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“I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”
- ruytlm 7y agoI am reminded of a post I once read[0] on how coyotes are 'too clever by half'; smart enough to realise how to win each skirmish, but without realising they're losing the metagame. Johnson strikes me as someone who has learned to 'hack' the skirmishes (e.g. by playing the fool when giving speeches as discussed) in order to win in the short term, but who seems oblivious to (or to be willfully disregarding) the long term detrimental effect his skirmishing has on the UK. [0]: https://www.epsilontheory.com/too-clever-by-half/ https://www.epsilontheory.com/too-clever-by-half/
- crdoconnor 7y agoHe is a fool who pretends to be playing one. The upper echelons of the conservative party are not at all meritocratic - you do not have to be whip smart to get there, but being personable counts. He's made enough self inflicted strategic blunders. Nonetheless he holds a certain appeal for the upper classes in the UK. I don't think his appeal translates down to people who work for a living though.
- growlist 7y agoSay what you like about Boris, but there is good evidence he's not stupid as lots of people would like to believe: 'Johnson excelled in English and Classics, winning prizes in both, and became secretary of the school debating society, and editor of the school newspaper, The Eton College Chronicle' Also I think the whole upper class/working class dichotomy you present is kind of old hat these days (and somewhat patronising to the people you cite that 'work for a living' - whose viewpoints and aspirations are generally somewhat beyond merely hoping for an indoor toilet), often pushed by the left as an electoral tactic against the right (even in spite of the fact that all UK political parties are stuffed full of ex-Oxbridge types). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson#Eton_and_Oxford:_1977%E2%80%931987 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson#Eton_and_Oxford:...
- Nexxxeh 7y agoWhip smart is an ironic choice of words, in the context of political parties. Unfortunately his appeal does translate down. Even to those for whom his proposed tax cut will be detrimental. The Mail readers, the people who have been convinced that EU migration has stolen their jobs, the people who want to be in the £50k bracket... And those who are fed up with political spin and disillusioned with politics, the Brexit voters. They have been led to believe Boris is the answer, whereas he's arguably just the cliff we'll be jumping off of.
- grey-area 7y agobut 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 similar to Trump in fact, and as Sarah Kendzior said about Trump: "If Trump senses he may have to make a personal sacrifice, he will sacrifice the world instead." https://www.fastcompany.com/40558314/donald-trump-will-do-anything-to-avoid-prosecution-and-john-bolton-will-help https://www.fastcompany.com/40558314/donald-trump-will-do-an... The same holds true for Johnson. He will happily sacrifice the UK for the sake of his political career, so that he can be prime minister.
- growlist 7y agoHe did pretty well in London - certainly better than Kahn, who has been disastrous.
- vidarh 7y agoThe office of mayor in London does not carry enough powers for any mayor to be "disastrous". That's just ridiculous hyperbole. Other than that, the views on London mayors tends to mostly follow party lines, so it's not a particularly worthwhile discussion.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- HenryBemis 7y agoGreat article, thank you. As for BoJo, he is smart as a fox. Trump is the same. They make 1-2 stupid things, so people call them stupid. On the back side they scheme and plan. Haters see the stupid actions and hate. They play a game of chess, sacrificing a pawn (some 'credibility' by saying something stupid), and while people are getting tired of their artificial stupidity, they march on doing their thing left alone. Someone who managed to be the mayor of London, then get in the Parliament, then managing to be in the top 2 candidates for Prime Minister, have a net worth of a couple of million (of the £€$ we know), he CANNOT be THAT stupid. He plays the game and he's winning. I don't like the man. But I don't like him because I don't like his policies, his ideas, and I don't like Brexit. But as a politician/player, he's rocking this game. People who think Boris is stupid, are completely missing it. He is like Varoufakis. He sees an opportunity and grabs it. Maybe the 'bet' will pay off, maybe it will not. But: Mayor of London --> Minister of "Foreign Affairs" --> Prime Minister.. I call that an intelligent human being.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoYou're aware of what a complete cock up he made of his entire time as Foreign Secretary?
