Carrie Johnson - time to resign

[PersonaNonGarter]

I realise she isn’t an elected politician, but Carrie Johnson gives me red mist. It’s a combination of her smug OW-ness and the flat refurbishment and general influence on the staff hires at Number 10. And the fact that she is so unaccountable.

YABU - it’s misfired anger, Boris is ultimately responsible for everything including his wife

YANBU - she has agency and influence and hiring an £££ interior designer was hardly Boris’s idea was it

I can only imagine the horrific impact that would have had on her as a young woman. It seems like quite an extreme life to go from that to being involved in the break up of the marriage of the person attempting to be elected as prime minister who was also sleeping with Jennifer Acuri at the same time. Seems so chaotic and sad.

For the record Alexander de pfeffel Johnson’s bad decisions, racism, breaking the law and litany of other reasons he shouldn’t be running the country are squarely his own fault.

@GingerScallop

Boris was an idiotic smegmaed knob before Carrie and will continue to be. His whole lot are including his other ex, Cummings (who would have us believe is a saint, that lying, vindictive a*rse rug). And Carrie is not elected. I have noted that when male leader is terrible it's often suggested he is controlled by his wife, his wife is responsible for his bad decisions. When they are good, very few credit the wife. So yes the idea that Carrie is responsible for this whole shit show, that all those grown arse women and men are powerless under her, that all those 100 people that attended the party are somehow powerless under her cunt power is* misogynistic.

Literally no one has suggested that. It’s a straw man.

‘You can’t criticise her or you are buying into a trope’ is just a trope.

Are you saying that if Johnson had stayed with his last wife, had full sway over his staffing appointments, and hadn't decorated the flat, you'd be fine with his governance?

If so, then YANBU.

If not, then your anger is misplaced.

And I suppose you should ask yourself why she gives you the red mist and he doesn't.

No PM seems to still be about after about 5 years, so Carrie will disappear just like Mr May, Mrs Cameron etc etc.
Not much longer to wait. Well no longer than another 3 years.

You called her a political actor but she isn't. She's been characterised as such by some of the media and by Cummins but actually she has no power. She's supposed to carry the blame so they can rehabilitate their golden boy Boris at some point.

The coverage of her is misogynistic and a classic attempt at misdirection. Boris, Rishi, Gove, Truss - they're the people I'd like to resign.

And I suppose you should ask yourself why she gives you the red mist and he doesn't.

I can put you straight on that. He does give me the red mist oh yes oh yes. But there were already threads on him.

Genuinely weird how many posters are desperate for any objection to her to be misogyny. She’s a public figure folks, by her own volition. She’s in PR FGS.

She might be a public figure in PR, but she isn't the elected PM of the UK, overseeing the current shit show. She's just married to him. What is there to criticise her for?? Poor relationship choices, poor lifestyle choices, poor attitude, poor dress sense? Sure, critique away. But it is infantilising BJ to suggest that Carrie is actually dominating him and running the country by proxy. It also lets him off the hook and adds to his Teflon quality.

What I do know is that she came forward and testified against John Worboys.

The women who first came forward to report him were dismissed by the police. They weren’t taken seriously. It took a long time for someone to make them listen. Then the 14 women who had come forward had to go through a trial and be cross examined by a barrister trying to portray them as drunken sluts. It would have been easy to back out of testifying.

After he was convicted more women came forward. After further investigations that man is believed to have drugged and assaulted over a hundred women who were passengers in his taxi cab. The CPS never pursued any additional charges so he was up for parole after 10 years and would have been released. Carrie Symonds waived her anonymity to speak about this and help bring pressure for him to be charged with further offences. That’s why we know she was one of those who testified.

I don’t like her husband, her politics or her wallpaper choices. I do think she’s an incredibly strong person and I respect her for that.

@PersonaNonGarter

And I suppose you should ask yourself why she gives you the red mist and he doesn't.

I can put you straight on that. He does give me the red mist oh yes oh yes. But there were already threads on him.

Genuinely weird how many posters are desperate for any objection to her to be misogyny. She’s a public figure folks, by her own volition. She’s in PR FGS.

