Boris - an Irish perspective
 

Has history ever known a leader like Boris Johnson? He is a phenomenon of the modern age, says Michael Clifford

Former London Mayor and "Vote Leave" campaigner Boris Johnson.
In the last few days, his leadership has made markets tremble, seen off a prime minister and put in peril the future leadership of the Labour Party in the UK. The campaign he led has dealt a major blow to the economy of this country, but we Irish are too insignificant to have even featured on the periphery of his radar.

He has been exposed as a liar and a cheat yet none of that matters. With a straight face, he campaigned for Brexit promising to rid the country of “European elites”, yet he is a product of that very caste himself. He is an old boy of Eton, the academy of Empire, and studied at the exclusive Oxford university, yet he claims to be taking on the “establishment”.

But more than anything, he has managed to turn Europe — and by extension the world economy — upside down despite lacking any meaningful conviction of what he was about. Truly, he is a perfect specimen of the age in which we live. At this remove from the UK’s referendum on Europe result, it is reasonable to speculate that it wouldn’t have been won without Johnson. He gave the Leave campaign a respectability that it was sorely lacking.

Johnson is a national celebrity and one of the most popular politicians in the country. The only viable alternative would have been the leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, an individual who would have found it extremely difficult to reach beyond his core xenophobic constituency.

UKIP garnered four million votes in the last general election, yet any prospect of victory in the referendum would have required at least five times that harvest.

Johnson filled the gap. He offered charisma and a track record as the mayor of London. Everybody knows foppy Boris, lovable Boris, the middle-aged man who comports himself as if he has wandered onto the public stage from the pages of an Enid Blyton book. Boris, the rogue who manages to wear so lightly his intelligence, his privileged education, his elitism. Boris, your only man if you want somebody to give it to you straight.



He gave it straight on the Monday after the referendum was called. He told readers of his Daily Telegraph column on February 21 last that he was opting for Leave, dealing what turned out to be a fatal blow to Cameron’s campaign to remain.

The following month it emerged that he had written two columns for that day, the one which was published, and a second setting out why he was opting to remain. He deliberated over the weekend as to which option he should choose. Most observers are agreed on the over-riding issue that preoccupied him at the time. It wasn’t what was best for Britain or Europe, or even the London over which he had presided for eight years.

It wasn’t which option would improve the lives of the working class, or generate more wealth for those of his own privileged class. It wasn’t even whether he should take into account the implications for the Peace Process in Northern Ireland that had brought an end to murder and mayhem.

No, it was all about Boris and his place in the world. Which option would be best in his quest to succeed David Cameron? Which path would lead him to Number Ten? Those were the questions that propelled the lovable Boris to the front of a campaign that succeeded in persuading 52% of British voters that the great unknown of Brexit was a safer bet than the world they knew.

Nobody should really be surprised at Johnson’s brass neck. In the past, he actually made up quotes in his role as a reporter for the London Times. That led to his sacking from the paper, but his cache is such that he just went onto greater things.



Later, he lied to his then party leader Michael Howard about whether he’d had an affair with another journalist. Extra marital affairs happen. Howard’s problem was how best to deal with the political fall-out, but for Boris that wasn’t his problem so he thought he’d be better off toughing it out. Keep the head down, and your time will come.

And so it has. He stands now on the cusp of assuming the role of Prime Minister of the UK. Ok, it might end up being a diminished UK, down to possibly just England and Wales eventually, and it might end up being stripped of much of its power and prestige in the wider world. But it will be Boris’s UK, and that’s all that really matters.

Johnson is a thoroughly modern leader, cut from the same cloth as Donald J Trump. Both men have shown that wooing the masses these days has precious little to do with track record, character or conviction. It’s all about giving the impression of being on the side of anybody who feels — often with some justification — disenfranchised.



If that takes pointing the finger at minorities to blame, so be it. If it involves constructing obvious untruths, so be it. Like Trump, Johnson knows that in today’s turbulent world, it’s all about telling people what they want to hear. In such a milieu, the truth is there to be trampled on whenever it is convenient.

History suggests this is a dangerous place to be and we can only hope that history is not going to be repeated in this time of Boris.

We are having a New PM but its a Lady

Wouldn't surprise me if Boris didn't stand, it's tricky times for a whoever gets it, Jeremy Hunt with his legendary negotiating skills maybe :tongue:

He has to stand now Cherie but Cameron has really put him on the spot by going so soon.
Boris may now be the PM who takes the UK out of the EU and also presides over the break up of the UK too.

Already however,Boris Johnson is rolling back from things he said in the campaign.
I find it sickening that he chose to say nothing after the vote to leave, until he had prepared and had published, his column in the telegraph, something he gets paid to do too.