- MagnumOpus 7y agoBring smart is not the same as being well-prepared, diligent, conscientious, tactful or having your constituents' best interest at heart. You don't get to be King's Scholar at Eton being a buffoon.
- onion2k 7y agoYou don't get to be King's Scholar at Eton being a buffoon OK, so he's a clever buffoon.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoBuffoon is pretty much exactly what I took from the fairly well known interview with Eton's former headmaster speaking about Johnson's time there.
- bifrost 7y agook, thats hilarious.
- mooreds 7y agoDid not see that one coming.
- Simon_says 7y agoI block all Facebook properties at the DNS level. Is there another source for this?
- mooreds 7y agohttps://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/my-boris-story/ https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/my-boris-story/
- Simon_says 7y agoSweet. Thank you.
- neonate 7y agohttp://archive.is/EUIls http://archive.is/EUIls
- calimac 7y agoI think a lot more people would block Facebook at the DNS level if it was easy. My hat goes off to you. I really think that we can get a good segment of the population of black Facebook at the DNS level if we just had a simple solution for the common users
- sittingnut 7y agopolitics allowed here?
- Apocryphon 7y agoSounds like he hacked the societal expectations of what constitutes a speech via social engineering
- hprotagonist 7y agotwice, the exact same way.
- microcolonel 7y agoDo you run programs only once? If you have a fabulous spicy pickle recipe and it rescues people from depression and cures alzheimer's, do you chance experimenting with the preparation? ;- )
- mc32 7y agoPlus who knows how many more the witness wasn’t privy to.
- Apocryphon 7y agoAnd the speeches that are to come!
- dang 7y agoInteresting stories with political overlap are ok (see https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=by:dang%20political%20overlap https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...). I don't think one even needs to apply that criterion here, though. It's a story about a politician, but not exactly politics.
- asabjorn 7y agoThis does seem like a contradiction of rules.
- badcede 7y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gabyntpWg#t=2m58s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gabyntpWg#t=2m58s
- sonnyblarney 7y agoIf this is true, the man is obviously a genius. That said, the 'act of the fool' mightn't work in operational reality, because if everyone believes he's an unprepared bumpkin, then that's the reality, and he won't be respected. His former editor at the Telegraph had some very harsh words about him, along the lines of 'he only cares about himself, he's totally unprepared, has no idea what he is doing' etc. and I'll gather that rings true. So maybe he is a populist genius, but I'm not sure how well this will bode for the current EU/Brexit crisis.
- whatshisface 7y agoCritically, he was doing it at random awards shows where his expertise wasn't relevant. You could probably pull this off with no risk to your reputation if you pulled together (I.e. put the "pulled together" tape in your mental Walkman) when it was expected of you.
- sonnyblarney 7y agoI think the point of the story was not that he was a 'good speaker' but rather, his foolhardiness is a populist act. Which implies that his kind of bumbling attitude in popular politics might very well be calculated, i.e. he's not a fool, he's brilliant. I'll buy that he's borderline genius with the populist bits, but I also believe basically everyone in international politics who say he's a clown, totally unprepared, never serious. Some of the things serious entities have to say about him are pretty bad.
- whatshisface 7y agoSuppose you were a calculating actor like this guy, and you wanted to insult him. Would you design the insult around his private persona, which only you and a select few were privy to, or around his public persona, so that the public will agree with the insult? If the truth doesn't matter to you, you will join in on the illusion of him being disorganized, because that's what the public already believes.
- 7y ago
- senectus1 7y agoWhy do we (our society) keep electing these sorts of people?
- Lucadg 7y agoIn this brilliant speech there may be an answer: https://youtu.be/wSRN8PUhHX0 https://youtu.be/wSRN8PUhHX0
- pseudolus 7y agoBecause we value superficiality over depth. Always have, always will.
- peterwwillis 7y agoPeople interpret charisma as depth (or at the very least, as being capable). Nobody looks at a charismatic person and says, now there's a real idiot. Even in this story you see it. The author thought he was a genius, even after watching the insanity of a supposedly unprepared speaker trying to wing it.
