Anyone met Boris Johnson?

[PraiseBee]

What was he like? Was he charismatic/very charming? I feel like very few people would still be ploughing on in his situation and that there must be a certain quality he possesses (other than the fact he had no shame).

Yep, he used to live near me and would go to our local. He was loud and would shout out the pub quiz answers (despite not actually taking part in the quiz). Unforgivable in my book!!

Thankfully not. The Prime Ministers I have met were polite and courteous, and were kind enough not to comment on my language skills (one is French, other German).

Yes, through work. I did not find him charming. But I know other people who found him very personable.

Another meeter of GB and I would go as far as to say he was very sexy in real life.

Haven’t met Johnson but my sister has and she said he had charisma for sure, although was (to use her exact word) “oily”.

Yes, he used to be my neighbour in Islington. He was neither a particularly good nor a bad neighbour but did seem to think we should all be thrilled to know him. For a while he had a regular tennis slot on the park courts at 9am on a Saturday playing singles with a well-known BBC journalist, on the court next to where I took my kids for their lessons. He was pretty good at tennis but pocketed quite a few stray balls which weren’t his!

I was at college with him and read the same subject. Our one encounter was at finals when we were waiting to go into the exam and he asked me what subject today's exam was on. As if he didn't know! I thought he was a prat then and haven't changed my opinion.

'He just looks like a totally vacuous knob with no substance behind the veneer. It's all lost on me.'

Totally with you. He's a bumbling, useless waste of space, and an utterly shit public speaker. These days he looks like he slept under a hedge. Don't get the appeal AT ALL. Have never met him, but have seen him on his stupid bike when he was Mayor of London, god help us

Have heard that Gordon Brown is very charismatic and charming in real life, but just could never put it across on screen

I didn't meet him personally but when he was Mayor my employers needed him to put his name to and support something charitable which would have meant nothing much for his reputation or political 'brownie' points but would be extremely helpful to the charitable endeavour (an excellent although unfashionable cause, don't wish to say more as outing). He / his office went over and above to help us out at his instigation, which I was impressed by. Almost exact same situation played out a few years later with a Labour politician (not Sadiq Khan btw) and the response was particularly high-handed and dismissive and the contrast is why this incident has stuck in my head.

Yes, in a work context and long before he was PM.

It pains me to admit it but he was likeable.

I’ve met him twice.
I couldn’t help but like him.

he remembered my name between the 2 meetings when there was no requirement to.

I didn’t find him arrogant at all. I think a lot of his problem is that he is actually just one of those people who doesn’t get stressed easily, doesn’t swear the small stuff and can withstand chaos very easily. He seems highly adaptable in the moment and almost lives in the moment. This appears bumbling to some, and with party gate, it meant he just went along with it, didn’t seem a big deal in that moment etc.

I think he’d be a great party guest (I know) and maybe good as a pm in the good times, but his whole premiership has been in very very bad times, and his jovial way just hasn’t gone down well with people.

Years ago he mistook me for someone he knew and made small talk at me for 5 minutes or so. He didn’t really let me speak so I politely nodded along finding the situation a bit surreal and amusing. Obviously I’m impervious to the charm and charisma others have mentioned! That and I think he’s a despicable cunt.

Sort of, he was in my town for some promotional bollocks, saw me on the fringes with my double buggy and tiny twins, came over and said hello, how cute etc.

DH has. A friend of his used to work for him. They had a two minute conversation from which DH took away that he was a absolutely top bloke (he doesn’t think that now). DH usually very cynical so I’d think he probably is very charismatic.

Yes, I've met him, twice. Through my job. He came to visit our Hospital when he was mayor. I liked him. He was informed, quick witted and prepared to confront the Health Minister over additional funding. I've also met Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Kier Starmer. Corbyn seemed more interested in talking to the cleaners and Starmer had a complete personality by-pass.

I met him in 2010 at a journalists' symposium in 1993, a governance event in London in 1997 and again in 2012 at a political think tank event on poverty. Not the "buffoon" portrayed by the media - the exact opposite. The buffoon thing is a front.

He highly intelligent and of-course has the polished charm of all public school educated Oxbridge men, but he was also a really great organiser, a surprisingly kind person and strangely non-political.

I already knew he was not as he was portrayed having watched a TV programme he made about classical Greece.

I don't recognise the man we see now as PM. It's like watching and listening to a puppet being worked from behind the scenes.

My dsis had many run ins (literally) through her old work when he was mayor. He got very mardy about not being invited to meet a religious dignitary (it was an ecumenical function) and called her up himself to see where his invitation was. He was invited to the official non religious event, but cut her dead (she was very senior) and she swears blind that after that he used to try and run her over on his bike and they were cut off the official mayoral Christmas card list.😁

Yes, years ago and he was very charismatic. It was a semi-public event so he was in performance mode and he did it very well.

Doesn't change the obvious fact that he's a despicable moral vacuum who is damaging this country.

Corbyn wanting to talk to the cleaners is a good thing, no? I’d imagine they’d be practically invisible to a lot of visiting politicians/VIPs.

strangely non-political

That is very true! He was surprisingly open and non partisan when I met him too.

He just seemed to want everyone to have a good time and be happy (E.g. party gate)

......... then don't waste your time shuffling through a Critial Trauma Unit. Go and see the Cleaning Dept !.

Not me but a friend has. Said he had terrible BO and was smarmy. One person’s charm is another person’s smarmy I guess.
Worth remembering that there is a large proportion of the population who still doff their cap for anyone with a plummy accent and think that they are superior to them. Goes some way to explaining why we have him as PM.

Handed him a leaflet at a protest about closing down a London hospital. He gave a blithering speech from atop some sort of stand, then jollied off. His female aide grabbed the leaflet rudely from my hand and said 'I'll take that thank you' while he mumbles in a jolly way.

I was about 21 years old.

I met him at a few hush hush parties last year...

BJ’s Mum lived near me and I saw him a number of times as a teenager. Very striking looking (not in a good way) which is why I recognised him later on. I thought he was very brash and rude.

Jeremy Corbyn I met in the late 1980s at the House of Commons. He was clearly very committed and professional as an MP but no charm or charisma.

I worked in the same building as Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor. He and his entourage used to push past people and jump the queue for coffee etc. in contrast his successor Alastair Darling queued up with everyone else.

Friends have. One at Oxford said he introduced himself to her saying 'we've met before' when she knew they hadn't. Others say he's charming and charismatic even though they are emphatically not fans.