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Trump and Johnson following a pattern

(37 Posts)
Ladyleftfieldlover Fri 29-May-20 09:31:20

E Maitliss was not removed by the Beeb - she asked for the night off. B Johnson is bad, but he is not in the same league as trump. I think Johnson has a brain, but isn't using it how he should. trump doesn't have a brain.

Barmeyoldbat Fri 29-May-20 09:28:21

All I can say that this time next year Trump could be gone but we are stuck with the awful Boris for some time.

westendgirl Fri 29-May-20 09:24:39

Lemongrove , I think you should be worried about this .
I watched the briefing and thought that there was a definite
blocking by Johnson .
The journalists were asking the questions that people wanted
answering. Johnson always blocks or rambles round anything he either doesn't want to answer or that he doesn't know.
As Prime Minister he has a duty to the country to keep them fully and well informed. He seems not to understand that and he is not helped by the nodding dog approach of the cabinet, who are also developing this inability to give a straight answer.
What is he afraid of ?

GrannyGravy13 Fri 29-May-20 09:23:11

lemongrove I totally agree with you post.

lemongrove Fri 29-May-20 09:05:38

What nonsense!Johnson did not ban the scientific advisors from speaking, he told the journalist it was unfair to try and get them to talk about political decisions and the sci advisors agreed readily that they had no wish at all to be embroiled in politics.Was it Peston, can’t remember? He wanted them to answer questions about Cummings.
As for Emily Maitliss, ( another Peston/ Kuennesberg) who thinks she is more important than anyone on her show, she was meant to be impartial in her questioning.Yes, ask probing questions but stay impartial and not hostile.Many people rang and emailed to complain to the BBC.

Furret Fri 29-May-20 07:53:23

Not only did he ban his ‘sidekicks’ from answering he actually muted Laura Kuenssberg.

Yes, in answer to the OP, both Trump and Boris are stifling free speech and democracy. They are birds of a feather. Far right and proud of it.

(Both rather dim too. God knows how Boris managed a degree...hmm..???)

Daisymae Fri 29-May-20 07:14:44

Yes, have noticed that and now the quashing of the press. The government is seeking to dictate the agenda. It's not working.

Cindersdad Fri 29-May-20 07:02:40

Both Trump and Johnson are evasive shallow individuals. Johnson appears to be a puppet of the Vote Leave operation, he avoids serious questions related to Brexit and his government has suppressed many facts. They have denied a democratic revisit of Brexit, back in 2016 they didn't expect to win so had no viable plan, they still have no viable plan. Boris rules by Sound Bites with little substance behind them.

Trump is a different character, though sound bites like "America First" do attract disaffected voters just as "Get Brexit Done" does over here. However, elections in both countries have evidence of outside interference coupled with outdated electoral systems. Opposition is stifled, protests disregarded, and it is always someone else's fault. Let's blame China or the EU and not recognise our own fallibility.

janipat Fri 29-May-20 00:35:03

Namsnanny did you watch the briefing of 28th May? Questions directed for Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance were blocked by Boris. Yes I think they were relieved not to be put on the spot, but BJ absolutely blocked them answering.

Namsnanny Fri 29-May-20 00:31:02

Sorry going to bed. Read later on.

Namsnanny Fri 29-May-20 00:28:19

You mean Boris prevented the SO's from speaking? Grief I must have missed that,
Was this on TV? Or interview for the papers?

Whitewavemark2 Fri 29-May-20 00:08:18

The latest gem from Trump is that he is trying to remove the ability of companies like Facebook and twitter to police the content of their platforms. This comes after twitter put up a warning over a couple of trumps tweets concerning postal voting, which was patently untrue.
Trump is trying to stifle these companies. He has already refused to allow some news reporters into his news conferences as well as refusing to answer questions.
USA who prides itself on its level if democracy.

We are now seeing the same pattern emerging here. Cummings has already refused to allow ministers to be interviewed by various television/ radio shows. And Johnson is beginning to refuse to answer questions he doesn’t like.
Today he prevented two scientific officers from answering questions put to them by the media.
We know that extreme pressure was put in the bbc to take Maitlis off newsnight.

This is a very worrying and unprecedented turn of events.