- kmonsen 7y agoWhat? Isn't Trump, Boris Johnson and George W Bush charismatic people and that is what is used against them? Charismatic but a fool underneath? Maybe I'm misunderstanding your argument here.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- peterwwillis 7y agoPeople vote populist because they see themselves in that leader: "they're just like me". If the voters considered who they're voting for as idiots, that would mean the voters considered themselves idiots. Instead, people considered them "capable". Not a genius, but "able to get the job done". Charisma instills confidence, and is endearing. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton gathered large bases because of what they were saying, but not because of how they said it. Rather than instilling confidence by charisma, they had to convince people of their abilities. In a way, that's much harder. Charisma is a bit like a cheat code. You can also see this in Bill Clinton, who despite passing some dreadful legislation and being scandalized, people continued to have respect for, because he was very charismatic.
- Arbalest 7y agoHe must have recognised the seachange of populism and created a persona to suit. Reminds me of the BDG video on Polygon on how to create the perfect E3 presentation. Particularly the part about Gaffes. I suppose this was a long time coming, in marketing circles, it is agreed that "Generation X" was the first "Jaded" generation, and I feel like there's some link there. Marketing to that generation often involves taking the piss out of their own product, and it is now the generation which is right in the age group to start wielding significant power and still has a number of good working years.
- Apocryphon 7y agoIt's been said that George W. Bush already did that decades ago, shedding his New Englander blue-blood upbringing for Texan rustic.
- doesnt_know 7y agoI dunno, I don't think it's very healthy that when presented with a bumbling idiot in a position of power you start to think it's a big ruse and they are actually a genius. It's best to just assume they are in fact, a bumbling idiot.
- zaptheimpaler 7y agoIn general sure, but when that person happens to be leading a nation, I would not be so quick to jump to that conclusion.
- jancsika 7y agoWe're talking about a former leader of a nation for which the body of evidence is in. What is the evidence that he was feigning ignorance on foreign policy, national security, etc.?
- eschaton 7y agoWhen there are actually samples of his speech before and after moving to Texas, and when he was Governor of Texas versus President of the United States, it kind of lends more credence to the claim.
- duxup 7y agoI've been lucky enough to know some US state level politicians for quite some time, not major figures, but folks who did it most of their life (while doing other things too) and were successful at it. I often got the felling that they did that thing, and even pushed the issues they did... because they were successful at it and it fit their personality. Most were not idealists despite what they said IMO, I suspect many if pressed to change their positions did not really care about the issues outside of a couple topics at most (and due to the winds of change in US politics most actually supported surprisingly different issues over time). They were just very good at getting along with people, shaking hands, negotiating deals, had the social skills that provided them the financal and political support hey needed to keep going. In many ways it seemed to be a lifestyle that once they were successful, was also a sort of social life, and to some extent a thrill seeking event (elections are exciting) that just kept them going as people. Not to pass the buck on any moral choices they make, they're certainly responsible, but I suspect for may they just sort of fall into it, and just don't want to quit the lifestyle as it fits who they are.
- gexla 7y ago> Most were not idealists despite what they said IMO, I suspect many if pressed to change their positions did not really care about the issues outside of a couple topics at most (and due to the winds of change in US politics most actually supported surprisingly different issues over time). They represent the views of the people who vote. Those views change over time. This is much like me doing what my employer asks for, despite my own preferences. It's not our views which are important, but rather the ability to execute for those we are working for. I think most workers don't care so much about the mission of their employers. They find a way to make their work interesting and things get done regardless.
- riffraff 7y agoI think this point of view is arguable. First, politicians may be considered as representative of either _only the people who voted for them_, or as _representative of everyone_. Secondly, many politicians do not really change their point of view, the change in people's opinion is expressed by voting different people.
- Bakary 7y agoThis calls to mind the idea that our world is uniquely suited to psychopaths (or whatever the current DSM-V term is). Cities are too large for people to be held accountable as a villager would. There is too much information for scandals to have consequences. The thirst for confidence and charm is so intense that charisma or presence is by far the most useful quality a person can have. Modern life is filled with so much stress that those who cannot feel fear or empathy are highly advantaged. In the end you can have amorphous politicians who can change their identity at any moment and be hailed for it, because they provide some form of emotional value to people in a world where nothing matters anymore anyway. Looking at the new generation of entertainers on streaming or video platforms, many of them seem to have dark triad traits.
- 895-grbtio 7y agoDon't believe the hype. Lack of empathy is a huge handicap in life. People who are unable to imagine things from the perspective of others are often unable to correctly interpret or anticipate others' actions and responses. Managers with low EQ tend to not go very far.
- anonydsfsfs 7y agoI think you two are talking about different things. Empathy has two components: cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Cognitive empathy is the ability to imagine things from the perspective of others, and lacking that is clearly a big handicap. Emotional empathy is the ability to respond emotionally to other people's mental state, and it's definitely not clear whether lacking that (as sociopaths do) is a handicap.
- igravious 7y agoInteresting distinction, one that I was unaware of. I'd disagree with your assertion that lacking cognitive empathy "is clearly a big handicap" and also that "it's definitely not clear whether lacking [emotional empathy] (as sociopaths do) is a handicap". Speaking from personal experience I frequently fail to exhibit what is deemed to be the correct emotional response to the emotions of others by either misinterpreting their emotion, being unable to adduce the underlying cause for an emotion, or not caring about or being unaffected by their emotion. This has caused much negative interpersonal consequences and has been highly detrimental. I imagine that emotional empathy is quite a big component of what people call emotional intelligence. (I also don't have the little voice that says "don't say what you're about to say" that other people have but I think that's something else?) However I have no trouble imaging things from the perspective of others. I'd go further than that, I am too good at imagining things from the perspective of others. It's practically a default setting of mine to flip roles and situations around to evaluate scenarios from another's perspective. It's why people with ideological biases infuriate me because it makes them unable to perform this simple "trick", same with someone or groups suffering from delusions of exceptionalism and other tribal biases. Because this is so prevalent and doesn't appear to impact negatively on individuals I have to conclude it's not so much of an immediate handicap, it doesn't appear to hinder people getting on in life the way lacking emotional empathy does. (It does have rather big societal consequences obviously which can eventually hurt the individual via the group but people are too 'stupid' to see this if I may say that without causing offense.)
- diego_moita 7y agoAs a non-British, I say that the idea of Boris Johnson leading Britain through Brexit sounds just like an orangutan riding a double decker bus through Piccadilly Circus: you don't want to be there, but you don't want to miss a second of this show. Sorry Italy! You're not the funniest country in Europe anymore. Britain just got their own Silvio Berlusconi.
- jacquesm 7y agoBoris is much worse than Silvio Berlusconi, who is - predictably - following the money and looking out for his buddies. Johnson will happily ruin the whole country for a gain in status.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoI’m not sure, at the start of this race Boris struck me as the candidate least likely to deliver Brexit. I suspect his supporters are going to be disappointed.
- rurban 7y agoCertainly not for a gain of status. His speech was very well prepared to the target audience: Upper class cynicism, throw the plebs under the bus, nobody cares - the beaches do remain open. And we'll entertain ourselves in the meantime, whilst the industry will have their will.
- talos 7y agoSo he’s a comedian, and a bad one.
- baybal2 7y agoThat "sea change" in populism did not started just now. I felt since around late nineties that Western and Eastern politics are getting closer with each day, to the point of convergence. See, that "ultrapopulism" did not start with Trump and Co., it started with mainstream, centrist parties beginning to resorting to extreme political maneuvers and demagoguery at around start of millennium, with WTC attacks greatly facilitating that. Whatever slogans the modern ultrapopulists operate, could've easily be taken for something coming from Lenin, Stalin, Pol or Mao few decades ago.
