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September 23, 2021 - 12:37pm
In 1989, a blonde-haired British Tory Prime Minister gave a speech about climate change to the UN General Assembly. Yesterday, it happened again — only this time the minister in question was Boris Johnson, not Margaret Thatcher.
Johnson made no reference to his predecessor, an inexplicable omission. Thatcher’s speech was one of the most important ever to be given at UN — arguably, the most important. It was the rallying cry that made climate change a worldwide political concern, not just a scientific one.
Her speech was prophetic in tone as well as content. It managed to combine scientific detail and appeals to “the special gift of reason” with overtly religious rhetoric:
Now compare that to Boris Johnson’s effort, which he wrote on the Amtrak over to New York. Like the newspaper columns he used to write, it’s not boring — just desperately thin:
I wonder if our Prime Minister is capable of being completely serious about anything. Certainly, this would have been a good time to give it a go. With the make-or-break COP26 conference coming up in December — which the UK is hosting — he had the opportunity to deliver the speech of a lifetime.
Instead, it was an exercise in glibness. The jokes weren’t even funny. A nod to Britain’s world leading offshore wind industry was turned into a painful pun linking “Boris” to “Boreas”, the Greek god of the north wind. Gales of laughter did not follow. (In any case, the prevailing winds in the North Sea are westerly, so the deity in question would be Zephyrus.)
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SubscribeBoris will never make a speech as powerful as Margaret Thatcher’s on climate change for one very simple reason.
Margaret Thatcher, for all her faults, was also a qualified scientist and worked as a research chemist.
Boris did the classics.
What an accurate summary of Boris; it also describes why he is not suitable to be PM. The fact he is a liar also disqualifies him; if he consistently lies to his family who he loves in some way, he will definitely lie to me who he has never met.
Which politicians don’t lie? Now think of the US who gets such huge coverage. For 4 years I listened to people moaning about how Trump lied. Now there is Biden and the lies are coming thick and fast.
You are right. However, Boris and Trump both seem to be narcissists, a trait which Biden has not yet shown.
I get the impression that Swedish politicians and scientists dont habitually lie which is why their population did not need to lockdown – because their honesty was trusted !! A rare phenomenon…
If a prerequisite to being a politician was never having lied, not one person on earth would be fit for office
Boris Johnson was singlehandedly instrumental in saving Brexit and ensuring that it took place. If he did nothing else as PM he has achieved more than any other PM which I regard. As regards lies. Are these some of the same lies which the press and opposition accused Boris Johnson of when he promised to “get the job done” but then was thwarted in achieving that promise by the opposition and press who then accused him of being a liar when he did not “get the job done”? Despite being a coal miner’s son and lifetime labour supporter (up until I was totally turned off politics by Tony Blair) I decided to vote for Boris in the last election. The BBC’s John Curtice was arbitrarily declaring the vote as being a “binary” choice for either a new referendum or Boris’s plans. The “binary” choice was actually one for democracy (by respecting the 2016 vote) or the absence of democracy so I voted for democracy and Boris Johnson (and the avoidance of the national bitterness which would have followed the overturning of the 2016 referendum vote).
One person who is definitely not fit for office of Prime Minister (or any other public office) in telling us lies and taking us to war with Iraq on the basis of the lies of the existence of weapons of mass destruction is Tony Blair
Boris has the rare ability to say memorable things. In one day he made his view on Macron’s AUKUS histrionics (Donnez moi un break etc) and his preference for technical innovation not behavioural change to tackle emissions (It is easy being green) in vivid, humorous ways. I bet you can’t remember anything any other politician said on the same day. That is why he is tough for his opponents to beat.
I’m out of the loop: don’t know who Kermit or Miss Piggy are, so his speech is lost on me. Is this not a good example of dumbing down? The comparison of character between the two PMs is Premier League to First Division.
You make valid arguments, but there are many people who are emphatically put off by preachy, doom-laded, science-heavy speeches – and this one managed to lighten the message, get lots of coverage, and quote one of the late-20th century’s better comedy double-acts.
Are you serious or just looking for entertainment?
You overlook the point that Margaret Thatcher was a Christian, as well as being scientifically trained, hence the tone of her comments.
As for her legacy, she almost single handedly changed the post war ‘Butskellite’ consensus. Yes there were intellectuals before her, like Hayek, and intellectual politicians like Keith Joseph, but Thatcher actually implemented, over time and with the opposition of much her own party and cabinet, the enormous reforms needed to see those ideas work. I think her reputation, along with Attlee (whether you agree or not with their policies) is therefore entirely well deserved. It is her policies, not joining the EU, that led to a huge improvement in Britain’s economic performance.
Typed after a few glasses of red wine and through a pile of pistachio nut shells, however, my view of Thatcher was that she flogged off the family silver. Just like Darwin, much of what she/he put forward would have been discovered anyway. Sorry! They were ideas whose time had come. Maybe we would have been better off had we hung on to the family silver a little longer when world capitalism caught up to Thatcherism. Googling I find that Ted Heath took us into Europe. So yes, probably Thatcher deserves some credit for standing up to Europe when we were in it. Still think that Boris is the No1 PM post 1960 which is my own living memory.
Not nearly as disappointed as I am watching all the virtue-signalling mendacity of our corporations and industry in all the years following that speech !!!!!!!!!!