Boris Johnson is clever and quirky. He shows human characteristics including weaknesses. He uses humour because humour is fun, and to influence and persuade. Like many politicians and people generally, he sometimes exaggerates to make a point. He even uses language which can be aggressive, designed to diminish opponents, usually with wit. He laughs at himself. But this nature produces words which can be portrayed as gaffs, particularly as he is not as PC as many more bland people would like. The gaffs are not malicious., though some may be deliberately playful. While he may sometimes promise too broadly and willingly, failure to deliver a promise ( eg to leave by 31 October) when others have thwarted the intent cannot honestly be portrayed as a lie in the first place.
There is a clear campaign, orchestrated perhaps, to whip up hatred of the Prime Minister and to portray him as a liar, a right-wing extremist unfit for office. But no material evidence justifying this portrayal exists any more for Mr Johnson than for many a politician past or present. If politicians failing to deliver on promises makes them liars, then it is doubtful any leading politician who has been in Government can escape the charge.
Was his term as London Mayor seriously marked by these characteristics? not that we have ever heard. Since becoming PM, Mr Johnson has been consistent in his statements and delivered on his promise to produce a new deal. While protagonists asserted it, there was no actual evidence that he really preferred no deal. Nor has he sought to incite hatred the other way around, although some remain MPs seem to take offence at language like “the Surrender Act”- can one really believe they are so prissy as to feel hurt? What happened to normal resilience in the face of baiting? Nor can anyone say honestly that the policies announced by the Johnson led Conservatives so far both before and as part of their manifesto are right wing- like them or not, they are not the policies of an extreme right winger.
He is at least a Prime Minister who talks with pride about the UK and its potential as a confident and independent nation. But so many in the media seem to want him to fall. Maybe he has offended some people in the establishment, but that does not justify a reaction of the dishonesty level of the hate campaign. And the world does not need any more hatred, but we do need politics to be conducted genuinely respectfully. The office of Prime Minister demands respect. One does not have to like or agree with the individual but that does not justify a dishonest smear campaign.