- andy_ppp 7y agoIn some horrendous nihilistic way we seem to get the politicians we deserve. Hopefully Boris and Trump are the end of this mess and after they screw everything we get something better, but I fear it’s just the start. It really does feel like we live in the hunger games right now.
- te_chris 7y agoIt’s literally a certain portion of boomers and above who are these people’s main constituency. TPUSA et al can try and claim there’s a silent minority of youth for these proto-fascists, stats would disagree though. It’s the boomers mostly, whose elected political representatives have spent their whole lives running down the state, making things easy for themselves, and now they expect to retire and cost a fortune in healthcare and that younger generations are just going to go along with it. And maybe they’re right, life expectancy is helping them to keep winning elections. Not forever though. #NotAllBoomers of course, but they did keep electing the ones who’ve put us in the position we’re in today vis a vis huge upcoming tax liabilities and very low - historically - current levels of tax income. If you want some interesting reading, google generational eu sentiment in the uk, it’s the boomers who are the most anti. The greatest generation are generally positive, given they actually went through the war.
- rjf72 7y agoHere [1] are some data on this exact topic. Pew broke down ideology by age. While it's true that older individuals tend to become more conservative, this is a not a new phenomena and has been observed and commented upon for centuries. Of course when young we know there is no chance we could ever 'compromise' our views as the years pass. Nonetheless, life experience changes us in ways we often could never have predicted. Ok, but in spite of this there's no crystal clear correlation. In particular the split among ideology on the 65+ group that most consistently votes one way or the other (representing about 66% of the entire population) is split 50/50. And similarly there is also much more diversity in views among younger individuals than is typically represented by e.g. social media. The one interesting correlation they did observe is one between your cohort's (by age group) voting tendencies and whom the president was when your cohort turned 18. Like you mention the Greatest generation who turned 18 under FDR lean heavily democratic. Though contradicting your hypothesis is the fact that you're presumably referencing WW2. And the Silent generation served extensively in this war. And they lean heavily republican. One interesting thing I've observed (and wrote in a post a little above in a peer to this comment chain) is there tends to be a periodic shifting of ideology, that in general just tends to be against the status quo. And Pew's data provides some really interesting insight there. For instance they broke Boomers down into three 5 year groups. The groups are divided based upon who was president when they turned 18. Those 3 presidents were Kenny/Johnson, Nixon, and Ford/Carter. The Ford/Carter combination is frustrating for data, but regardless the results we get: - Kennedy/Johnson - lean heavily republican - Nixon - lean heavily democrat - Ford/Carter - lean heavily republican Not easy to classify things in a straight forward way, but interesting data nonetheless! [1] - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/09/the-politics-of-american-generations-how-age-affects-attitudes-and-voting-behavior/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/09/the-politic...
- smangbang 7y agoWho's the POTUS right now?
- 895-grbtio 7y agoDJT is a lot of things. Sociopath is pretty far down the list.
- dang 7y agoPlease don't post political flamebait here. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20281979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20281979 and marked it off-topic.
- arittr 7y agoThis is a true HN gem - thanks, really made my evening.
- garypoc 7y agoThe only logical conclusion we can make about this post is that the writer is indeed a good storyteller!
- monk_e_boy 7y agojeremy vine is a very well known journalist and radio show host
- johnnycab 7y agoHis younger brother is less political or gloomy; an accomplished comedian and a king of one-liners. "I decided to sell my Hoover... well it was just collecting dust." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Vine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Vine
- daniel75378 7y agoIsn’t this normally called a one-trick pony? Alternatively it is very much like what actors do; act. I am struggling to see a sense of professionalism, concern or leadership, unfortunately. Nice hair, though.
- bubblewrap 7y agoI don't think he is giving the sheep speech at EVERY occasion. Presumably he has more than one trick up his sleeve.
- noncoml 7y agoSo, he is an actor?
- fit2rule 7y agoThink for yourself: what is happening underneath all these distractions by loud and obnoxious clowns? Am I possibly missing something important while all this fuss and nonsense is distracting the general public? Because, we are living in an age of cults. The mechanics of the cult process are well and truly understood by the rich and powerful at this point, and we are never going to be safe for as long as we are members, unwittingly, of a cult for which we don't know the real purpose.
