him; he would not have become prime minister without Brexit. Yet he never had any strategy for trying to make a success of it. He and the other architects of that misadventure were like bank robbers after they had pulled off a heist. “No sooner had they done so than they start turning on each other over whose genius had been responsible for the success, and what to do with the spoils.”

His personal brush with Covid encouraged some to think it might prompt a reform of character. They were disappointed
This mirthless farce had tragic real-world consequences. Utterly unsuited to handling a crisis as grave as the pandemic, his endless prevarications and about-turns cost lives. “He wildly oscillated in what he thought,” observes one official. “In one day he would have three meetings in which he would say three completely different things depending on who was present, and then deny that he had changed his position.” His personal brush with Covid encouraged some to think it might prompt a reform of his behaviour. They were disappointed. Even coming near to death couldn’t remedy character flaws that were so deeply ingrained.


Everyone he dealt with sooner or later found him dissembling, because he was only ever willing to commit to a position if he thought there was some immediate personal advantage or because his hand had been forced. One of his officials says he lied “morning, noon and night”. He lied not just to the public, but also and often to his closest associates.

Battles for the ear of this shallow and capricious monarch turned his court into the scene of constant internecine struggle between the ever-shifting factions within the building. After the fall of Dominic Cummings, we hear Johnson whingeing about his inability to find the personnel or the structures to make his government functional, but several inside accounts suggest that he relished being at the centre of the tornado of chaos. Rather than take any responsibility upon himself, he would deflect blame for decisions he feared might be unpopular – and did not hesitate to use even his wife for that pathetic purpose. In the words of one courtier: “He would tell us that she was impossible to deal with and he couldn’t control her and she would do whatever she wanted. Then he’d go upstairs and tell her that we were impossible and he couldn’t control us. He liked to pour petrol on both sides and see what happened to the fire.”

Partygate, the most important of the scandals that finished him, was an appropriate nemesis for such a lawless regime.

To the bitter end, he blamed everyone but himself for the implosion of his premiership. The authors are right to dismiss that as another of his fictions. Bad King Boris was dethroned because he was and always had been utterly unfit to wear the crown.

[Ric]

Wow such a long post, didn't read it all as I fail to believe anything that is written unless I've seen it for myself first hand.

[local]

Wow such a long post, didn't read it all as I fail to believe anything that is written unless I've seen it for myself first hand.

Rodneys a bit obsessed with Boris as he took through the nations democratic wish to leave the EU.

The man is a hero for saving our democracy for almost everything else Lord Johnson gets reasonable criticism.

Don't you dare get to the author

[bensherman]

The "hero" who "saved our democracy" shut down Parliament, of course after lying that he wouldn't.

And then rammed through the EU deal which plagues us now.

The democratic decision to leave having been made in 2017.

[local]

The nations Democracy hero, arise Sir Boris Johnson who fought and beat off the attack on our nation by liars and vote thieves from all sides of the House of Commons.

Some who even stood on Boris Johnsons "get Brexit done" ticket.


Not least his vanquishing of one Sir Beir Starmer who with the labour and Conservative liars fought to destroy our democracy and has now done a full U-Turn and joined the Brexiteers.


Messy dirty scrappy and still not finally done, no doubt but it's a proud achievement for the honest politicians against formidable odds.

A hero for the nation.

[bensherman]

Guess what?

I/we don't agree.

The greatest, incompetent fraud ever in Downing Street.

[silver fox]

Guess what?

I/we don't agree.

The greatest, incompetent fraud ever in Downing Street.

We know Johnson referred to Churchill often, but actually modelled himself more on Trump, enough said.

Strangely both heroes for local, two raging incompetents who wanted and cherished the position, but for the wrong reasons and utterly incapable.

[Toodles McGinty]

I'm surprised that anyone would be surprised about this.

Who seriously didn't know this was the measure of the man all along?

I and others on here said, before he became PM, before he became Foreign Secretary, that the man is a complete buffoon unfit for office. The office he believed he deserved, rather than had any capacity to fill.

It isn't as though we weren't warned. The flaws in his character have been painfully apparent since childhood.

I often bore on about 'personality politics', people voting for a person rather than the policy. That's what you get, folks.

If anyone still believes in the Boris bull$h!t, I've some magic beans going very cheap.

[Toodles McGinty]

Wow such a long post, didn't read it all as I fail to believe anything that is written unless I've seen it for myself first hand.

Doesn't that make the entire site redundant for you? Every newspaper, website, every form of media, unless it's happened before your very eyes? Every story related to you by a friend or relative?

I mean, you do you, no skin off mine. But I'd think that makes your world very small.

[local]

We know Johnson referred to Churchill often, but actually modelled himself more on Trump, enough said.

Strangely both heroes for local, two raging incompetents who wanted and cherished the position, but for the wrong reasons and utterly incapable.

Trumps my hero, when did that happen?

[local]

Thats all very odd this criticism of Lord Boris his argument was so compelling and he was so competent the Labour Party and Sir Beir Starmer have joined him in the pro Brexit lobby.


The Buffoons followers are many it seems..............

[local]

Just out of interest for the usual subjects whining about Johnson or voting for Brexit.

What do you think the chances of you voting for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives was without resorting to a calculator or swearing

[silver fox]

Trumps my hero, when did that happen?

Probably should have said excusing, same difference really.

[silver fox]

Just out of interest for the usual subjects whining about Johnson or voting for Brexit.

What do you think the chances of you voting for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives was without resorting to a calculator or swearing

Didn’t vote for Brexit nor for a Tory which by extension was a vote for Johnson.

I think most are aware that I’m not a Tory fan, but while Johnson was around it was absolutely certain that I couldn’t vote Tory no matter what.

[Toodles McGinty]

Didn’t vote for Brexit nor for a Tory which by extension was a vote for Johnson.

I think most are aware that I’m not a Tory fan, but while Johnson was around it was absolutely certain that I couldn’t vote Tory no matter what.

Pretty sure that Johnson did the greatest amount of harm to the Tory party, leading them to face a likely rout at the next election. Which will also lead to a very unbalanced Commons. Which wasn't good for the country in 2019, and won't be next time either.

Filling his cabinet with incompetents. Throwing out experienced, one-nation Tories. Leading to the mainly unhinged 'red wall' intake: 30p Lee, Clark Smith, Turkey Teeth Benton, Gorilla Gullis etc. Then such gems as Mad Nads, Coffey, then the frankly astonishing Truss tenure.

Toxic. Leading us also to the situation of leaving the EU with no actual plans for leaving the EU. The bizarre NI border issues. The oven ready deal that didn't exist.

Not entirely sure about 'local's' point is about Labour, Starmer and Brexit. May's government didn't want Brexit. Cameron's government didn't want Brexit. Neither of those would now turn around and say 'let's rejoin immediately'. So why would Starmer? He campaigned against it, voted against it. The public that voted said differently. You can't roll back a referendum, you can only try and make the best of it.

Not saying it will never be overturned by another referendum. It's just entirely pointless wasting political capital on it now. It's done, more or less. Certainly not an election issue. There are slightly more pressing concerns than a referendum 8 years ago. Regardless of either still dining out on long past perceived triumphs or bitter but ultimately futile regrets.