What’s in a name? By Sadie

Name me a Prime Minister; name me two more. Maybe you said, Churchill, Atlee, Blair, or perhaps you said … Boris. Good old Boris! Am I right? ‘You’ve gotta love him,’ that’s what they say. ‘Silly old Boris … at it again.’

This man is the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the politician who runs our country, the one who ultimately signs off the rules. By calling him Boris, you are treating him as a friend, as someone you accept will make the odd blunder and / or misguided faux pas in the name of comedic relief.  But how is that right?

We can’t afford to have a comedy character as our national leader. Life isn’t funny, not all the time and for some never at all.

Being on a first-name basis with him connects you with his cute, cuddly media persona; it makes you forgive his wrongdoings and that quite frankly lets him off the hook and this country is falling for it. He is playing the game and he is winning and all of us are losing. Don’t pick a person over a policy. Call him Boris Johnson and call him the leader of the conservative government but don’t call him Boris, all that does is excuse his mistakes and make us look like fools.

Now, let’s talk about Cheese and wine. Who doesn’t love a cheeky bit of cheese and wine on a sunny afternoon? Boris or should that be Johnson (see how easy that was) certainly does, so do his minions… I mean colleagues. He especially can’t resist it when everyone outside of Number 10 is either being furloughed, locked up at home or dying of coronavirus. Does he really like to watch us suffer or are we simply too insignificant to warrant his consideration on a human level?

Disclaimer, these facts cannot be conclusively proven until the very, incredibly, awfully important Sue Gray investigation is published, assuming there’s anything left to read after it’s been edited and redacted.

Some may still laugh and giggle and let everything that man does go, but maybe you would reconsider if you knew who the ‘big man’ really was.

On multiple occasions, Boris Johnson has been openly racist to minority groups: businessinsider.com confirms he compared Muslim women to letterboxes; he suggested Malaysian women only go to university because they have ‘got to find men to marry’ and he labelled black Africans as ‘piccaninnies’ with ‘watermelon smiles.’

And the list goes on. These verbal assaults cannot be referred to as mistakes; they are choices, choices made with purpose and malicious intent. They cannot be excused and definitely not forgiven.

Racism isn’t the only problem here. He is prejudiced in many other ways … and let’s be honest, he might as well be when he gets away with everything he says and does – that was sarcasm by the way. Let’s look at some of Mr ‘Bojo’ Johnson’s other verbal foibles:

 

Johnson is sexist – he once said that all children of single mum’s are ‘ill-raised, ignorant [and] aggressive’ (no mention of the single dads here).

Johnson is a colonialist – he said of Africa that ‘The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more’.

Homophobic – used slurs on multiple occasions when referring to gay people.

 

Sickening but not surprising! But it’s Boris being Boris hey?

 

And to top his high high pile of ‘mistakes’ off, he denied all of these allegations by either lying or diverting the question to something completely irrelevant with a grin on his face. It’s truly embarrassing especially when half of these outrageous comments were caught on camera.

It must not just be me who wonders how on earth he even got to the position he is in now. Is it his upper-class family, the fact he went to Oxford or that fabulous fluffy white looking candy floss on his head – all part of the ‘Boris’ image I suppose.

It’s crucial we look at the other side of the argument though, as he did make this country the first in Europe to develop a successful vaccination programme. He definitely hasn’t tired that old one out yet, and he definitely doesn’t say that every time he stands in the house of commons when asked a question he doesn’t know how to answer. Oh, and Sir Kier Starmer is the one who plays politics Boris? Sure.

Overall, I think one would lean to the side of not being the biggest fan of Boris Johnson or if you still are, one would hope you would call him Boris Johnson rather than any other more creative name. ‘Good old Boris’, Bojo or any name like this is funny, yes, but in being funny it makes him funny; he is the Prime Minister who leads our country, he shouldn’t be funny!

The majority of what Boris Johnson says and does is either laughable or appalling; being Prime Minister is no laughing matter. Choose policy over person or don’t chose anything at all – not that I’m anti-Johnson or anything.

 

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