Boris is going to write in the Daily Mail

I just asked DH if he thought he was in any way like Boris.
The look on his face said it all 😲 😁
He then asked "Was Trump shipped off to boarding school too?"

Iam64

It still is Primrose, ‘very common for wealthy people to ignore or ship their kids off to boarding school or have others look after them’

My DH was "shipped off to boarding school" despite his mother being rather poor (scholarship) and he certainly hasn't turned out like Boris Johnson.

Iam64

Thanks Fanny, saved me the need to post these truths about Stanley Johnson. What a father figure as your role model. Still, Boris Johnson had free choice, out do Stanley or live a decent, honest life. We know what Boris Johnson chose.
Rachel Johnson wrote a few years ago about the level of neglect they grew up with. Shuttled between their parents homes in France and England. She said had they lived on a council estate, social workers would have got involved. Her piece reminded me of Diana Spencer, escorting her brother in long train journeys from their fathers home, so they could visit their mother.
I’ve long seen the similarities in neglect and emotional abuse is some very wealthy families and those seen as deprived

I've kind of seen this before - 'comfortably off' parents leading chaotic lives because of careers or other reasons - indulging their children through neglect, allowing them 'freedoms' that more organised families wouldn't.

Many years ago I had a spell where I needed to work, but not full-time, and answered one of those adverts in "The Lady" (composed as if it'd been written in the 1880s!). A fairly wealthy family (possibly more on paper than in reality) wanted a home-help. The lady of the house had 4 children, all under the age of 6. She was also a portrait-painter, working on a few local commissions. Two au-pairs were employed (together) to look after the children who were, basically, allowed more or less to do what they wanted.
Neglectful indulgence. I have an abiding memory of the four children all sitting around the breakfast table in a very 1950s dilapidated kitchen in this huge Edwardian house, eating boiled eggs. The eldest child, a girl, was left 'in charge' and was encouraging her younger brother to get on with eating. She turned to me with an air of exasperation and sighed, "oh God, he's such a bore with eggs"!
Father was doing something in 'the City', mother was out painting portraits, and the au-pairs were washing and ironing the children's clothes, cleaning their rooms, preparing food, etc - and taking it in turns to nurse the youngest of 9 months - whilst the others just did their own thing. Absolutely chaotic.

They weren’t actually that ‘wealthy’, it was Charlotte’s father’s money (Sir James Fawcett, barrister and President of the European Commission for Human Rights)

It still is Primrose, ‘very common for wealthy people to ignore or ship their kids off to boarding school or have others look after them’

It was very common for wealthy people to ignore or ship their kids off to boarding school or have others look after them.

My friend/neighbour’s parents were very wealthy and had five kids. They lived at home but were looked after by “a lady from the village”. So when they weren’t at school, she did everything for and with them. She died a few years ago in her 90s and my friend was heartbroken but her parents died a few years earlier and very little fuss was made at all.

Totally agree, Iam64
I recall Rachel saying that too.
Fortunately, Rachel and her other brothers seem to be decent characters.

Thanks Fanny, saved me the need to post these truths about Stanley Johnson. What a father figure as your role model. Still, Boris Johnson had free choice, out do Stanley or live a decent, honest life. We know what Boris Johnson chose.
Rachel Johnson wrote a few years ago about the level of neglect they grew up with. Shuttled between their parents homes in France and England. She said had they lived on a council estate, social workers would have got involved. Her piece reminded me of Diana Spencer, escorting her brother in long train journeys from their fathers home, so they could visit their mother.
I’ve long seen the similarities in neglect and emotional abuse is some very wealthy families and those seen as deprived

Johnson saw his father break Charlotte’s nose.
Stanley married Charlotte for her family’s money

He absolutely was not.
His father beat his mother who had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised due to it.
Johnson witnessed it.
For years Boris and Rachel, as young children, were shuttled between England and New York.
Stanley Johnson was a monster.
When they lived in France, he made the au pairs (who raised the Johnson children) work on the nude, ‘to save on laundry’

I think he was possibly over-indulged as a child

They were probably neglected - I don't mean not fed or clothed but let to get on with whatever they wanted to do and bad behaviour just ignored.

I'd say he's 'amoral'.

Max Hastings acknowledged his "charisma" - but wasn't fooled by it.

I think he was possibly over-indulged as a child. A child from a very privileged background (and no, I'm not knocking the wealthy - who aren't all without a sense of right and wrong). He's led something of a charmed life and his flamboyant personality has allowed him to get away with things others, less endowed, might not have been able to.

... but that's enough of my pseudo psycho babble for one day .

I daren’t say what I call him…

I'd call him a blagger.

It is rather polite, isn't it!

Callistemon21

nanna8

I was listening to something onU tube, Piers ploughman Ackerman or someone, who said that at least Boris had a personality and a bit of life about him unlike the rest of them . Interesting comment I thought.

I would say he has a flawed personality, perhaps the result of his upbringing?
He is described by one psychologist as having the trait of moral disengagement.

... moral disengagement

I must remember that phrase for other occasions... it's quite a polite way of saying that someone is without principles and immoral

nanna8

I was listening to something onU tube, Piers ploughman Ackerman or someone, who said that at least Boris had a personality and a bit of life about him unlike the rest of them . Interesting comment I thought.

I would say he has a flawed personality, perhaps the result of his upbringing?
He is described by one psychologist as having the trait of moral disengagement.

Definitely not a minority Dickens

Mentioning Johnson’s famous ‘charisma’ is usually a last ditch response from his ever desperate fans (along with his ‘towering intellect’)

I don’t believe you’re in a minority Dickens. I listened to Nicky Campbell’s phone in yesterday morning. The aim is to present ‘balanced’ calls. The vast majority of callers were very angry about Johnson, a minority using the argument he’s entertaining/it’s a with hunt. He was dreadful

nanna8

I was listening to something onU tube, Piers ploughman Ackerman or someone, who said that at least Boris had a personality and a bit of life about him unlike the rest of them . Interesting comment I thought.

When you consider that a Prime Minister can make decisions that might have a tremendous impact on people's lives and livelihoods, their lively personality will be of little comfort to those who are adversely affected.

Personally - and I realise I might be in a minority here - I'd rather have someone 'in charge' who had a little gravitas and a vague notion at least of doing what is in the best interests of the nation as a whole.

Some of the most notorious tyrants in history had a "personality". Not that I'm suggesting Johnson is a tyrant. But he is a scourge.

Tony Blair had charisma and a personality, but given the human cost of the decision to invade Iraq and the inevitable disintegration of that country, I think there might be something to be said in favour of "the rest of them" without such entertaining traits.

I was listening to something onU tube, Piers ploughman Ackerman or someone, who said that at least Boris had a personality and a bit of life about him unlike the rest of them . Interesting comment I thought.

Yes- on the rare occasions I clean the windows I use that. Looking at them now I would say they are due for a good clean!

Germanshepherdsmum

Not to mention wrapping the fish and chips years ago.

Much more eco-friendly than polystyrene boxes, although our fish and chip shop uses cardboard boxes now.
Newspaper is a good insulator, it kept them hot.

DH suggested we use it to clean the windows as our mothers used to do - we need something to get rid of smears!
Newspaper and vinegar.

Not to mention wrapping the fish and chips years ago.

Oops “it has done sterling service” 👏👏