Apart from
his over-inflated ego, Johnson’s
habitual lying is his most persistent character trait. Like Trump he really
seems to live in his own post-truth world or perhaps, as Chris Patten says in this BBC interview, he can't tell the difference between fact and fiction. Nevertheless if you repeat a lie that many people
want to believe often enough, some of them, who are happy to have their prejudices reinforced,
will believe you and you have created a new factoid.
Boris
Johnson is still lying about sending £350
million a week to Brussels. He is ignoring the rebate that Thatcher
negotiated. This reduces the amount actually sent to Brussels to £240 million
per week. Then the EU
pays back £5.8 billion/yr into the UK in the form of subsidies, regional
aid and support for scientific research. This reduces the net amount paid to
the EU to £136 million per week, still a significant sum but until brexit we get unfettered access to the EU's markets in exchange. But if
you’re Boris Johnson, pitching a leadership bid to the Tory right wing, then
you can ignore all that, can’t you! After all, his lies won him the Leave votes that he
needed to validate all the false anti EU stories that he wrote whilst he was a
journalist.
Does he
really believe that he could run the country? He must have recovered from the fear that showed on his face after the referendum result. But then if you live in a post-truth world you can believe anything you choose, especially if you're Boris Johnson and you lie to yourself! However, having been let off the hook as the potential Prime Minister by his erstwhile friend Michael Gove stabbing him in the back, he was rewarded with the post of Foreign Secretary, and his clownish gaffes and bumbling
incapability have elevated him to legendary status among world political leaders.
Boris Johnson is an international joke, but a potentially dangerous one! Faced with a very weak Theresa May, who daren't sack him, he could yet become leader of the Tory Party and hence Prime Minister.
Boris Johnson is an international joke, but a potentially dangerous one! Faced with a very weak Theresa May, who daren't sack him, he could yet become leader of the Tory Party and hence Prime Minister.