The man is simply a devious and untrustworthy politician of the highest order in my view.
I thought that years ago too, long before he came out for to leave the EU

so Michael Clifford does not like Boris

:idc:

No he will Stand Tomorrow
but we are having a Lady PM there is 3 of them

I found the snippet about him having two columns written one coming down on the remain side interesting, I hadn't heard that previously.

Is that because Boris doesn't want it? Would the Tory's win a GE with Teresa May at the helm ?

He neither expected nor wanted the UK to leave Cherie, this was only to heighten his profile to eventually get Cameron's job.
However he expected to be the hero for the party and Country,to have Cameron struggle on after a narrow remain win and then jump in when Cameron decided enough was enough.

This is likely Boris Johnson's worse possible scenario he has been left with for playing his dangerous own personal glory game.

Question for you LT which would you prefer to be out of EU and in the UK or Independant and in the EU?

Agree, I read somewhere yesterday like in the Italian job, they were only meant to blow the doors off :laugh:

They could do
against Corbyn

I think UKIP could forge ahead in that scenario, step forward PM Nigel :idc:

Nice post Cherie. I suspect Teresa May might get it though.

That was a good read Cherie

Honestly if Boris takes over before Article 50, if I were a leave supporter, I'd be preparing for him wriggling out of ever withdrawing from Europe at all. Anyone else I'd say there's no way they'd go against the referendum result, but Boris? He didn't want to leave in the first place, and he's just the sort of politician who you might see up on a podium in a couple of years talking about how it "turned out not to be feasible sorreh".

I'd be shocked if Boris actually went for the leadership, he's a fool but he's not an idiot. I imagine that he has designs on taking the leadership from Cameron's successor so he can bypass all the **** that will hit whoever becomes the next PM.

The media have already named him several times as camerons successor, it seems a foregone conclusion ... like corbyn stepping down.


What even is 'democracy'?

:think:


Independent as I think the EU is doomed and will have to change radically or it will collapse

Step 1: Battle lines drawn

Step 2: Both sides paint pretty pictures and come up with catchy hashtags and slogans to lure people in

Step 3: The side that does the best job in step 2 wins a vote

Step 4: They pat themselves on the back heartily

Step 5: They have now forgotten step 2 - it was so long ago after all! - and proceed to do whatever the **** they want.

.
.
.

Step 6: A few years pass and it all starts over. By this time, people have forgotten what happened.

yep, it baffles me that there is once again no backlash for the tories... this whole cock up was daves idea even though he campaigned against it, and once the vote was in he stated there was no contingency plan!! and he was stepping down in favor of the man who DID want it who also has no clue as to how to proceed!!!

Meanwhile who gets it in the neck?...Jeremy! Who stated categorically he was for remain as he had no faith in the tories to brexit. bang on I say.. :/

I did not read beyond the blatantly prejudiced, tedious, hackneyed and highly offensive LIE that: "The only viable alternative would have been the leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, an individual who would have found it extremely difficult to reach beyond his core xenophobic constituency."

Not only is Michael Clifford a disgrace to journalism, he quite evidently does not have a clue what he is talking about, because far from Farage finding it 'difficult' reach beyond his constituency, his political views have greatly resonated with ordinary decent people the length and breadth of the uk - to such a degree - that he has galvanised them and woken them from their apathy, and made UKIP THE second party in parts of the country, is responsible for exposing the corruption which is the EU, exposed the 'fat pig' elitists who ride the Brussels 'Gravy Train at our expense, and is almost single-handedly responsible for forcing the 'Referendum', as well as the resignation of a Prime Minister who prostituted his principles on behalf of those Brussels elitists, and lied repeatedly to his electorate.

It is now time to drop all the unwarranted and disingenuous 'Racist' and 'xenophobic' slurs against Farage, because it is to his credit that he dares to address the growing and dangerous problem of unfettered, uncontrolled, unvetted immigration when his contempories refuse to see the 'elephant in the room' or see it but refuse to admit it - whether through fear of being labelled 'racist' and 'xenophobic', or through a desire to 'downplay' the threat because they have huge vested financial interests in perpetuating our suicidal 'open door' immigration policy.

To any honest, impartial observer, Farage is an outstanding orator, more honest a politician than his contempories, and a more adept politician than they - he is infinitely so much more than the 'one trick pony' of a politician that he is so unfairly made out to be, and it is a great shame that he has to suffer such abuse, while those levelling it conveniently ignore the very real crimes of Cameron and Osborne and company.

No kirk a skilled orator carefully picks his words and his demeanor to achieve the best possible outcomes all around. They don't indulge in bragging and smirking to fuel their own ego.

:worship: :worship: :worship:

* see ' gob****e'


He has no power...none.

He is not a politician, and he does nothing but rile the masses

He may not have been the one to make the decision no, but the rise in hate crime following brexit? I believe he was a key instigator for this.