Is Johnson a "bad-luck" politician/Prime Minister?

I found this exerpt from a speech by chance

You will probably recognise the quote. When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what was the greatest challenge for a statesman, he replied: ‘Events, dear boy, events’. The same is true for most leaders and organisations.

Events Happen. When they do a lot of things are at stake: lives, livelihoods, reputation. So knowing how to respond is a key survival skill for leaders and organisations of all kinds. In my own career I have learnt many of my most important lessons – including how to manage incidents - the hard way: by making mistakes. As President Kennedy liked to say: “Good judgement is usually the result of experience. And experience is frequently the result of bad judgement". www.gov.uk/government/speeches/events-dear-boy-managing-incidents-before-they-become-crises.

The problem with Boris is that he is incapable of learning from his mistakes

He’s not unlucky he’s incompetent.

His mishandling of Covid led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. His disastrous Brexit is starting to fall apart. God knows what will happen to the Union now.

But you know, he was funny of Have I Got News For You.

Nezumi65 exactly.

The PM is getting rattled on BBC 1.

Like BJ or loathe him, IMO being faced with an unprecedented, catastrophic pandemic so soon after entering Number 10 would surely count as pretty rotten luck!

The pandemic might have done better if they hadn’t used it as an opportunity to bung a load of money to their mates.

The economic recovery would be a lot easier without brexit.

The New York Times doesn’t hold back www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/britain-fuel-crisis-johnson.html

No. If you remove the word "luck" from the title of this thread you get the truth - he is just a bad politician. Remove "a politician" and you get a deeper truth.

TopsyIrene06

The PM is getting rattled on BBC 1.

Interesting interview!

He was quite confident talking about the Sarah Everard case. He was fluent, stuck to the point and there wasn't much bumbling.

As soon as Marr started questioning him about lorry drivers, there was obfuscation, bumbling, lots of "um- ah"s, changing the subject, avoiding the questions. He didn't have any answers and tried to deflect. It's his default "modus operandi".

Don't know about anyone else but Maggie Thatcher's time in office was a complete disaster for my family and for most of the people I knew back then.

Yes Monica which is why I used the expression ‘events, dear boy events’ earlier in this thread.
However nobody can change who they are, not MacMillan, Churchill, Blair or Johnson, they just have to do what they can to mitigate things.
Nobody is unlucky...that would just be superstitious to think that.

Johnson really lost it on Marr when talking about the rise in National Insurance Contributions.

fiorentina51

Don't know about anyone else but Maggie Thatcher's time in office was a complete disaster for my family and for most of the people I knew back then.

That’s the problem fiorentina51. Thatcher wasn’t exactly good for us, but Gordon Brown was more disastrous for my family.

Johnson was cringibly embarrassingly awful on Marr this morning, but he was cringingly embarrassingly awful when he spoke at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

If I can see through him and see him for the charlatan he is, why can't everyone else? How does he keep getting away with it?

Only the moron Johnson could try to make a joke about the thousands of pigs that may have to be killed. No mention of the massive waste of food or the enormous financial loss for the farmers, it's just an opportunity for Jolly Old Boris to be "witty". I thought Andrew Marr was very restrained - I would have slapped him.

I notice Boris has really embraced the Donald Trump long tie look. The one he wore this morning was practically dragging on the floor.

If I can see through him and see him for the charlatan he is, why can't everyone else?

Lots of people can, varian. It's just that they don't write the popular newspapers.

Who goes for a run in a white office shirt and office type shoes?

If Johnson is so sure we are going to become a high wage economy why doesn’t he start the ball rolling by paying public service employees more? Could start with doctors and nurses maybe.

vegansrock

Who goes for a run in a white office shirt and office type shoes?

John Crace in yesterday's Observer:

... His self-confidence is a paper-thin veneer that can’t disguise a man with no self-worth.

Or self-awareness, for that matter. It’s hard to tell if he’s merely a pathological liar these days* or if he just has a desperate need to reconstruct reality to accommodate his narcissism. Earlier that day he had been photographed going for a run in a white shirt and black walking shoes. We now have to accept that he’s possibly not just a fun-guy oddball but someone having a breakdown before our eyes.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/03/tetchy-boris-tries-to-play-down-shortages-as-bumps-on-the-brexit-road

* ... these days??? I'm guessing Crace has read Peter Oborne's The Assault on Truth.

rosie1959

The Coronavirus was pretty unlucky no government in recent times has had to deal with anything similar

Well this is certainly true Rosie and no one can argue with this as it a fact, not an opinion.

Early

vegansrock

Who goes for a run in a white office shirt and office type shoes?

John Crace in yesterday's Observer:

... His self-confidence is a paper-thin veneer that can’t disguise a man with no self-worth.

Or self-awareness, for that matter. It’s hard to tell if he’s merely a pathological liar these days* or if he just has a desperate need to reconstruct reality to accommodate his narcissism. Earlier that day he had been photographed going for a run in a white shirt and black walking shoes. We now have to accept that he’s possibly not just a fun-guy oddball but someone having a breakdown before our eyes.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/03/tetchy-boris-tries-to-play-down-shortages-as-bumps-on-the-brexit-road

* ... these days??? I'm guessing Crace has read Peter Oborne's The Assault on Truth.

Watching him being interviewed by Beth Rigby yesterday, he almost laughed at his own reply.

I think he’s actually quite lucky in that he can blame so many of his failings as a PM on covid.

Varian the answer is people can see through him, but when they look at the alternative, all of a sudden, he seems better than that.

Keith Starmer is a leader without a party. Everyone remembers the Corbyn years and knows that neither Corbyn nor his supporters have gone away and they have no confidence in Stramers ability to stay the course, should they try to stage a comeback.

I think the country is suffering from some sort of political Stockholm Syndrome to be honest. It’s as if they’re just used to everything being awful and can’t visualise an alternative. I can’t see any government being worse than the one we have now. People seem to have been brainwashed into this ‘but there’s no alternative’ idea.

MayBee70 you could be right, but there must be something better.

M0nica

Varian the answer is people can see through him, but when they look at the alternative, all of a sudden, he seems better than that.

Keith Starmer is a leader without a party. Everyone remembers the Corbyn years and knows that neither Corbyn nor his supporters have gone away and they have no confidence in Stramers ability to stay the course, should they try to stage a comeback.

Keith Starmer is a leader without a party.

Although I will continue to take my time deciding what I think about what Labour will offer us Monica, I don't believe that is true, or at least no more true than it is of Johnston - I would say less so. The minute the Conservative party looks as if it is about to lose power, Johnson will make a lie of "no man is an island." His support in Parliament will disappear "like a thief in the night". Each time they vote against their consciences they vote only for the corruption of power.