To think that a personality cult has developed around Boris Johnson?

[Applejaxx]

I know this sounds completley ridiculous but have a quick look around social media and in particular Twitter, and you will see a disturbing number of people with lots of union flags in their twitter handle name who effectively think that the sun shines out of his arse, that he can do no wrong and that any justifiable criticism of his or his governments handling of the current crisis is part of a massive 'leftie' conspiracy against him.

They are terrified of 'lefties's and 'liberals' and think all of the media are out to get Boris and his government, it is just bat shit. Its not just Twitter either, I had to unfriend someone on Facebook after they told me that I should 'show Boris some fucking respect' a few weeks ago. This was after I'd shared something criticising his handling of the pandemic. Thankfully it was somone I don't really know that well and never have to see again, but still!

If im honest it all a bit disturbing. Its reminscent of a personality cult IMO, 'how dare you disrespect our glorious leader'.

‘Nearly worked himself to death’ - dear God some people are dim. The poor, poor man recovering at his country mansion while Dr’s and nurses are dying daily due to his lack of planning and incompetence. My heart really bleeds for him

This meme puts it well re Boris & Covid

He didn't nearly 'work himself death'. He was arrogant

Oranges and apples. Obviously you are an orange.

@ZombieFan, well I'm not just talking to you so I need to distinct that with tagging. You still haven't said what he's done during this pandemic that makes him a great leader. Catching the virus through his own stupidity doesn't equate to 'working himself half to death' either, it means hes been out of action for most of it. What an inspirational leader he is.

This one I could never share on Facebook as some relatives & colleagues are huge Boris fans.
But I am not.
(I mean I'm glad the guy has recovered but I do have a dark healthcare worker's sense of humour sorry)...

Zombie is obviously some sort of troll or bot sent from Tory HQ. I don't know why we are feeding it.

The part I disagree about is that that has anything in particular to do with the massive flaws or unique evil of Boris Johnson. I suspect he did more or less exactly what Theresa May, or David Cameron, or Gordon Brown, or Tony Blair would have done, faced with exactly the same advice.

There's no point comparing him to past leaders or to Corbyn in terms of 'what they would have done'. We have no way of knowing what course he would have taken. We also didn't have 'one or two weeks' to make a quick decision about what course to take. The government knew what was coming long before that, they made a deliberate choice - economy over people. It was the wrong choice and now both are in a worse position because of it. They ignored expert advice from elsewhere and only listened to their own people who agreed with them.

Yes the name does give it away....unable to think for self .

An 80 seat majority isnt Boris "smashing" it. Its a secure majority but it pales in comparison to Tony's in 1997 and Margaret's in 1983.

This is the best analysis I've seen of Johnson.

As Oliver says, at first Johnson appears charming, but once you've seen the carefully calculated manipulation, you can't unsee it.

Includes Johnson admitting on camera, "I certainly think that as a general tactic in life […] it is often useful to give the slight impression that you are deliberately pretending not to know what is going on. Because the reality may be that you don’t know what is going on, but people won’t be able to tell the difference."

In my hospital (south coast) we have approx 50 +ve patients including 2 colleagues seriously unwell in icu.
And we aren't that bad down here.
Oh yes and our ppe is so inadequate.
I will never forgive Boris & his cronies.

crazydiamond222
I think this piece in the New York Times is a pretty accurate but depressing summary of the British public and our relationship with Boris Johnson.

The article in your link was written by British journalist and author, Rachel Shabi. Her Wiki page;

"In September 2017, Iain Dale placed Shabi at No. 30 on his list of 'The 100 Most Influential People on the Left', up sixty places on his previous listing, noting that, "Omnipresent on our screens, the redoubtable Shabi is one of the few Corbyn supporting commentators to be taken seriously by the media."

As London Mayor Boris was told that the relatives of the 7/7 bombing victims wanted individual inquests which were really costly.
He was heard to say 'Fuck the relatives'.

Sorry I haven't the source for that anymore but I did read it in a credible place.

Oh yeah, Mr Herd Immunity. When I listen to him, I think Eton can't be all that.

However you look at it, some very big mistakes were made with regards to the COVID-19 outbreak. For too long the government advice was to only test those who had either recently come back from an 'infected area overseas' or had direct contact with a confirmed case'. They apparently couldn't accept that we were an infected country ourselves.

