Boris Johnson's Latest 'Gaff'

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

Have I missed something ...?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

I do find the sight of women in burkas, as above, completely chilling. If that sounds racist and intolerant, then there is nothing I can do but be honest.

These are our fellow women, who are being reduced to this humiliation. I find it unbearable.

Clearly it is not part of the British culture to be banning them; but many countries have. Presumably they find it as chilling as I do.

I really do feel it goes totally against human nature and that some very strong indoctrination must go on to make women choose to dress like this; and many I am sure are simply forced to.

It says so much about the role of women in their culture - a role that we have thankfully moved on from. Of course we find it hard to take.

Aspects of other cultures can be offensive to us, FGM being the prime and obvious one.

I do not think we should be made to feel ashamed because of our concerns; not should it be wrong to voice them.

These are women who have been indoctrinated or forced into a negation of self, which in our culture is not acceptable.

Yes Maw it was written, not a speech (by Johnson) I didn’t read it but it was read out in full on PM on Radio 4.

nor

I do not think analogies with nuns hold water - I do not care what anyone wears as long as their faces can be seen and they can communicate as fellow human being.

Easily Gilly they are very normal people.They just dress in a way that is strange to us in this country. Honestly, I have known a few women who do choose the veil. I don't think it is a good choice but then I see a lot of women wearing outfits & I think that! Underneath they are just women like us..very ordinary people. Some you like, some you don't. Once we start to fear people "not like us" that is how we allow hate and violence to grow. If you ever have the chance just try talking. Same with travellers, Northerners, Southerners, Welsh, Irish, Sottish , English.....

I know it's awfull but I think of them a Daleks - aliens, religious adherence or dress comes in degrees and a Burka is an extreme interpretation.
The Koran says nothing about women looking like a post box a Boris put it, it actually says women should dress modestly, and very few of us are going to argue with that. Many eastern women of different religions wear a headscarf as a sign of religious or cultural respect, in the same way a Christian woman mighty wear a crucifix on a necklace or bracelet
I abhor extremist in any form because it divides society, no doubt the adherent feels in some way superior to the rest of us, a better person maybe but it isolates them and prevents integration. Maybe that is the intention of the community that imposes extreme dress code, to maintain their own separate society.

An excellent post Lucky .

What I don’t understand is, why, if I question the reasons why a woman would choose to walk around our streets dressed like this, I am considered to be a racist?

The piece written for the Telepgraph was read out in full on our local BBC radio too lemon . I happened to agree with most of it.

For a lot of young British Muslim women who choose this mode of dress it is often a political & not religious choice. A statement against the racism they have faced. Some do choose to take the requirement for modesty to the limit. As I say it is not a choice I support but I can't get on a soap box about it.
It is natural to be wary of the unfamiliar but really it is just an ordinary woman in an unusual outfit.

Oh no not easy at all PECS and no comparison between Northerners, Southerners etc. Who mostly don’t choose to walk around covered head to toe in a giant black sheet, like this. Personally I find it very intimidating.

In a free and tolerant country like the UK why would anyone choose to walk around dressed like this? To attract attention perhaps?

Well say what you like about Bo Jo but at least he has got the nation talking about it.

Maybe they feel safer from all the racist bigots they meet every day. A couple of the girls I know have faced dreadful abuse from people and have subsequently chosen the full veil because people do leave them alone. Sad comment on our society.

Allowing racism airspace.

But PECS in my town the few who do choose to dress like this are the only ones who attract any attention . As I said up thread my lovely gentle DD is terrified to ask them to stop using her coffee shop to eat their own brought in food. Her senior manager has told her to just let them get on with it for fear of racist repercussions. Can you imagine if that were you or I ?

Did you read or hear what BJ actually said though PECS ? Or are you just thinking about the 2 lines banded around over the last few days? It was (in my opinion) completely non racist. In fact he welcomed the fact that we live in a society where they could choose to dress like this if they wish to.

As a political thread virgin, this has been enlightening. Who needs a newspaper when you have GN!
Many things people wear in this country shock me; stiletto heels, tattoos, earrings on babies, exposing too much flesh etc should we just live and let live? I haven't ever seen the complete Burka in real life. I would think it's horribly hot. Where I live people complain about too much immigration but we have maybe a dozen Asian families in a town of 20,000.

Boris is a product of his own cultural background. I am relieved he's no longer FS but fear he is preferred to May in some quarters.

The world is a scary place but it's good to talk to eachother.

Yes I have and Gilly have you read what I have posted?
This calculating politician Johnson knows exactly what he is up to. He is trying to normalize disrespect for groups of people. He wants to destabilise society so that he and his right wing chums can run the country. This week it is people in veils next it could be "lazy 'Andy
Capp'northerners'"or any other group he thinks that are underdogs that will appeal to his faithful followers. They won't care about you anymore than me or women wearing a veil. They will care about themselves and their money and power.