Boris Johnson the Liar is Still Lying

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.