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).

I've had the misfortune of meeting all three of the most recent conservative leaders

David Cameron came to speak at my college ahead of the election he went on to win - i asked him a question about uni fees and he looked pissed off before going on to give a totally irrelevant answer. After the event I cornered him to point out he hadn't actually answered my question and he told me 'that's politics' !

I met Theresa May several times while she was home secretary and I was volunteering as part of a legal team helping asylum seekers. She was wholly unpleasant and spoke as though everyone were beneath her.

I met Boris at an event run by the Chinese embassy and he was superficially polite and funny but as time wore on he became more loud and obnoxious before making a truly disgusting comment about Asian women and being politely shuffled off by a friend / colleague / aide

I went to school with him! Primary school, I wasn’t at Eton. He was in the year above. Unfortunately (?) I don’t remember him.

He walked past me in a shopping centre a couple of years back, to my surprise. The security chap walking in his shadow saw my incredulous double-take and grinned at me.😂

Yes, I have at an event when he was Mayor of London. He was very charasmatic and jolly. Great with the press

he was relatively harmless back then, the buffoon mayor who zip wired and could only cause limited damage.

Yes several times for work when he was mayor. He played his bumbling act and came across as ill prepared and unprofessional in a room full of business leaders.

GB was serious and miserable when I met him. Tony Blair was overwhelmingly too bright and breezy. Bill Clinton was hypnotic.

I had a job for years involving Club de Madrid with ex leaders.

When he was MOL I was walking to the station and there was a commotion, excitement and I thought oh must be someone very famous. It was him he was greeting everyone and people seemed excited to meet him. I had seen Ken Livingston he didn’t have the same impact

met Tony Blair a few times before he was PM and once when he was PM. He was extremely charming and charismatic.

Sat at a table next to him and what I think was a load of family, including BJ senior, in a small town in Belgium a long time ago - the same weekend the Queen Mother died (if memory serves me right). The lot of them were very noisy and irritating and made DH marginally embarrassed to be English.

Yes. Just after he was elected Mayor of London. He was scruffy, very posh, a bit of a people pleased. Exactly how you'd imagine him really.

That's supposed to read 'people pleaser'.

Yes through work . He was much smaller than he appears on tv . He was very nice , listened to people . Quiet spoken . He speaks in a bit of a hesitant way but not at all full of himself . He also helped a friend of mine when he was an MP a and took a personal interest in his case.

Fortunately quite a few, otherwise I’d never have been able to stick it out as long as I did.
Although they’re often the ones that aren’t as high profile so nobody really cares that they’re pleasant, decent people doing a really hard job. Some notable exceptions where high profile politicians are lovely people as well but rarer to be honest.

Without outing myself. It's difficult. Someone very close to me worked with him for a couple of years. Let's just say he's exactly as you'd imagine him to be 🤣

Yes I met him when he was mayor. He was dodgy and dim. Quite easily led by the market rather than thinking of the needs of the people of London. He will never ever solve a problem, isn’t very detailed in fact hates the details!

He didn’t do anything positive for London, just took credit for Ken’s initiatives which inevitably took awhile to come forward so landed when Boris was in power such as Boris bikes, Olympics and the wider Olympic village transforming very contaminated land and cross rail!

He waisted so much money on a pointless new bridge over the Thames that wasn’t needed and actually was told it would cause a danger to pedestrian safety where it landed on the Southbank due to amount of footfall.

I knew it would be absolute car crash when he was PM.

He will run off to the US when he’s f*cked us all over!

Shorter than Michael Gove by some way

I found this really interesting as a pointer towards his personality and the fact that he's ALWAYS performing. reaction.life/jeremy-vine-my-boris-story/

Not this crime minister but plenty of politicians of a certain era.

Peter Mandelson was funny and polite though not always to Labour MPs.

Harriet Harman was very nice and seemed quite shy.

Mo Mowlan seemed very friendly and had a bit of a laugh with the then Tory leader.

Angela Eagle was very nice too, and was very capable.

it was 1998 and I was a civil servant, so few conservatives. Although one observation I will make is about Michael Portillo. I was not a fan at all,but when John Major got rid of him, a faxed hand written letter from him was on our desk the next morning.

No. I did meet the Queen once when I was 5 though 😀

He will run off to the US when he’s f&cked us all over

Wish he'd bloody hurry up.

Nothing I've read on this thread surprises me.

My friend’s husband is BJ’s Personal Protection Officer. Prior to this role he worked for Cameron who he despised and says that BJ is a much more likeable character, eager to be everyone’s friend and speak to people on different levels (these are most def his words not mine - I’m an avid TOry hater!) - the opposite to Cameron apparently 😂

I live near his dad and know people that have socialised with him and he's very likeable I've heard.

David Cameron visited a amall shop I worked in whilst he was PM and he had no time for us, looked down at us.

Yet some years ago, I met David Cameron's sister but didn't know at the time that was who she was. She was an absolute delight. Interestingly, she mentioned her brother worked in parliament but didn't say what he did. The way she talked I was left with them impression he worked in admin :)

It's tricky isn't it. I admit he is quite likeable and gets away with many, many things as a result.

He's absolute not the right person to the Prime Minister though. As an example the cost of living is currently an absolute nightmare for many people and he's doing absolutely nothing about it.

Bojo’s MO is to act like everyone’s friend.
Not at all surprised to hear DC is an arrogant twat! He never attempted to cover up his utter contempt for the masses.

@JennyForeigner "The good thing I got out of it was that my mate was the photographer and I got him to catch me standing next to Johnson giving him my best WTF loser face. Now that's a picture."

I'd love to see that photo!