Boris Johnson's Latest 'Gaff'

I agree JessM and I support the Tory party!! No, I've never criticised the way my children or their friends dressed and certainly not DH! I have always believed in encouragement and praise, not criticism and disapproval which only makes a young person even more determined to shock and outrage older people. My parents took exactly the same attitude when I was young! It could be desperately disappointing!!!

VS alert!

Joelsnan if you read my post you will see I say that I do not like women to wear face covering!

You have also put words into my mouth that I did not say!
< "you say we should wear what we want no matter how provocative it may be and yet you would not allow people to say what they want."> I DID NOT SAY THAT.

I do not believe Johnson is a 'silly old buffoon' who made a careless off the cuff remark. He is a highly skilled politician who has cultivated his persona. He is keen , having lost a role in the cabinet, to maintain a powerbase.

He is making connections with well known racists. His statement itself may not be racist but it certainly appeals to racists as he knew full well it would. He has made the statement thoughtfully and carefully to get a specific reaction.

ELEVEN pages on a comment by Boris Johnson in a newspaper article. That man has certainly got that 'something'!!!

If only it was just a harmless comment goldengirl

Either lots of really politically naïve people or they are being faux naïve!

No senior politician of the ruing party makes a statement , in a column he is paid to write, without thinking about it very carefully & the editor being in cahoots!

Pandering to the lowest is referred to as Populism these days. Johnson has met with populist guru Bannon, and is trying out a new persona as the UK's Trump. Enough people fell for Farage to encourage him - another constructed image: "jolly good chap who likes a pint and a fag". I remember being at a business breakfast years ago, when BJ was thinking of standing for Mayor, and people saying they might vote for him because he was entertaining. Give me the non-entertaining Gordon Brown or John Major any day of the week. This thread is long because Johnson is still very, very dangerous. And not just to Muslims.

Can anyone seeing him being joined by Nigel Farage et al?
After all, UKIP got a good percentage of the vote in the last election, though only one seat in Parliament.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32601281

He has the right to express an opinion, or is that not allowed here any more? I was offended by Life of Brian, but didn't watch it. Free Speech is our culture, do we really want to give that up. I dislike the Burkha, it looking threatening to me, but it's not banned here like other countries. Boris says what the majority of the population think, he makes me cringe a lot, I hope he carries on, we need people that speak their minds. It is not a Police State.

Sad but true Luckylegs9. We need the mavericks to say what others think but are afraid of saying. PC approaches allowed the ghastly Rotherham and other city abuses of young girls to go on for far too long.

Boris says what the majority of the population think, he makes me cringe a lot, I hope he carries on, we need people that speak their minds

I could not agree LESS luckylegs gratuitous insults have no place either in a reputable newspaper or in public life.
The point is not his opinion about veils but that he described those who wear them as letterboxes or looking like bank robbers.
Would you accept those comments (or the equivalent) about anybody in your family? In a national newspaper?

Exactly Mawbroon! It's not the article that is at fault but the detrimental description of the women who wear the burka being deliberately shouted from the roof tops for the whole world to talk about, sneer about jeer about and worse! that is the issue! Thoughtful discussion is absolutely fine, personal comments are not!

Obviously you're fixating on the fact that it was BJ who highlighted this issue and the actual words he used. Clearly we need another thread to discuss the spread of burkas and niqabs although all the key points have been pointed out and facts regarding them fully described.
Feel free to call me a fat four eyed git. I don't mind!

Goodness me some people are easily offended, I mean letter box and looking like a bank robber, I've seen worse posted on GN by some of you who are highly offended now, especially after the brexit vote, swearing, insulting Theresa Mays appearance.

Yes you're right, people did make horrible comments and still do! That doesn't make it ok though does it?!!

Totally agree! I've lost count of comments I've seen about Boris...fat buffoon, silly hair etc. And it's people's absolute right to air views and he must ignore it or respond as he sees fit. So why are burqua wearers sacrosanct?? (It's not even an 'anti-muslim' comment as most muslims don't wear one!) All of us are entitled to air our views...and burqa wearers have total freedom to shout us down. It's called democracy.

Totally agree starbox.

Munira Mirza: Critiquing Islamist fundamentalist practice is not an ‘attack on Muslim women’

Sha also said: "By spinning his critique of Islamist fundamentalist practice as an ‘attack on Muslim women’ they throw moderate Muslims under the bus and empower the unrepresentative grievance mongers and extremists who masquerade as Muslim community spokesmen.' "

She

Wow! Go Munira Mirza!

Baggs in order for that to be true every single woman who wears the Burkha would have to be doing so becaause she was forced to do so. To comment on the apparel any group of women choose to wear is an attack on women. Had he made a similar comment say about teenage girls wearing skirts that barely covered their arses he would have been being sexist. He was stereoyping women in burkhas.

Apparently, five years ago Remona Aly in the Guardian wrote this as number seven out of nine ideas for a burqa:

"7. Relaunch the postbox

Since the burqa eye-opening has been called a letterbox slit, and with the privatisation of the Royal Mail, seize the moment to set up an independent mobile mail service, AKA The Burqa Post."

in order for that to be true every single woman who wears the Burkha would have to be doing so becaause she was forced to do so

I don't see the logic in that remark.

I think the getaway cloak idea was in that Remona Aly article as well, maw.

If she's allowed to take the piss about burqas, why isn't Boris or anyone else?

Maw we are not talking about anything other than Johnson's remark and what people think about it. PECS extended that to Brexit etc. So within the context, my Machiavelli comment still stand to PECS.