That's fair. It's also not in your OP, which is perhaps why you're getting these responses. I imagine that if you said that Boris made you furious but you also found Carrie to be infuriating, you'd be getting many different replies.

Not all reactions to her are misogyny. Plenty of them are. A lot of the latter let him off the hook while blaming her for leading him astray. Drives me mad.

I have no doubt that he is her puppet but that can be said about a lot of men, what’s the saying behind every successful man there is a strong woman. However I find her quite unassuming, probably having kids to screw him for everything he has got.

They deserve each other

And the UK deserves them both

What was she before? Head of Tory communications? What is she now? Anything?

I didn't like her before she was publicly with Boris, because of how she was in that job. A ruthless liar. She used to wind me right up on Twitter.

Carrie Johnson doesn’t work for the government anymore so she doesn’t have a position to resign from?! I thought she had joined a charity a while ago.

As much as I struggle to like her, as PPs have said, she is not accountable for the Bo-Jo shit show.

probably having kids to screw him for everything he has got.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

Hope she forces eow and half the holidays on him as well.

She is his wife. Of course she is going to have her own opinions. I assume Boris listens (that is what adults do) then decides for himself along with his ministers.

@PersonaNonGarter

Is it misogynistic of me? Like hunting for a Lady MacBeth figure? I have asked myself this.

And then concluded that, no, she’s a political actor and can be assessed as such. And I don’t like her.

YABU - it’s misfired anger, Boris is ultimately responsible for everything including his wife

Just to clarify in case you're hard of thinking, we are in the 21st Century now. Boris Johnson is not "responsible for" his wife. She is not his property, belonging or chattel. Neither is he hers. She is an autonomous adult.

She cannot resign, so why include in your Thread title.

Please, behave! Thanks.

She seems to have influence not just on Boris directly but in other parts of govt / on other people. I’m uncomfortable with that - she’s not an elected representative of the population, nor is she paid to do a job on our behalf. I’d have the same issue with any ‘outsider’ wielding power without accountability as it weakens our democracy.

BJ is certainly not controlled by her - he’s had a glittering career to date without her and appears entirely able to manage that without a puppet master. She’s obviously intelligent and ambitious and has presumably decided to hitch her wagon to him as a shortcut to where she wants to get to. I don’t like her morals or the way she went about it, but it’s not a new way of doing things.

On a side note, talking about her as dowdy and frumpy absolutely IS misogyny. Your views on her fashion sense are a) irrelevant and b) reductive. You may not like her (there’s many reasons not to), but centring those reasons on the clothes she just makes you look uninformed. Can we please stop doing this to other women? Criticise their behaviour, their actions, their morals - not their bloody appearance 🙄

@DifficultBloodyWoman

How very misogynistic of you.

Ridiculous.It is perfectly ok not to like woman.After all Margaret Thatcher was a right fucking cunt.

There are a lot of reasons to criticise her but her husband’s actions in office is not one of them.
She may well be a shit to staff at number 10 but that’s not quite the same as ruining the country.

I’m also curious from where she should resign? Her non government job? Her position as wife? ( I’m fairly sure that’s called divorce)

I'voted YABU because what so many posters have already said, the responsibility of all the stuff ups stop with him. He's the PM, was elected and has the responsibility to do the right thing.

I don't minimise her own decisions either. She may be his wife but is a functional adult who could have made the personal judgment to stay away from the party at a time when so many people were suffering and locked from seeing their families in awful circumstances - births, funerals, families being together. That's on her.

But the ultimate responsibility rest on his shoulders. He is the Prime Minister of Britain.

Ultimately, he is the Prime Minister and he is the one who should say no. So, I do think YABU.

I think the problem with Boris is that he has no convictions really. He seems to flip flop with public opinion and often lies or agrees with stuff just to be liked. How many U turns has the man made?

I was very shocked when he aligned himself with Brexit and I'm still not convinced it's because he actually agreed with Brexit or more that he felt that Brexit was a path to get elected. I honestly don't know.

I do think that his affairs have meant that Carrie has him very firmly by the balls, but he's a grown man, so he should learn to act like one.