So when in early March my DD2 (8) developed a high temperature, chest pain and bad headache, we became concerned on the third day and called NHS 111. We were told to take her to A&E, where she was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection'. We were asked if we'd been overseas or had direct contact with a confirmed case. The answer was no, so COVID-19 didn't even get mentioned.

Then 3 days later I had COVID-19 symptoms and I'm still struggling with secondary infections.

The other thing that I also think was wrong was that the medical staff didn't have any PPE at that stage. No one had even been told to self isolate if they had a cough or a temperature until the following week. So it's no wonder the infection spread like wildfire and there have been so many deaths.

Johnson has to take responsibility as he was PM. He left it far too late to take any action.

He is a populist politician, who arouses the emotions of the masses. Another orator and “man of the people”... or at least certain people ...was the populist politician, Adolph Hitler. Make what you will of that.

I read the Jeremy Vine piece about him making 2 exact same speeches. That was enlightening and got me wondering if he is using very similar techniques to woo the public: Hitler used to spend hours rehearsing his speeches. Perhaps Johnson is doing the same. And perhaps like Hitler, that’s all he’s doing. This would not come as a surprise. He’s lazy as hell. The public, as already mentioned, see him as not part of the government and establishment.

I’m not in any shape or form likening this government to the Nazis or him to Hitler in policy terms. No one is going to be exterminated any time soon. However, I am wondering if he is using similar techniques.

‘Nearly Worked himself to death’ is 2nd only to ‘ he took one for the team’ in the stupid comments ive heard recently

He got ill...and then got better

I don’t think it’s any different to Blair or probably even Thatcher in the 80s. They all have had something that appeals to the public.

Compare to say May and Brown - they didn’t. I think both of them were probably more committed to public service, but didn’t have that ability to win over the public.

Compare to say May and Brown - they didn’t. I think both of them were probably more committed to public service, but didn’t have that ability to win over the public

Yes, i always saw them as conviction politicians

Yes it certainly has.... but Boris isnt the only one... it's happening everywhere... populism. No one wants to look at they complex or the grey areas any more do they? They just want some cartoon character spouting nonsense... perhaps politics has always been like this to an extent and I'm just in a bad place right now... but it's really getting to me.
I'm a socialist and life long labour party member and I greatly admire jeremy corbyn... but I've even come across this from the left as well... actually got called a fascist for pointing out how someones post was untrue and just spin to make a certain tory politician look bad... no one seems to want to allow for any other perspective at the moment...

Populist politicians are becoming popular the world over, it definitely isn't just Johnson. You only have to watch Trump in the US. They have the highest death toll from COVID-19, which is probably going to become much higher. And yet his ratings are still high, because Americans are scared because they're facing a depression similar to the 1930s.

We've seen this across Europe, too, Marine ale Pen is popular in France and could end up as President next time, and populist parties are popular in Austria and Germany as well.

People are scared and looking for answers, and a charismatic leader wins cores at times like that. It's what happened in the 1930s after all, it's how Hitler came to power.

Terralee
I did read it in a credible place.

Not that credible -
He was accused of making that remark by this man:

"Brian Coleman was reprimanded in 2009 and 2011 for sending abusive emails to local residents who criticised him, breaching the council's code of conduct."

"After being charged with assault in October 2012, Coleman's membership of the Conservative Party was suspended. In May 2014, Coleman stood for re-election at the local elections as an independent candidate in the Totteridge ward, but failed to be elected gaining only 6% of the vote."

A witness at the meeting with Mr Coleman, Guto Harri (Communications Director) says he didn’t hear Mr Johnson make the remark;

‘It’s not the kind of thing he would say, so I think it’s extremely unlikely.’

"Mr Harri said: ‘Brian’s own account acknowledges I told him at the time that I think he was mistaken."

Cannot believe someone said BoJo has 'the it factor'.

I just threw up into my... My everything.

Mittens
I agree. I was reflecting on whether he is devious and manipulative in a similar way to as Hitler Of course there are others parties. But they haven’t succeeded and are possibly less, not more likely to in light of Brexit. Marine Le Pen got a massive number of votes in the first presidential round 3 years ago. But she is not lazy, manipulative and devious unlike Johnson. She is hardworking and influential. Not that I agree with her politics.

