How did we get BoJo as PM on Channel 4

Greta

You don't become fluent in a language just because you live and work there. As for using Franglais for effect I think that's childish.

Actually you do. It’s the best way to learn a language by living and working within a country. He’d would have had a great grounding in languages anyhow at school.

I think most 9 year old children living in a country for over 2 years absorb the language pretty well.

You don't become fluent in a language just because you live and work there. As for using Franglais for effect I think that's childish.

Greta

What other languages does he speak fluently?
I have heard him try speaking French and it was painful.

Yes, but isn't that franglais business all done on purpose? Exactly the same as Churchill did with his speeches in French. The tenses and pronouns are impeccable, but the accent and blends of English vocabulary are used to effect. Boris is fluent in French from having lived and worked in Brussels.

I think some of the problem comes from his desire to seek recognition and self worth, but going about it in the wrong manner. It was weird during his campaigns how many times he was shown to have said to the camera, "What do you want me to say?"
And all the swearing at the plant on his desk in Brussels?
I think the childhood trauma had a huge effect on him.

What other languages does he speak fluently?
I have heard him try speaking French and it was painful.

Wheniwasyourage

Learning something off by heart is not the same as understanding it, or being able to translate from English into Ancient Greek! Those take a bit more intensive work.

Here you go …… if he didn’t understand what he was saying he would not be able to recite all this in such an entertaining and expressive way.

youtu.be/VzJQ0TcBmqU?si=ZqdqNn5ToOrbSDVp

He does speak several languages fluently as well.

Does it hurt you so much to give credit where it’s due? 🤔

Wheniwasyourage

Learning something off by heart is not the same as understanding it, or being able to translate from English into Ancient Greek! Those take a bit more intensive work.

It also doesn’t change the fact that Johnson had an appalling attitude even then and seemed to think rules didn’t apply to him. That was my point!

Learning something off by heart is not the same as understanding it, or being able to translate from English into Ancient Greek! Those take a bit more intensive work.

Cossy

Callistemon21

I was interested in what made him the type of person he became.

I hadn't realised he had had hearing problems when he was a child, which probably set him apart from his siblings and other children at school.
Neglectful parents? Surely they should have taken him to a specialist?

No wonder he has problems having a father like Stanley.

I don’t feel at all sorry for him! His sister seems ok, not sure about his brother. His mother seems long suffering and his father is abysmal, but as an adult one cannot keep on blaming one’s parents for shortcomings.

I read a really interesting statement some years ago from one of his old house masters from Eton (?) pretty sure it was Eton! He stated,
Writing of him in a school report in April 1982, he said: “Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies . . . Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the School for next half): I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.”

Says it all really!

How wrong was his House Master then about his cavalier attitude to his Classics studies then? I saw Boris on TV once and he was reeling off something in Ancient Greek and it was lengthy and he did so with gusto. One of Boris’ enemies even said he took his hat off to him for that because it would have been many years ago that he learned that.

Callistemon21

I was interested in what made him the type of person he became.

I hadn't realised he had had hearing problems when he was a child, which probably set him apart from his siblings and other children at school.
Neglectful parents? Surely they should have taken him to a specialist?

No wonder he has problems having a father like Stanley.

I don’t feel at all sorry for him! His sister seems ok, not sure about his brother. His mother seems long suffering and his father is abysmal, but as an adult one cannot keep on blaming one’s parents for shortcomings.

I read a really interesting statement some years ago from one of his old house masters from Eton (?) pretty sure it was Eton! He stated,
Writing of him in a school report in April 1982, he said: “Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies . . . Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the School for next half): I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.”

Says it all really!

Visgir1

I met him when he was Mayor of London. I was an Olympic Games maker volunteer, he came across as charming and funny, but that was just a snapshot.

I think he probably is charming and amusing in person. But you need rather more than that to be a successful PM.

Well, they did plan to get rid of him once they’d used him to win the election. Still, what does he care. He’s still got his massive pension and protection for life. I did think that he might possibly become ministerial once he was PM but, alas, I was wrong. I can’t bear to watch anything about him, to be honest ( same with Farage and Trump; not forgetting Truss*)
*you think they’d’ve learned wouldn’t you ?

Will you watch tonight's, MaizieD? Did you watch last night's? I don't need to watch it to know his shortcomings, but the programme was about the type of person, politics aside, who operates in a certain way. I am not an admirer, but find him rather fascinating.

Didn't watch it but I do have a friend who still thinks he was badly treated and took the blame for everything. She'd have him back as PM.

I think tonight's episode about his political downfall will show that he really wasn't the right person to have as PM.

I think a lot of us decided that years ago. I don't think we need a TV documentary to explain it to us

I wonder if it will convince any of his admirers, though

maddyone

I didn’t watch it, I watched Big Brother instead

Probably not a lot to choose between them!

Callistemon21

I was interested in what made him the type of person he became.

I hadn't realised he had had hearing problems when he was a child, which probably set him apart from his siblings and other children at school.
Neglectful parents? Surely they should have taken him to a specialist?

No wonder he has problems having a father like Stanley.

Yes. You know me (or not!), I always try to see good in everyone if I can.
There were some quite poignant comments:
he never thought himself attractive (so he adopted the messy image)
he never felt loved (so he looked for adulation from the public)
someone said he was kindness personified over personal issues they were having

I think tonight's episode about his political downfall will show that he really wasn't the right person to have as PM.

I thought the funniest bit last night was David Cameron's bemused expression. He just couldn't compete. My MP was for years Iain Duncan Smith, he interviewed well in the episode on Boris' personality.

I was interested in what made him the type of person he became.

I hadn't realised he had had hearing problems when he was a child, which probably set him apart from his siblings and other children at school.
Neglectful parents? Surely they should have taken him to a specialist?

No wonder he has problems having a father like Stanley.

But how many people read the Guardian, TinSoldier?

I do, but we Guardian readers are massively outnumbered by readers of the RW press.

I didn’t watch it, I watched Big Brother instead

There was zero criticism of him initially from the media

There was criticism.

Johnson was elected leader of the Tory party on 23 July 2019.

Max Hastings writing for The Guardian 24 June 2019:

I was Boris Johnson’s boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister ...The Tory party is about to foist a tasteless joke upon the British people. He cares for nothing but his own fame and gratification ...

I have a hunch that Johnson will come to regret securing the prize for which he has struggled so long, because the experience of the premiership will lay bare his absolute unfitness for it ...

Almost the only people who think Johnson a nice guy are those who do not know him ...

As it is, the Johnson premiership could survive for three or four years, shambling from one embarrassment and debacle to another, of which Brexit may prove the least ... a tasteless joke upon the British people ... will not find it funny for long.

... and more of the same:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-prime-minister-tory-party-britain

Johnson announced his intention to resign on 7 July 2022 - four years after he was elected to lead the party - but the game was up long before that.

We were warned.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Just turn a blind eye.

I find it concerning that our press collude in allowing these dangers self absorbed , dishonest public figures to be seen in a positive light, rather than a more honest reflection
The other concern is the inability some people have to see what’s under their nose

I met him when he was Mayor of London. I was an Olympic Games maker volunteer, he came across as charming and funny, but that was just a snapshot.