Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Original poster

Has anyone worked with Boris? What’s he really like?

220 replies

Fleetheart · 13/06/2019 18:05

Surely he can’t be that bad??? Everyone seems to think he’s a complete tosser (me included), so how is he so popular? Does anyone know the truth?

OP posts:

Original poster

Fleetheart · 14/06/2019 10:32

@frogsoup, I agree with you; I don’t think this site is left wing; I do think it’s quite centrist and quite tolerant overall - but not tolerant of racism, bigotry or anything that is not for the common good. Which is why it’s a good place to have a debate; but it somehow doesn’t feel like the real world. Why is that?

OP posts:

Tolleshunt · 14/06/2019 10:33

Couldn't agree more, frogsoup.

I find it a baffling - and worrying - attitude.

But then I am amazed at the calibre of some MPs, and it does seem that in some areas you could field a chimp as a candidate, and provided it was wearing the correct colour rosette, it would be voted in. It's terrifying.

Original poster

Fleetheart · 14/06/2019 10:34

I’m actually so disappointed in the labour response to all of this chaos. This is the perfect time to make a stand for the common good, strength of society and care for each other. But Corbyn is not the man to do that unfortunately.

OP posts:

Original poster

Fleetheart · 14/06/2019 10:36

I’m definitely more to left but can see there are many sensible and right thinking Tories - Heseltine, Ken Clark, John Major, Rory Stewart etc etc. But celebrity seems to be winning over right thinking.

OP posts:

puppymouse · 14/06/2019 10:37

Ditto what @flingingmelon said. Fine to work for but not a detail person and short attention span.

GCAcademic · 14/06/2019 10:39

He visited my DD's university when he was minister for HE and she asked him a sensible question about accessibility to which he clearly had nothing useful to say so he blustered and tried to make her look silly. How his face fell when he encountered her after the event in her wheelchair.

This would have been Jo Johnson, Boris’s brother, I think. Jo was Minister for universities, not Boris.

NightScented · 14/06/2019 10:39

You’re not going to get any positives posts about Boris because this site is unfortunately, predominantly left wing!

Mumsnet really isn't at all leftwing.

Starkestchoice · 14/06/2019 10:47

I see the Mumsnet lefty echo chamber is out in force.

Original poster

Fleetheart · 14/06/2019 10:51

@starkestchoice, so what do you think of Boris?

OP posts:

Tolleshunt · 14/06/2019 10:53

Whenever anybody flings the word 'lefty' into a conversation, it makes me realise that the person has closed their mind and gone into tribal mode, rather than engage in critical thinking. It's a pity, but there we are.

JuliusNicholson · 14/06/2019 10:57

There are a lot of Tory MPs who hate him and have an “anyone but Boris” outlook, so it’s not just left-wingers.

NightScented · 14/06/2019 10:57

I see the Mumsnet lefty echo chamber is out in force.

OK, let's hear from Tory voters. What do you think of the person your party is electing to lead it?

extelegraphjourno · 14/06/2019 10:58

I didn't have a lot to do with him because he was a star writer (and I wasn't ) but my main memory of him is how indulged he was by everyone - enabled, I suppose we would term it now. He was always late filing copy - to the extent that on the night we went to press with one of his articles, people would be left sitting around in the office for hours waiting for him to deliver - and everyone would just chuckle and roll their eyes in an "Oh Boris!" way. He was doubtless a very talented writer but extremely unreliable. On one occasion, he promised to write something for my section and then just didn't . In retrospect, he spent a lot of time claiming to be very busy but it may have been that was an easy get-out when it came to sticking to promises, putting in effort etc.

My other memory is how ruthless he was. He decided he wanted to be editor and was unbelievably rude and shamelessly disloyal to the then-editor (who was a nice man, competent, fair), openly pitching for his job which he fully believed he was entitled to on the strength of being Boris and despite having no interest in the running of the paper beyond what was in it for him (the ear of powerful men, a platform for his own ambitions etc).

So, in summary, an unreliable, untrustworthy, ruthless, indulged self-promoter with enough wit and alleged star quality to be considered "a character". We get the PM we deserve...

