Boris Johnson's Latest 'Gaff'

Seriously ? How can you even begin to engage with a group of people looking like this ?

If you explain to a woman, wearing a full veil, that you are partially deaf & rely on lip reading to help you understand I am sure she would reassure you that she does not think you are being racist by not replying.
To Grandad there will be more women in London in full veil as many travel to Northern Europe to escape the heat of the Gulf for a cooler holiday.

I think he’s testing the waters as to how much support he has in the party and it’s brought the knives out. The shouting is all from party members who want to see him gone.

Personally, I think he’s right. The burka does look like a black post box, but like him, I don’t think we have the right to ban it. However, since hoodies, motor cycle helmets, etc have to be removed in shops and banks, it’s discriminatory against them to say someone - anybody - can walk in in a voluminous complete body covering with no means of identifying the occupant. The best possible outfit for shoplifting.

Also, having slight hearing loss which muffles voices, I feel can’t speak to anyone wearing a burka as I can’t understand them. I need to see their face to partially lip read, to see how serious they are by their expression. The only person I’ve met wearing one could well have been offended by my seemingly ignoring them. I don’t know. I couldn’t tell. I can ask a helmet wearer to remove it, but I wouldn’t a veiled woman in case it caused offence and I was thought a racist. So I avoid them in effect ostracising them.

Boris is a buffoon cynically playing a long game to become the next Conservative leader. His hot air is designed to appeal to people who agree with him, those on the right of the party and voters. The easiest topic to stimulate a reaction? Anything to do with immigration or Islam. We are buffoons for reacting to Boris. He is the British version of Trump. God help us all!

Correct me if I am wrong lemongrove But I thought it was his regular Monday column in the Telegraph (which I have read) and not a speech anywhere?
What has appalled me?
The number of people who, instead of thinking how rude, inflammatory or divisive to use the terms “like a bank robber” or “like a letterbox” have taken this opportunity to have their own say against niqabs and burkas. Well what about nuns in their habits or married Jewish women wearing wigs? Is it OK to describe the former as looking like penguins. I might have hoped that “humour” if such it is, had moved on from the days of Bernard Manning or working men’s club stand up comics.
As a woman I feel I am entitled to have an opinion on the subjugation or oppression of women by patriarchal cultural but not to dismiss any sex or religion in the terms Boris Johnson used in an article which he knew would have maximum impact and was designed to start exactly the sort of anti-burka/niqab dialogue we see here.

Well Johnson had achieved his goal. He makes,a calculated,and racist, comment and normalises disrespect for a minority of women. This is,a political strategy. He has created his " buffoon" persona quite deliberately so he can, in a calculating way, say what he likes to give opportunity for him to appeal to his party followers.
He hopes to be so popular he becomes party leader. He has been meeting with Steve Bannon, a well known white supremicist & fascist. I suspect this " gaffe" is one of the strategies he was advised to say. I wonder if he will make a similar "gaffes" about Sikhs in turbans or Hacidic Jews in wigs & hats & ringlets? I personally feel the veil is unnecessary as an expression of faith but that is not the point. The point is,a well known politician & former Foreign Secretary knows full well what the impact of his speech has. This is no gaffe.

I'd be interested to know in what way you found the comments here so 'appalling', MawBroon?

Have I missed something ...?

I had not read all the posts when I rote my comment and would now like to add that I am appalled at some of what I have read.
Gransnet has sunk very low today.

I think it was an appallingly inflammatory comment to make, insulting women and Muslims alike. The sort of thing you hear from prejudiced taxi drivers when you wish they would just keep their thoughts to themselves.
Boris is too intelligent and savvy to be excused a “gaffe” -as if.
What is he playing at? If he is hoping to win over the right wing of the Conservative party he must realise he is playing a dangerous game and risks alienating most fair minded tolerant people in the process. His “gaffes” as Foreign Secretary must have been a cross to bear for the Diplomatic Service. He and Nigel Farage are beginning to look like possible political bedfellows .

I’m thinking the same as eazybee.
Off in a bit of a tangent but how come there is such a fuss about this and yet when Prince Phillip (DOE ) said similar or worse , many commented on what a funny jolly old wag he was ?

Well said eazybee.

My objection was to his automatic joking about it because they are just women. Is he making any witty comments about Sikh men wearing turbans or the Jewish men who have those long ringlets?

The whole point of the article was to defend the right of women to dress how they please. I really do not find likening someone to a letterbox offensive, and covering faces and concealing identity is what robbers do.
We are tolerant of other people's customs; they frequently do not extend the same courtesy to us.
But of course part of the fuss is orchestrated by those in his own party who do not want him for leader.

Oh yes!

He's a smart but profoundly misguided cookie
And he knows perfectly well what he is saying.

Grandad wrote:
"Just returning from three days in London it would seem that the Niqab and Burka headdress are becoming more prevalent in our society especially in the capital."
I've noticed that too, in muslim countries that I've visited in the past.
It may be 'cultural', but also the result of more fundamentalist Sunnis taking over from Shiites.

Perhaps because I used to be lead clinician with an adult autism diagnostic team and with all the qualifications and experience that that would require Joelsnan

Esspee You are, of course, correct - what I meant was the chador.

Oldwoman70 a burka completely obscures the face, often the eyes as well. Just mentioning it as there seems to be confusion about what is being discussed. It is most likely that it was the burka BJ was referring to as it does look like a black post box.

Jane10
How are you convinced he does not have Aspergers, this is a multi faceted condition with different degrees of presentation.

Joelsnan Boris most certainly doesn't have Asperger syndrome! He is a most skilled and articulate manipulator of people and public opinion. I wish he'd give up politics and go back to writing. He's much more erudite than the tabloids present him. He's a smart but profoundly misguided cookie.

Joelsnan, you could be right about Boris because it is very odd that a highly intelligent well educated man could use this sort of language when discussing a vexing subject. We all have our opinions, but it's the calling of inappropriate names, which apart from being insulting are irrelevant that I take issue with! Its the sort of thing you'd expect an 11 year old to say, not a journalist, former Foreign Secretary (diplomat!) an experienced politician! It's so strange, either deliberate to cause a furore or?!!!

As has been pointed out Islam requires women (and men) to dress modestly, it does not require women to wear a full face veil.

I don't like to see it as when I was working I saw so many women dressed this way being brought in by male relatives to sign documents and I felt very uncomfortable. As if I could see their faces I could have judged whether they were signing willingly.

I have no problem with the burkha or head scarf (in fact I have defended a young girl who was being berated in the street by a man because she was wearing a headscarf) it is the full face veil I object to.

The more I see Boris the more i think he is on the Autistic Spectrum, probably Asperger's syndrome. He is apparently very intellegent but has very poor social skills finding it difficult to read social situations and inadvertantly uses inapproprite language with no intent to harm or upset.

I think requiring him to apologise is totally inappropriate.

Malala was on the front of The Sunday Times magazine this week looking very good in tunic, trousers and Pashmina type scarf loosely worn to cover her head. Such an inspirational young woman and a great role model, battling adversity to win a place at Oxford. I understand the "modesty" and not objectifying one's self argument, but to such an extreme where all essence of the person underneath a tent like structure is eradicated there has to be a better way. Women like Malala manage to carry off modesty without turning themselves into a "non person"