- ggm 7y agoThe moral of the story: it's a giant con, and all of us, worldwide are the mark.
- dr_dshiv 7y agoThis was a fun read. My take is that politicians showing up to random award ceremonies and giving a canned speech is a normal situation, though. That he can give a canned speech in a way that seems self-deprecating and authentic, in order to entertain and connect with the audience, is impressive. I can understand why someone would feel that this is a form of lying. He is an entertainer and capable of manipulating crowds. My concern is the lack of people like this who share my own politics.
- magpi3 7y ago> He is an entertainer and capable of manipulating crowds. My concern is the lack of people like this who share my own politics. The creepy part for me was not the canned speech. It was the attempt to manipulate the people at his table. The last minute arrival, the shock at finding he is the speaker, forgetting his speech at the table... I would also feel like I am watching a fraud
- tomohawk 7y agoChances are, if you are watching a politician, you are watching a fraud. The earnest ones are usually the most dangerous ones. They may actually believe the blather that comes out of their mouths that they don't understand. Many politicians have the skill to get and keep power, but not much other skill.
- lmm 7y agoWouldn't it feel more fraudulent if he "turned off the buffoon" as soon as he got backstage? When you perform a role that requires acting in a certain way, it becomes a part of you too; how many teachers come home and find themselves still in their "classroom persona" for a bit?
- magpi3 7y agoDo you think he continues this persona with his family? He must turn it off at some point. He cannot go home and tell his wife every other week how shocked he was to find that he was the main speaker. And yes I consider performers who clearly separate their personal identities from their fictional identities less fraudulent.
- philjohn 7y agoThe thing people need to know about Boris is that 99% of what you see in public is a carefuly crafted image of a harmless, and somewhat likeable buffoon. If you listen to the recording of where he was talking with an acquaitance about supplying him with the address of a reporter for said acquaintance to "rough up" an entirely different man emerges, one who doesn't stammer and ham things up. Boris is a very calculating man, and has fooled so many, for so long. This story paints this point very vividly.
- bhouston 7y agoSo Boris, the Oxford man, has an "Everyman" shtick that has wide appeal. Smart man. Politicians who are so smart as to become something else are a bit scary, hard to trust if they are mostly an act. I suspect this is mostly for public consumption and he dropped this when actually working. Thus maybe it is just his interfacing with the people shtick. And then it is mostly harmless.
- EliRivers 7y agoIt's certainly true that the harm he does is not caused by his Everyman" shtick. It's caused instead by his brutal incompetence.
- Bakary 7y ago"There is an idea of a Boris Johnson, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there."
- zwerdlds 7y agodid you manage to get that doria reservation for tonight?
- DanBC 7y ago> “Now, I accept,” he went on in an uncertain tone, “that as a result some small children were eaten by a shark. But how much more pleasure did the MAJORITY get from those beaches as a result of the boldness of the Mayor in Jaws?” A small reminder that this is a direct cause of Grenfell, where 72 people died in a burning building. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire
- chippy 7y agocould you explain your comment as I did a search on this page and saw no mention of this
- DanBC 7y agoBoris Johnson is claiming that red tape hinders business and that we need less of it, and sure some people are going to be harmed but that's counter-balanced by the increased prosperity of everyone else. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/28/boris-johnson-backs-telegraph-campaign-cut-eu-red-tape-choking/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/28/boris-johnson-ba... He was part of a government that promised a "bonfire of red tape", and that included building standards. https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/cameron-claims-victory-in-bonfire-of-the-building-regulations/8658068.article https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/cameron-claims-victory-i... > In a speech to the Federation of Small Business Cameron said 100 standards and building regulations were facing the bonfire – a move which he claimed would save around £60 million a year for housebuilders – or £500 for each new home built. > His announcement effectively re-iterates the government’s commitment to trim down building regulations as part of its Housing Standards Review. Grenfell Tower showed us why those regulations exist and what happens when you get rid of them - people die. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/15/grenfell-tower-red-tape-safety-deregulation https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/15/grenfe... From the Wikipedia article: "The national government commissioned an independent review of building regulations and fire safety, which published a report in May 2018" That report is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-building-regulations-and-fire-safety-final-report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-revie... There was previous criticism of UK fire regulation, that's mentioned in the Wikipedia article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire#Criticism_of_fire_safety_regulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire#Criticism_...
