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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel awful for Boris

410 replies

YouDoYou18 · 15/04/2020 07:08

A few people I know have said some awful things like ‘it serves him right’

I didn’t vote conservative, and to be honest I’ve never been a big fan of BJ himself.. but Christ do I feel awful for the poor man.

He must have thought it was going to be relatively easy, brexit was almost over and we just had to get through the last little bit and then the world fell into one of the biggest disasters in recent history...

He’s got to balance trying to save a big percentage of the population with making sure they have an economy to return to when this is over, he’s got to pull unprecedented amounts of money from thin air to support everyone through this time, everyone thinks they can do a better job and then to top it off he catches the virus himself and ends up hospitalised!

He just can’t catch a break! Whether you like him or not surely I’m not being unreasonable in feeling pretty bad for the guy?

OP posts:
Londubh · 15/04/2020 09:34

@EggBaconBeans, if you think Mn is “left wing’, you have some deeply confused ideas about politics.

Ohtherewearethen · 15/04/2020 09:35

Do you feel more sorry for Boris than all the other people who have died, and those they have left behind? Do you feel more sorry for Boris than all the people who have suffered under Tory cuts for the past ten years? Do you feel more sorry for a middle class, privileged, lying, homophobic racist than a nurse paid very poorly to risk their life every day to look after people suffering with covid? To look after Boris with care and compassion when he cheered them not getting a decent wage? Do you trust him to give us guidelines to keep us and others safe when he doesn't follow them himself or if he did, proves they are not effective?

peperethecat · 15/04/2020 09:36

I think YABU.

Even leaving aside Brexit and coronavirus, nobody should expect the Prime Minister's job to be easy. If he wanted an easy life he should have stuck to writing inflammatory nonsense about bendy bananas in the Telegraph. The trouble with Boris is that he wants all the fame and the glory but he doesn't want to put in the hard work.

Brexit was not nearly over, it was only just beginning. He had got us out of the EU and into a very short transition period which all the experts agreed was not long enough to negotiate a comprehensive trade agreement even with all being well. Then coronavirus hit. To begin with he didn't take it seriously and even boasted about having shaken hands with coronavirus patients in hospital. He didn't force businesses to shut down, meaning that those who chose to weren't able to claim on their insurance. People have had to cancel weddings and been unable to claim on their insurance because technically their venues were still open. He hasn't been ordering large scale testing or doing any of the things he's been advised to do by healthcare experts. He didn't sign the UK up to the EU's procurement scheme which would have enabled us to source more ventilators and PPE. And still no word on extending the Brexit transition period, which is necessary to prevent us from crashing out at the end of the year, because we needed to have a free trade agreement done by mid summer, and thanks to this pandemic we won't have even started negotiations.

On a personal level I hope he makes a full recovery, but he is absolutely not the man for the job right now. Or at any other time, to be honest, but especially not right now.

Peregrina · 15/04/2020 09:39

Geoffrey Howe - I couldn't remember whether it was him or Douglas Hurd and went and mixed the two up!

Samcro · 15/04/2020 09:42

LivingOnAnIsland Wed 15-Apr-20 08:35:56
I agree with you - it's such a shame that a parenting site is overrun by so many left-wing, bullying sheep.

really. just because people son't agree with the op?? or are we bullying BJ? (pmsl)

RufustheLanglovingreindeer · 15/04/2020 09:43

I really don’t understand why some people struggle with the concept that you can vote tory and loathe boris or vote labour and loathe corbyn etc

Or that you could have supported tories for all your voting life but decide not to vote for them in the last election for whatever reasons (or any other political party obviously)

But nooooo, say you think Corbyn is a twat and it makes you automatically a tory supporter and vice versa

Say you disagree with recent tory policies and that makes you a labour voter...no matter how you actually voted

1forsorrow · 15/04/2020 09:49

I'm more sorry for my elderly relative in a care home and now coping with COVID. She has been cut off from family for weeks, hasn't been out, done nothing she shouldn't but she won't even get a hospital bed as she is old with dementia.

On the otherhand you have him going around showing off about shaking hands with everyone (wasn't he brave) and allowing shitshows like the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead (her home isn't far from Cheltenham, funny that) Now we have him travelling to "his" country home and not only that his girlfriend joining him. So no I don't feel sorry for him in the slightest.

I think it might be good if all the politicians went home and let the Civil Service get on with it.

NotQuiteUsual · 15/04/2020 09:50

Honestly, his whole time as Prime Minister reads like a short story of someone who made a deal with the devil and got burned.

1forsorrow · 15/04/2020 09:50

RufustheLanglovingreindeer very true. I was hoping Rory Stewart would get the leadership. It isn't a party political thing at all.

1forsorrow · 15/04/2020 09:51

Honestly, his whole time as Prime Minister reads like a short story of someone who made a deal with the devil and got burned. I think there is a saying "be careful what you wish for" or something like that. He wished for it since childhood and now he's got it.

