Politics: Five Reasons Not to Trust Boris

Boris Johnson is an incredible man – search for him on YouTube and you will get a mix of gaffes, jokes and awkward moments. You could mistake him for a stand-up comedian or that one family member who cracks inappropriate jokes at the worst moments.  But no, he’s Britain’s Foreign Secretary so what he says and does has consequences for all of us. Sadly what he does say and do doesn’t really reflect well on the British people. Here are four reasons why you should not trust Boris Johnson.

1. The Brexit Fiasco

Johnson was in two minds about whether to back the “Leave” or ”Remain” campaigns but he was determined to take a vigorous role for whichever side he joined. After writing two newspaper columns, one for Brexit and one against, he opted at the last minute to publish the Leave version.

Suddenly one-eyed on the topic, he claimed on the campaign trail that the UK would be able to spend on the NHS the £350m a week it supposedly sends to the EU, a deliberately spurious figure.

David Cameron considered Johnson’s role an unforgivable betrayal. Sir Alan Duncan, who is now a Foreign Minister under Johnson, is on record saying that Johnson was driven by his own ambitions and actually wanted Brexit to lose by a small margin so he could become the “heir apparent” to David Cameron.

2. He’s a liar

He was sacked from The Times for plagiarising and has often been caught telling untruths. While campaigning to become London’s Mayor he promised to eradicate rough sleeping by 2012, and the result was quite the opposite, with homelessness doubling.

He also promised in his 2008 manifesto that there would be manned ticket offices at every London station but instead he closed most of them. Lastly, he promised to reduce transport fares but did the reverse.

3. He doubts climate change

Johnson is a prime example of the remarkable overlap between Brexiteers and those who are at least highly sceptical about man-made climate change.

He has promoted the work of Piers Corbyn, a theorist on the fringe of expert opinion, who argues that global warming is a result of sun sports rather than human activity.

And as Foreign Secretary he has continued the Tory-led gutting of his department’s resources devoted to climate change diplomacy. Just as the Government’s desperate shortage of trade negotiators has proved a huge problem in coping with Brexit, a similar lack of skills is looming when the UK takes back from the EU sole responsibility for its climate change diplomacy.
Official figures show that the number of Foreign Office staff spending at least part of their time on climate change issues was slashed from 554 in March 2011 to just 211 at the start of this year. The number working full-time on the issue fell from 54 to 22.

4. He’s no friend of the NHS

Yes, you read that right. In 2003 Boris Johnson came out against having a “free” and nationalised medical system. “There is a moral point,” he said. “If NHS services continue to be free in this way, they will continue to be abused like any free service.

If people have to pay for them, they will value them more. Above all, there is an economic point. In a very modest way, this extension of private funds into the NHS would help the Chancellor’s straitened circumstances”.

5. He is no diplomat

As Foreign Secretary Johnson has contradicted his previous positions on everything from Syria to Turkey’s bid to join the EU. he is treated as a walking gaffe by his own diplomats and as a joke in foreign capitals.

You might expect him to at least be diplomatic towards powerful nations. Surprise! He has a tendency to mock foreign leaders and anger their governments.

He likened Hillary Clinton to a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital and accused the part-Kenyan Barack Obama of having an ancestral dislike of Britain. On a recent trip to Turkey he had to deal with the embarrassment of having written a poem about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan having sex with a goat!

This is the point where you start wondering what sort of political system has allowed Johnson to become Mayor of London and Foreign Secretary. While you ponder that question here’s a video of him tackling a 10 year old boy in Japan.

by Dominic Luca

 

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