Oddly I think he has done his “best” just his “best” is shit!

His “best” is about self promotion and avoiding spending money on the “plebs” (always a Tory priority, why people fail to learn or accept this I don’t know!).

Result = 100,000’s of people he and his fellow tories genuinely consider unworthy of life. Distasteful - yes true? Absobloodylutely!

Serious question to those who vote Tory/like Johnson who ARE NOT independently wealthy - what will it take to make you realise he and his don’t give a shit about you and yours to the point they will contentedly see you die?!

Apparently this being the case for the sick and disabled for the past 10 years was easy to ignore - how about now?

I think that some Influential people have vested interests in promoting Boris way past his capabilities well stating the obvious here really!

People like Johnson don’t go into politics for the money! Because for the very wealthy like him mps salary is a pittance! They go into it for the power, narcissistic feed and for the money they can acquire via policy change! They’re voting for them and theirs to have

Lower taxes
Less responsibility to employees
To maintain high housing prices
To maintain high share prices

And that applies to politicians of all colours. There’s a SHOCKING number of politicians who are at least landlords if not property developers who have repeatedly voted in such ways as to maintain artificially high housing prices. It’s a fucking disgrace and should be outlawed as a conflict of interest!

@brendansbuddy I never refer to him as “boris” as it feeds into his “lovable buffoon” bollocks! I always refer to him as Johnson. A serious threat to the populace should be referenced by a serious name.

I wasn’t a particular fan of Corbyn, but I also didn’t/don’t agree with the blanket criticism of him. Many of his proposed policies were perfectly sensible, fully costed changes that would have improved the lives of most of the British population, but the type of people the op is talking about are too entrenched and too stupid to look at actual policies!

I would have been a “lifelong” labour voter had it not been for “new labour” who frankly were an abomination to socialism!

I am hoping that Keir will tread a middle ground between corbynism and middle politics as I do believe and have always believed we need a centre left, Socialism based government.

We haven’t had a socialist government in this country for over 40 years and we’re a fucking mess!!

It’s time we stopped being blinded by the myths of Tory publicity (better for the economy - nope! Disproven, better for small business - nope! Disproved - especially now when small business and sole traders have been royally screwed over by their response to the current crisis. Better for international relations - disproven! Their clear xenophobia and racism has come to the fore and screwed the whole country over!)

And realised we need a change ASAP!

I’m not even convinced the lack of healthcare for the most vulnerable at this time isn’t to some degree calculated, they/we are the most “expensive” in Tory eyes and the least worthy.

Hundreds of us have been culled already by the changes to benefits and lack of nhs support (I personally have serious mental health issues and have been refused support for over a year).

@Mittens030869 you speak as if thatcher and Blair were opposites when this contrary is most true. Blair was NO socialist, he was a Tory in a thinly veiled disguise

“Especially as Keir Starmar will regularly demonstrates holes in his arguments at PM's questions. He is after all an experienced barrister.” I really hope you’re right, I fear starmer may be a new Blair. Barristers are hardly socialist in background! It’s a very elite position.

If we ARE to go with the Churchill analogy, I’m wishing for an Attlee type to take over!

@zombiefan a perfect example of the lack of critical thinking and objectivity of the majority of Johnson fans.

Your post does indeed read like a bot, devoid of human input!

In relation to the current crisis he FAILED to act quickly enough, he FAILED to show humility in the face of a WORLDWIDE pandemic, he FAILED to acknowledge let alone learn from the mistakes of other countries, he FAILED to even consider adequately supporting the nhs, social care and other key industries and he’s STILL FAILING to limit the number of those affected and DYING as a result.

HE IS A FAILURE as a pm!

I’m an ex hcp myself, I was working in the nhs during the junior dr crisis and knew at least 1 dr who literally worked to DEATH at that time, it’s a fucking insult to equate Johnson’s brush with cv to their experience. Johnson hasn’t done a fucking REAL days work HIS WHOLE LIFE!

@krisskrosskiss this is indeed the problem with a society too used to sm soundbites and YouTube, societally our attention span is too short now. Critical thinking is seen as too onerous, too much effort. Reading a parties policies in full too boring and time consuming.

It’s truly terrifying how right wing politics are NOT being questioned globally. Seemingly we learned nothing from WWII, my grandparents will be spinning in their graves.