Porcupineinwaiting · 15/04/2020 09:53

Does one need to be left wing not to admire a serial philanderer and proven liar? Doesnt say much for the right, does it?

Howaboutanewname · 15/04/2020 09:54

Dealing with disasters and hugely complex events comes with territory of being a PM, I'm afraid. Any politician knows this, but he still wanted the job, he wasn't conscripted into it

This. Nothing more, nothing less. He signed up to it, he’s being paid and frankly you take the rough with the smooth and deal with it. I am glad he is well and believe he needs to take time to properly recuperate bit when all this is over, I suspect he will have some answering to do. I also think history will judge 2010 onwards very harshly.

Resisterance · 15/04/2020 09:55

Why seek leadership if you can't understand any of the things that might entail?!

generalh · 15/04/2020 09:57

He is a tit of the highest order...he may be intelligent in that he speaks several languages but that is where it ends. He thinks of lining his and those of his ilk pockets and he doesn't care about the general population of this country.
I am sorry if he was ill but that is as far as it goes in that I wouldn't wish the illness on anyone but he has lied so much and so often I don`t know what to believe.

Nonnymum · 15/04/2020 09:57

I've never followed politics. I don't think Boris is to blame. He will have people above him and he's just on the front line dealing with it.
I don't understand your comment. He is the Prime Minister! Who is above him? He is the most senior Politician in the UK. No one is above him!!

alreadytaken · 15/04/2020 09:58

"On a personal level I hope he makes a full recovery, but he is absolutely not the man for the job right now. Or at any other time, to be honest, but especially not right now."

This, although I cant think of anyone in his party who would not make a mess of it. Looks like tory bots want to replace him already - but you need to find someone better and that is difficult.

Hoarder123 · 15/04/2020 09:58

Those saying it serves him right, that he caught the virus, are total morons. Despite not liking him I would never wish this on my worst enemy.

Those saying that he has been incompetent, in the way he has dealt with things, do you really think that he made these decisions by himself? If you do, then you are really giving him a lot more credit than you should. What does he really know about the virus and how to deal with it? The answer is very little!

He has taken advice from the ‘experts’ on how to best deal with this. The same experts who would be giving, whichever PM and party was in power, advice!

Personally, I think we should all be very grateful that we haven’t got an idiot like Trump calling the shots!!

TheClitterati · 15/04/2020 10:00

Wait until Boris and his crew use Covid 19 as a reason to hard Brexit. Or are the exit deal negotiations still going on?

StrawberryF1eld · 15/04/2020 10:01

I don’t.

He was very dishonest during the whole Brexit debacle. His lies on the sides of buses re NHS funding is now particularly ironic.

He left poor old Teresa May to deal with the thankless task of negotiating us through the negotiations. He thought he’d sweep in when the shitty stuff was done and sweep us to glory. Deluded.

He wanted to be PM at all cost. Has never given a shit about the good of the country, has just said flipped all over the place to get that. Now he has it he has to suck it up. You don’t get to pick and choose. He wanted the job, he’s got it. I want him well and I’m hoping he’ll think long and hard about what the county as a whole needs not just a rich few. I’m hoping it may well be the making of him. He is going to have to lead in a way that helps all sectors. Having gone through this pandemic I can see the public being less tolerant of being shafted and wanting help for all.If not I can see the Tories being in the wilderness for years. Let’s face it a lot of their grey vote are sadly suffering the most at the moment.

StrawberryF1eld · 15/04/2020 10:02

Are now

GREATAUNT1 · 15/04/2020 10:02

Stanley is that you?

Peregrina · 15/04/2020 10:02

I do think there are others in the party who would do better. Julian Smith won respect for his work in N Ireland, which must be one of the most difficult ministerial briefs. So of course, Johnson gave him the push. Sunak? Maybe. Tom Tugendhat? A bit of an unknown but I think with potential. I too think it's a pity Rory Stewart lost and didn't stand for reelection. I had him marked down as possibly the Prime Minister after Johnson.

NiteFlights · 15/04/2020 10:03

Yes, alreadytaken there cant be many decent, competent Conservative politicians left after the Brexit purges. Most of the current bunch are self-serving mediocrities.

JustHereWithMyPopcorn · 15/04/2020 10:03

He trod on as many bodies as he could to get to be PM, now he's got what he wanted why would you feel sorry for him? He's spent at least half of the time he's been PM hiding.

AnyOldSpartabix · 15/04/2020 10:05

He’s an arrogant man, born into extreme privilege, who appears to have no empathy for anyone outside of his own privileged circle. I suspect he wanted power, not to help others, but for its own sake, and because he felt it was some kind of birthright.

Had he been a decent man, who was now facing hardship through no fault of his own, then I could have found some sympathy. But I’ll save what I have for the medics who are fighting this on the frontline, and for the people in care homes, who are wholly unable to protect themselves.

I don’t really understand all this outpouring of empathy for Johnson. Do you think, if the situation was reversed, that he’d feel any for you?