Why does everyone hate Boris?

[skidadle]

Just that really. I neither like nor dislike him I don't feel any emotion towards him.
AIBU to ask why so many people on here hate/dislike Boris Johnson?

@Piglet89

For those praising how bright he is - he’s really not that clever. This site is stuffed with really pretty smart people; I can tell from the way they write.

And I have real confidence that, if you picked a random person from this thread, you’d be far more likely to find a better PM than Johnson. I have never thought this before but, I swear to God, I think I could run the country better than Johnson.

Whether you like Johnson or not, he put himself in the position where he could be PM. There may be many very bright MNetters but they don't have the charisma to attract votes.

@Clavinova I don’t need to have worked with him to work out he’s not THAT bright FFS. Listen to how he struggles to organise his thoughts when he’s speaking to the nation. You can tell: he’s clever enough and sly, for sure - but that man is no stellar brain.

@crystalclaire I think he is great. He has personality and seems to normal and down to earth. When he was mayor of London, I'd seen him many times and always liked his eccentric ways

Ok so you find him an entertaining personality. How do you think he’s doing in his current job of leading the country?

Piglet89

So we can't actually trust the personal opinions of the posters in fastwigglylines' post?

There may be many very bright MNetters but they don't have the charisma to attract votes.

Unless somebody has actually put themselves up for election, you can't possibly know that as a fact!

Why does everyone hate Boris?

For the same reason Noddy wears a red hat with bells on.

@Crystalclair I don’t think most ‘normal’ people would describe a second job writing a column that paid £250,000 as ‘chickenfeed’ (during the austerity years when he was mayor of London). Maybe you think it was his Eton years that made him so grounded and normal?

@clavinova I think you’re making a logical error in your argument.

I think we can trust the (negative) assessments of those who have worked with him. But one does not have to have worked with him to make a similar negative assessment. These two statements are not contradictory.

Johnson will be judged by his deeds
not by his words
or his artistically ruffled hair
it will be messy

For now we have to live with his Brexit lies
and his COVID incompetence and corruption

Mrs Thatcher took advice and made the UK world beaters at dealing with AIDS. Even though she hated the advice.

And because she and Reagan were besties, he was able to point to the UK to get the US to take a similar approach - despite many Billy Graham types wanting to let the "gay plague" do it's biblical calling.

I wonder if Thatcher saved more lives than Boris has lost ? One for the historians of 2121 I guess.

In isolation, Boris is just a pathetic liar, cheat and thug. When you start comparing him to pretty much any previous prime minister he actually looks worse.

Also he hangs around with some real scum - and I find I judge people by teh company they keep.

Grumbly - I actually think he is doing the best he can in what has been the toughest year. I don't feel that anyone else would have been able to do it better to be fair.

You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

No. The hair is an act. He deliberately ruffles it before going on camera.
Absolutely this. As someone pointed out to me recently, when he goes on camera he has ruffled hair BUT also TV make-up on. It's clearly calculated.

Mrs Thatcher took advice and made the UK world beaters at dealing with AIDS. Even though she hated the advice. Absolutely this too. I'm no fan (I grew up in a coalfield area in the Midlands in the 80s and have a parent who was a teacher) but I have to say I'd rather have her handling this than the current shower.

I do think that there are some unfortunate similarities between Trump and Johnson. People voted in large numbers for both of them, regrettably.

Both wanted to be leader, Johnson reportedly since boyhood.

I think it is a case of 'be careful what you wish for'. Neither expected to be dealing with a pandemic, it's too much like hard work and they are both out of their depths and comfort zones. Perhaps Johnson even thought that delivering Brexit would be his Churchill WW2 moment.

Piglet89
I think we can trust the (negative) assessments of those who have worked with him.

But the "Clever" and "Smart" comments came from posters who were making negative (overall) assessments of him.

@NoWordForFluffy

There may be many very bright MNetters but they don't have the charisma to attract votes.

Unless somebody has actually put themselves up for election, you can't possibly know that as a fact!

Do you have great charisma? Do you have strongly held and useful ideas on how to run the country. If so why don't you put yourself up for election. That's the way the system works.

Perhaps Johnson even thought that delivering Brexit would be his Churchill WW2 moment.

Not for at least 49% of his electorate.

@DGRossetti

Perhaps Johnson even thought that delivering Brexit would be his Churchill WW2 moment.

Not for at least 49% of his electorate.

Quite.

Where did I say I was referring to myself, @derxa?

The lifestyle of an MP isn't something that appeals to many people, hence not putting themselves forward for it. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be charismatic vote-winners.

You seem to be mixing your arguments up.

@Clavinova ah, I see.

I am not saying he is stupid. I’m just saying he is not THAT clever. Seriously - there are different kinds of intelligence and if he was that clever, this country wouldn’t have dealt with the pandemic so appallingly.

In any event, regardless of our opinions of whether or not he’s this genius, it’s somewhat academic (excuse the pun). His skill set and character is so woefully lacking in other departments that it is patently obvious he is not fit to run the country. As others have said, he might just have got away with it in normal times. But during a pandemic? No chance. And you can tell he’s uncomfortable about being so out of his depth.

Bottom line is he thought he’d have to deal with Brexit at most. His mind was focussed on that and that mind is not agile enough to cope with the unexpected in anything resembling a coherent manner.

Plus, people have said time and again how lazy he is. A fatal combination.

Marina Hyde of the Guardian summed it up perfectly:

“The thing about Johnson is that he desperately wanted to become prime minister, and he desperately wanted to have been prime minister. It’s just the bit in between he struggles with.”

The only reason the Tories still exist is because of how awful Labour are.

Without Labour there would be no reason to vote Tory at all.

His Brexit legacy is already rusty. Hardly surprising since he never really seemed sincere about it.

Come to think about it, what is he sincere about ? Apart from Boris, that is.

Without Labour there would be no reason to vote Tory at all.

I see this an awful lot. Nobody ever seems to hold Tories or their voters to account, it's always somebody else's fault.

Grumbly - I actually think he is doing the best he can in what has been the toughest year. I don't feel that anyone else would have been able to do it better to be fair.

So not attending COBRA meetings when Covid first hit, but spending time sorting out his divorce counts as best, does it? Or having seen of the damage done when the virus arrived in Italy, going and shaking hands with Covid sufferers and catching the virus himself? If that's a best, the most charitable thing that can be said is that it's a poor best.

His Brexit legacy is already rusty.

Except, almost everybody who voted for Brexit, still loves Brexit, even people faced with losing their businesses or in the case of the DUP losing their country.