The British PM has a history of racism and bigotry

Of course many aspects of us are inherited - the idea that bring a revolutionary statesman is one of them is poppycock.

IF BJ were born that way, he would be doing a MUCH better job. As much as I disliked David Cameron, HE was a statesman. David Miliband is also. Boris is a lazy fool. Possibly genes do play a role. But I don't see that Boris got the statesman gene. Just the money/privilege.

april please post your link to your 80% figure.

Whilst it is not popular to say around 80% of who and what we are as human beings is essentially genetic. The other 20% of environmental factors might be important in final outcomes but overall the result is that genetics do seem to control an awful lot. Like that or not, it is a biological fact.

Too often these days some people want to deny those facts in support of all manner of interests. So you do not like it when I suggest BJ has something like this in his genes?

I bet if it were a different characteristics - say homosexuality or trans gender you would be the first to jump on me if I did not accept that such individuals were " born that way" and it was not " in their genes". That of course is a bit of an assumption but it is the received wisdom of the times. After all, if such things were not genetic we would be able to change them wouldnt we and that leads to a whole new set of scenarios?

I agree with Suzie. My grandson is part Mongolian and therefore will have the genes of Ghengis Kahn (most Mongolians do have his genes - reproduced prolifically). That is like saying my grandson has the genes to become a violent despot.

Oh dear suziewoozie you really have no idea. Pretty much everything about you is in your genes. We all have inherited traits which have nothing to do with our upbringing. It has been proven time and time again. Your comment about racism and eugenics is inflammatory and totally irrelevant.

Ascribing the ability to be a revolutionary statesman to someone’s genes is such a fundamentally ridiculous thing to post that the only appropriate response is FFS. It’s the basis of a racist, fascist eugenicist belief system - and that ended well didn’t it?

april ‘he has the genes to be a bit of a revolutionary statesman* . FFS

So you disagree. Why cant you just say that? I think the use of an expletive, no matter how it is shortened says a lot about your lack of argument. Did I swear at you? Did I swear at anyone?

You would make you point beeter I feel if you gave your opinion and did not include the rude phrases.

april ‘he has the genes to be a bit of a revolutionary statesman* . FFS

Yes, good point Yehbutnobut. Seems even Cummings, BH's external brain doesn't want to do too much reading either. Too busy with spouting his own indoctrinating verbiage.

Yehbutnobut For completeness, I think you might have added that your Spectator clip was from 1999, 'uncovered' last year when many things were dredged up to discredit Johnson after he became Conservative leader.

Twenty years later, during the Conservative leadership battle, The Spectator could record:

'Boris has backed gay marriage, created a Violence Against Women and Girls board as London mayor and campaigned against FGM.'

I am not a great Boris fan but I do favour greater balance.

Gagjo dim? Possibly but methinks more like just plain lazy. He’s not the least bit interested in having to put in the hours and hard work.

He has what he always wanted to be PM but in name only.

In a Spectator article, the PM wrote that single mothers were raising a generation of "ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children".

This from the ‘man’ who doesn’t know how many children he has fathered?

During a special edition of the BBC’s Question Time in November, audience members pressed Johnson on whether his writings had fuelled racism. The prime minister said he had “genuinely never intended to cause hurt or pain to anybody”, but defended his right to “speak out”.

“If you go through all my articles with a fine-tooth comb and take out individual phrases, there is no doubt that you can find things that can be made to seem offensive, and of course I understand that,” he said.

Fine tooth comb! Hardly. His opinions are stark and well documented.

Dim too. But puppets don't need intelligence.

In a column in the Daily Telegraph , Johnson wrote that the reason why police were unable to investigate crime was

because they were “stuck on racial awareness programmes; or deployed in desperate attempts to catch paedophiles in ancient public schools; or lurking in lay-bys in the hope of penalising a motorist; or perhaps preparing for the great moment when they will be able to arrest anyone who allows his dogs to chase rabbits, let alone those who go foxhunting.”

For the deniers

Writing in the Spectator magazine, Johnson said:

“Across the country, there are many Tories who wish their party leadership would speak up more strongly against, say, gays in the military, or the cowing of the police by the Macpherson report, or the arrest of General Pinochet, or the impending abolition of the oath and the cap badge of the RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary], or the abolition of the hereditary peers and foxhunting. They are, of course, right.”

I suspect inflammatory language such as this will incite more hatred and anger on all sides. I think it is irresponsible. I do not know what the ultimate aim of Owen Jones is but possibly he should become a Member of Parliament and make his case there.

Like Owen Jones, Boris Johnson has been a provocative journalist. I think some of the language used by both has been ill-judged although I also think some has been taken out of context. If Boris Johnson has acted unlawfully, he should be charged. If not, we should judge him on what he does.

Everybody is racist these days according to some people. I am afraid it no lon ger washes with me to be brutally honest. The worst kind of racism I have seen has been the inverted racism so commonly ignored .

As for Boris Johnson. He is many things. His great grandfather was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Boris has the genes for being a bit of a revolutionary statesman but not a racist.

Rubbish Boris isn't racist.

Brexit and racism. Intertwined reasons why so many voted for the horrible racist man. Any idea of how racist Cummings is? Because let's face it. BJ is just a puppet. DC is our real PM.

If there's one person I find more annoying than Boris it's Owen Jones. ?‍♀️

So, the comments by Johnson, I'm sure that we are all familiar with them and I'm so disgusted by, that I can't bring myself to repeat them
I don't know where it's going to lead, into the abyss perhaps. ...
So the Conservative Party has been overtaken by the ERG
Dominic Cummings is running the show

Yehbutnobut

That's what I said.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.