Whosorrynow · 14/06/2019 11:01

With his big ladies bottom Michael Gove was bound to have a weak clammy handshake

I see Boris Johnson as a younger brighter version of Donald Trump

ImportantWater · 14/06/2019 11:02

I wish the media (and us) would call him “Johnson” rather than “Boris”. It differentiates him from the other candidates and makes him sound matey, fun, a bit of a character.

DotOnTheHorizon · 14/06/2019 11:03

@TheSpottedZebra - I too have had the joy of working with Priti Patel and IDS.....who'd have thought IDS came across as more human?!!

Boris was shadow HE minister, they don't have the benefit of the civil service briefings etc. It was Jo (his brother) who was HE minister and he was always very well briefed and knowledgeable about his portfolio and in my experience is a very nice man.

Never worked for Boris......but those who have say he is quick to delegate and can't/won't take ownership for his mistakes......if I worked in the No10 policy unit, I'd be looking for a new job!

Original poster

Fleetheart · 14/06/2019 11:04

whosorrynow, “big ladies bottom”.

OP posts:

Soola · 14/06/2019 11:06

I’m no longer a Tory voter. I like Boris but in the last few years I’ve been disappointed in him not being more driven.

I like Dominic Raab and I hope he does well.

Boris is no Donald Trump, he doesn’t have the same passion and patriotism for his country at all.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 14/06/2019 11:07

Ooh! SpottedZebra I know someone who worked with her very early on in her career. My friend has never had a good word to say about her... but plenty of bad ones. At the moment she, friend, is fairly frothing at the thought of Patel becoming someone onf import again.

Tolleshunt · 14/06/2019 11:12

Nobody ever has a good word to say about Priti Patel, on any forum. Baffling how she has managed to get on so far. Surely somebody must like her - or she has a hold on somebody?

BoogleMcGroogle · 14/06/2019 11:13

I've met him in a social context and he was utterly charming and very charismatic. He is very, very funny. But then I was also pretty wowed by Peter Mandleson, so might well be drawn to a type!

I'd be surprised if he was a true sociopath (as opposed to the conversational use of the word), but I imagine him to be wholly self-serving and the delegator of both work and blame extraordinaire. Which combined with a tendency to use one's intelligence for cunning and deceit, isn't the best combination for the holder of the highest office in the land.

borntobequiet · 14/06/2019 11:23

Oops, posting wrongly all over the place, my mistake, Boris was shadow minister for HE in 2006 or so when he annoyed my daughter, sorry @fleetheart (nice name!), my call (on another thread) should have been to @GCAcademic.
And yes it was horrid of him.

Genevieva · 14/06/2019 11:29

I clicked on this to read about him, not to comment, as I don't know him. What I do know though, is that google images shows he has always had very blond hair. His siblings are also blond, but he was the blondest. It isn't dyed. I have an uncle with similar colour and he has never gone grey - just stayed a luminescent blond white. His Turkish ancestors is not Turkic, but Circassian. His Turkish ancestors originally came from Russia and emigrated across the Black Sea when they experienced persecution.

I think he often gets compared to Trump because of the hair and their perceived populism, but I don't think they are politically similar. So much has been said about what he stands for that it is really hard to strip that back and see exactly what is him, in context. It seems that Boris Johnson is an old fashioned Conservative with views that would have been mainstream in the 20th century, but are now out of step with many, particularly in the South East and major cities. However, he is also a huge admirer of Churchill, who stood both as a Liberal and as a Conservative, so it is possible that his views are more liberal than we realise.

extelegraphjourno · 14/06/2019 11:35

I agree, Genevieva that his views probably are socially liberal but he is prepared to portray himself as anything but in order to get people to vote for him. He is then trapped - as he is with Brexit - doubling down on a position that he doesn't really believe in. It is all about what his ambition rather than the country. His instincts are for cheap laughs - hence the Muslim letterboxes/piccaninnies comments etc - and that is neither sensitive nor sensible given the temperature of the country at the moment .

Whosorrynow · 14/06/2019 11:35

BoogleMc
What would you say are the necessary and sufficient conditions for someone to be considered a true sociopath?

Could we say that Boris is Machiavellian rather than sociopathic or are the two synonymous?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9