Scylla and Charybdis

'Self serving, entitled buffoon'. Another opinion rather than necessarily accurate. I'm not a Boris fan but I find the ascribing of negative terms to him based solely on personal opinions not very helpful or adding anything useful to the debate.

Alegrias 2 Always difficult to analyse somebody you don’t actually know well, and many people in public life develop a persona in order to cope properly.We can all have theories but have to recognise we can all be wrong.

Jane10 and Lemongrove you are both right, of course. Mea culpa. (See what I did there?)

But, as is said so often on this site, I am entitled to my opinions.

Yes, we are all entitled to our opinions....one thing we can agree on.

You are indeed Alegrias and that is all that they are.

I saw the thread title and thought they might be sexually transmitted infections?

Well, all the people who read this thread will now know what Scylla and Charybdis are, and those who don't could always Look It Up.
It is a term that has been used quite regularly in political debate, and I discovered that this morning from wikipedia.

Jane10

You are indeed Alegrias and that is all that they are.

Oh, so close to being nice Jane10, but you blew it.

And vice versa Alegrias

I don't think he was showing off at all, silverlining.

I think this may well be a normal turn of phrase for him and, in fact, for many people although perhaps not for younger generations so perhaps not the best choice for getting the message across.

In fairness to Boris, which I find difficult, I would have thought that S&C were as well known as most of the legendary things or characters found in the Iliad and the Odyssey, like Achilles’ heel and the Trojan horse.

He has a problem in that he has never progressed beyond his classical education (which didn’t even earn him a First). I derive a certain Schadenfreude from seeing people in public life making asses of themselves, if that is le mot juste.

But have I crossed my Rubicon in using non-demotic English on Gransnet?

Agree, Callistemon For him, it is a normal expression, just as mathematicians, scientists and social workers have a lot of normal expressions that they use in everyday speech without doing it to show off. Falling over, to my mathematician father, was always "going base over apex" and talking of how much dosh an acquaintance had accumulated over a lifetime of high salaries he referred to "the total under the curve". We knew what he meant.

However, Boris Johnson was speaking to the nation, and Scylla and Charybdis are not normal enough in the general population for him to use in that situation.

But have I crossed my Rubicon

Possibly, grumppa
Or should that be grumppus?

Callistemon

Callistemon ?

Et tu, Grumppe.

Thank you, *Parsley3” for affording me a rare sighting of the vocative.