- bubblewrap 7y agoPolitician giving speeches at some random gathering of industry types - isn't that SUPPOSED to be entertainment? It's not as if those speeches matter in any way? I think comedians do a similar thing, practicing their act until it seems spontaneous but every punchline hits. Why should politicians do their job part of "public speaking" in a different way? So what does "for real" mean? If a comedian manages to look spontaneous, yet every word and move has been practiced hundreds of times, is he for real?
- pjc50 7y agoLike Penn and Teller, it's always interesting to see a magic trick deconstructed. And it is a "trick" or a "routine", as much as anyone else's performance. It relies entirely on intelligence and the ability to think on one's feet, combined with a good memory of a stock of anecdotes that can be matched to the audience. Or at least a few stock ones that can be hammed up. The anecdotes mentioned (SHEEP and SHARK) are highly political, too, focusing on "EU regulations" and "health and safety"; mocking these is absolutely a staple of Johnsonism, and it goes down well with the soft-right and businessmen. The haplessness is a routine that Brits absolutely love, and again it takes no small skill to be professionally hapless. This was also a staple of Wogan's performances; famously, for the big Children in Need telethons, he never did any of the rehearsals but came on and delivered a charismatic and funny performance - all night. The problem is that Johnson is not applying for the job of chat show host, he's applying for PM, and this routine absolutely does not work on other EU leaders. He also appears to be entirely self-centered and amoral. Years ago having a daughter in adultery would have disqualified him ( https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/21/boris-johnson-fathered-child-affair https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/21/boris-johns... ), but in post-Trump times nobody cares. http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2017/12/11/the-two-cultures-2017-merit-versus-brilliance/ http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2017/12/11/the-two-cultures... : explores this concept at greater length. As a Cambridge alumnus I'm absolutely familiar with brilliance as a kind of performance. For those in that culture glib effortlessness is prized. An earlier example might be Enoch Powell's showboating on his Classical Greek paper - when asked to do a translation into Greek of a poem, he did two versions as pastiches of different Greek poets and then left early.
- 0815test 7y ago> 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.
- growlist 7y agoNot 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 sciences and the humanities – which was a major hindrance to solving the world's problems.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures Edit: Boris was also President of the Oxford Union, assistant Editor of the Telegraph, and Editor of the Spectator, as well as two-term London mayor. Surely you must give him some credit! I suggest it would take an extraordinarily fortunate fool to be able to pull off a record like that.
- Nexxxeh 7y agoHow competent was he as mayor? Most memorably he stood up for bankers, brought in Boris bikes, and most famously got stuck on a zipline. His primary talent is taking limited damage from scandals that should have ended his career.
- mayniac 7y ago"brought in Boris bikes" Boris didn't even do anything with that one. Livingstone set everything up, but he left office before the scheme actually started. Boris just happened to be in charge when it started operating and he (very undeservedly IMO) got his name attached.
- machinecoffee 7y ago> assistant Editor of the Telegraph https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-prime-minister-tory-party-britain https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/boris-... Max Hastings, his boss at the time doesn't have such a great opinion of Boris. I would suggest as well that in more ordinary times, when the country has some decent leaders and is not so bitterly divided, he would have absolutely no chance of rising to the position he looks now likely to hold. But these are very strange times, and "chaos is a ladder".
- hellenawaweru 7y agothe story is interesting. it was fun reading this is the an actor? the hair looks good https://finance.uonbi.ac.ke/node/1080 https://finance.uonbi.ac.ke/node/1080
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