I took a great interest in the Bosnian war of 1992-1995. I had just finished a Degree in International Relations so my attention to matters global was perhaps as focused as it ever has been. Seeing Europeans once more killing, raping and torturing each other for a few scraps of earth was pretty shocking and the attitude of our government and the EU was even more surprising as they simply stood back and tutted. The Bosnian war and wider Balkan debacles were horrific and remain so.
So, for Boris Johnson to compare the atrocities which took place there with proposed cuts to Housing Benefit payments is laughable, absurd, quite frankly stupid.
I have never bought into the myth that Boris is super-intelligent yet hiding this behind his buffoonish exterior. No, he's just well-educated but lacking in any common sense whatsoever. His attempts to generate controversy are idiotic, none more so than this latest bit of nonsense.
Johnson is not a brilliant politician. He was MP for Henley - not the most difficult seat for Conservatives to win nationally - and he became Mayor of London at a time when the Tories' stock was rising nationally and the bleating nasal whine of Ken Livingstone had started to grate with enough people to make him less popular. London now faces the acute shame of an unkempt, stammering public school oaf representing that fine city before the world in 2012. If only he could be cleansed from London in some way before then. Until that blessed release, we can only hope he shuts up about grown up issues like the massive and growing benefit bill.
"I have never bought into the myth that Boris is super-intelligent yet hiding this behind his buffoonish exterior. No, he's just well-educated but lacking in any common sense whatsoever. His attempts to generate controversy are idiotic, none more so than this latest bit of nonsense."
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering why Boris almost every time annoys the hell out of me, and I think you have put your finger on the problem. Because he can trot out some classical reference at the drop of a hat, I had just made the unwarranted assumption that he might actually know something. Silly me.
This last piece of pure flotsam has disabused me of that notion for good. Were not the alternative on offer MUCH worse I would hope he loses his re-election bid. But Livingstone would be unbearable.
And that's the problem: Londoners face a choice of the devil or the deep blue sea with BoJo and Ken.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment