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| The Brexit ‘cock-up’ has exposed the real Boris Johnson – it’s not pretty | |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| Boris Johnson involved in a “cock-up”? Scarcely believable, I know, but there you are. He now says he did not attempt to gag his City Hall officials to stop them speaking out against Brexit. He has not U-turned. No, he never does. He simply performs screeching wheelies in front of us and we are meant to admire his verve. Lately, though, he is veering all over the shop. His chief of staff, who presumably authorised the email that did indeed ask City Hall officials to do just that, is supposedly the mayoral brain, that the mayor has now overruled. Is this who we want running the country in years to come? | |
| Nothing about this story surprises me, as I always thought Johnson would one day be exposed as the ruthless control freak he is. That last haircut confirmed it. The “I know not what I do” mop had been tidied up into some sort of pudding bowl affair. Thank you, that Delilah of a hairdresser. Samson had two vulnerabilities, remember: an attraction to “untrustworthy” women and his hair. Samson could slay an entire army with only a jawbone. Johnson has fooled a huge electorate with pure jawjaw. | Nothing about this story surprises me, as I always thought Johnson would one day be exposed as the ruthless control freak he is. That last haircut confirmed it. The “I know not what I do” mop had been tidied up into some sort of pudding bowl affair. Thank you, that Delilah of a hairdresser. Samson had two vulnerabilities, remember: an attraction to “untrustworthy” women and his hair. Samson could slay an entire army with only a jawbone. Johnson has fooled a huge electorate with pure jawjaw. |
| Related: Boris Johnson's staff told to toe the line on Brexit | Related: Boris Johnson's staff told to toe the line on Brexit |
| But it’s wearing thin, isn’t it, the charm, the wit, the dazzling vocab? At a time when it matters, more than ever, that he explains his core beliefs, we see that his core belief is in himself, alone. How can the mayoral position be Brexit, when London has not been asked? | But it’s wearing thin, isn’t it, the charm, the wit, the dazzling vocab? At a time when it matters, more than ever, that he explains his core beliefs, we see that his core belief is in himself, alone. How can the mayoral position be Brexit, when London has not been asked? |
| Johnson is not London and the apparently irresistible charisma is looking, well … utterly resistible. For some of us it always has. When my youngest was 10, a few years ago, she and her class were taken to City Hall. Her notes were full of exclamation marks. “His hair is yellow like the sun! He is making a whole island for himself! He doesn’t answer any questions! I don’t think he likes them!” | Johnson is not London and the apparently irresistible charisma is looking, well … utterly resistible. For some of us it always has. When my youngest was 10, a few years ago, she and her class were taken to City Hall. Her notes were full of exclamation marks. “His hair is yellow like the sun! He is making a whole island for himself! He doesn’t answer any questions! I don’t think he likes them!” |
| It was hardly a shock, then, to see him dissembling on the Andrew Marr show this week. This was not light entertainment, which has served him well, disguising his imperiousness. His roots are starting to show. | It was hardly a shock, then, to see him dissembling on the Andrew Marr show this week. This was not light entertainment, which has served him well, disguising his imperiousness. His roots are starting to show. |
| The self-mythologising narrative we are meant to buy – that he made his agonising decision over Europe/the Tory leadership after reheated lasagne and tennis with his sister – requires us to accept that he searched his own soul. And found it! We must not confuse this with ambition. Absolutely not. Nor his buffoonery with bullying. But something is going wrong for the great communicator. | The self-mythologising narrative we are meant to buy – that he made his agonising decision over Europe/the Tory leadership after reheated lasagne and tennis with his sister – requires us to accept that he searched his own soul. And found it! We must not confuse this with ambition. Absolutely not. Nor his buffoonery with bullying. But something is going wrong for the great communicator. |
| The public may not care about his well-documented infidelities or innumerable embarrassments. He has denied being consulted about the gagging email, and has said that this was indeed embarrassing. Of course it is a given that Cameron has let his ministers do what they will regarding the EU referendum, but there are questions over whether No 10 put pressure on the British Chamber of Commerce’s John Longworth because he failed to back the remain line. (Longworth resigned from his role as director general of the British Chambers of Commerce this week.) The machinery of the Tory party is being exposed. | The public may not care about his well-documented infidelities or innumerable embarrassments. He has denied being consulted about the gagging email, and has said that this was indeed embarrassing. Of course it is a given that Cameron has let his ministers do what they will regarding the EU referendum, but there are questions over whether No 10 put pressure on the British Chamber of Commerce’s John Longworth because he failed to back the remain line. (Longworth resigned from his role as director general of the British Chambers of Commerce this week.) The machinery of the Tory party is being exposed. |
| Borisconi has usually flourished in chaos, but right now he is going under | Borisconi has usually flourished in chaos, but right now he is going under |
| Borisconi has usually flourished in chaos, but right now he is going under. He still has a job: to serve London, and if he is to lead the Brexit campaign he has to answer serious questions. His whole schtick is that he can talk to anyone, but the reality is that he has not been a minister and his experience has been drumming up business for London and pulling off some stunts. The glimpses of his philosophy we have been treated to have been sub-Ayn Rand utterances. | Borisconi has usually flourished in chaos, but right now he is going under. He still has a job: to serve London, and if he is to lead the Brexit campaign he has to answer serious questions. His whole schtick is that he can talk to anyone, but the reality is that he has not been a minister and his experience has been drumming up business for London and pulling off some stunts. The glimpses of his philosophy we have been treated to have been sub-Ayn Rand utterances. |
| Now, though, we need to know more: the mechanics of it all. The delivery beyond winging it as part of his “king of the world” plan. The control freak with the out of control hair now looks decidedly snippy. The anger and the ambition are not hidden. Does this matter? Yes, instinct matters, trust matters in this EU business. Sure, we can debate two competing forms of idealism, but this is politics at gut level. If with Johnson what you see is what you get, then I would say a politician famed for his ability to connect has lost his power. It’s ebbing away. Blame that butcher of a barber. Or the mayoral brain going awol. | Now, though, we need to know more: the mechanics of it all. The delivery beyond winging it as part of his “king of the world” plan. The control freak with the out of control hair now looks decidedly snippy. The anger and the ambition are not hidden. Does this matter? Yes, instinct matters, trust matters in this EU business. Sure, we can debate two competing forms of idealism, but this is politics at gut level. If with Johnson what you see is what you get, then I would say a politician famed for his ability to connect has lost his power. It’s ebbing away. Blame that butcher of a barber. Or the mayoral brain going awol. |