Well he’s half right, Johnson does tell lies and lies often.

It’s a rather massive stretch to claim he’s ‘the best’ at this or that this makes him uniquely unfit for office. During my time we’ve had a Parliment of rogues lie to get elected then try to reverse Brexit, all the while lying through their teeth about their motives – and in such an obvious way. We’ve had Cameron who ‘promised’ to not resign. We had May who lied, lied and lied again about Brexit. Then maybe we get to Tony Blair, a man who lied on a scale that would surely make even Boris blush.

Now the true issue with Johnson in my mind is the ease with which he has adopted authoritarianism. Ruling by decree and talking to the censored press before Parliment. With this he’s on Blair’s level of comtempt for the British people.

Sheesh. Rory Stewart clearly doesn’t ‘do’ irony! He is also clearly riddled with bitterness and jealousy over a man who is much more successful than he could ever be.
Johnson – twice elected Mayor of Labour London; winner of the Conservative leadership contest and democratically elected Prime Minister with a majority of 80.
Stewart – failure as London Mayoral candidate; failure in the Conservative leadership contest; anti-Brexiteer who was in favour of overturning the Democratic referendum.
Boris has nothing to fear from the vituperative tongue of Florence of Arabia.
By the way, Boris won a scholarship to Eton whilst Stewart …..

Life is not binary. You dont have to choose between Johnson and Stewart. Johnson has many faults.
But Stewart too has many faults. He comes from a hugely privileged background. His endless efforts to portray himself as virtuous are narcissistic. He is vain . And he has an opinion of himself unsupported by the reality.
He has demonstrated a lofty disregard for democracy – considering his own opinion outranking the votes of the lower orders.

Rory Stewart is good at talking and stealing other men’s wives and that’s about it. He’s not a leader or the kind of person to get things done. I’ll take BoJo over Stewart.

Politicians bitching about other politicians who beat them in an election.
Earth shattering news!

I think Rory Stewart must be projecting

Well, I think most of you can’t see past your noses. Stewart is a rare thing. A man with honour and principles who stands little chance of getting anywhere in the festering stew of contemporary politics. His analysis of B Johnson, more Loki than Pericles, is the best I’ve seen. Read that book review. Please. And get over your remainer phobia. Rory has moved on.

Of course BoJo tells lies – he is a politician. I think Rory Stewart would (and could) make a much better PM but he was not prepared to leave his principles behind and jump on the Brexit bandwagon.
[on edit] Once the dust has settled and if Rory accepts that we will stumble onwards on our present path he might try again. I would pay a tory party sub just to vote for him.

I read Rory Stewart’s review in the TLS (via a link to the Spectator I think). I was most struck not by the argument about ‘lying’ as such, though Boris Johnson does it far too much in his private as well as public life. Most politicians need to dissemble to some extent, and some fudging of issues and changing tack is necesary if we are to not live in a permanent state of civil ward, or alternatively a dictatorship, because there are always political divides in all socities.

But for many politicians there is some purpose and direction behind this. RS cites Lyndon Johnson (grubby politics to get through the Civil Rights Act), Alberto Fujimori (economic reform in Peru), or we could add Tony Blair (changing the Labour Party to make it more a mainstream European Social Democratic party), or many other cases.

But RS makes an all-too convincing case Boris Johnson really doesn’t seem to have any core principles at all, or at least if he does they do not mean enough to him for any long-term attention. (He cites several examples from their days together in government where Johnson expressed interest for about 5 minutes, such as in conserving ‘megafauna’ but then lost it again). His main politcal attribute is that is, or at least can be entertaining and popular with the public , though I thnk that is fading rapidly now.

As London Mayor he faffed around with absurd and, ironically for a so-called Conservative, expensive policies like a bus that costs at least twice as much as one bought on the open market, and a ludicrous cable car that he claimed was an essential part of London’s infrastructure.

What is worse than his ‘lying’ is a much deeper dishonesty. For example what does ‘levelling up’ mean? That idea is already falling apart under the first gunfire in the undoubtedly difficult situation of covid. He could instead about the need to rebalance the country in a serious way acknowledging it would have to be a project over many years. And even with Brexit – either the Withdrawal Agreement is a reasonable compromise to get a deal with the EU, or it is an unacceptable infringement of sovereignty. But a certain Mr B Johnson seems to have held both positions over a period of a single year!

In this ongoing covid fiasco Boris Johnson has unequivocally demonstrated the faults many thought he had all along. I’m not glad to have come to this conclusion and was hoping he’d rise to the occasion. However he has shown himself to be the the very opposite of a Churchillian natinal leader – with misplaced bluster and boasting dominating. Can’t he see that endless promises have to be followed by action with at least some success – or else they become worthless? Even his language sounds preposterous: ‘squashing the sombrero’ anyone?

Instead he governs by sloganeering, has no grasp of the details and is simply proving himself not up to the job. I am sure that is what most Tory MPs now believe, if not openly so.