Boris Johnson’s dad just revealed his family’s ugly thoughts about the British public

Stanley Johnson


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Boris Johnson’s dad suggested that the UK public lacks basic knowledge on the 29 November edition of BBC‘s Victoria Derbyshire. And his comments reveal what his family and the Conservative Party think about the British public.

Doesn’t have that “degree of literacy”

Responding to a comment from a viewer that branded his son “Pinocchio”, Stanley Johnson said:

That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn’t necessarily have

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On social media, people felt the comments betrayed the Johnson family’s classism:

The prime minister wrote that working class men are “likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless” in a 1995 magazine column. He also said that the children of single mothers are “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”. Johnson has refused to apologise for the remarks.

Boris Johnson was educated at Eton and is a descendant of King George II. And it goes beyond Boris Johnson’s words and upbringing. Austerity policies have also reflected the classism of the Johnson family and the Conservative Party as a whole. In 2015, it was reported that the UK’s richest 1,000 families increased their wealth by almost £500bn since the financial crash, while the majority of us have faced brutal austerity cuts.

Wonder where Boris Johnson gets it from…

On the BBC, the prime minister’s father then continued:

I think it’s utterly absurd and wrong that you can read out on air a tweet… which calls the prime ministser a liar

But there is literally a website called Boris Johnson Lies that documents pages and pages of outright lies from the Conservative leader. These span from claims about how many hospitals the Conservatives will build, to denying he said things he categorically has said to even lying about giving up drinking.

Unprompted, Stanley Johnson seemed to reveal his disdain for the people of Britain on the BBC. We deserve a hell of a lot better than this.

Featured image via BBCiplayer

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  • Show Comments

    1. When politicians take twelve weeks off in summer the country ticks over just fine. If the working man and woman were to take twelve weeks off the country would grind to a halt in twelve hours and because of it the markets would collapse within twelve days, never mind twelve fucking weeks.

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    2. Johnson’s disdain is justified.

      I imagine a considerable chunk of the well educated section of the population shares Johnson’s view though few choose to or dare to vocalise it. It likely is a view held privately by the better educated among MPs of all parties: imagine having to put on a brave face and suffer fools gladly when in contact with the run of the mill constituent.

      Let’s consider what it is about the mass of people that arouses contempt among others of discernment. The stereotypical plebeian’s mentation is bounded by ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, ‘The Apprentice’, Premier League football, desire for tacky exorbitantly priced branded products promoted by ‘celebrity’, any TV programme with ‘celebrity’ in its title or otherwise pertaining to ‘celebrity’, ‘Children in Need’ red noses and all, mindless ‘pop’ music with different pieces becoming ever less distinguishable one from another, Hollywood’s plethora of inane zombie films, holidays crammed with more of their kind into foreign seaside resorts which appear indistinguishable other than by the hue of the natives’ skin and nature of such vegetation as survives in that environment, etc. There are differences in taste of males and females but they amount to the same thing.

      It should not be assumed readers of the Telegraph and Guardian are drawn wholly, even in large part, from the discerning minority. The former successfully markets over-priced ‘life style’ products aimed at the spending power of its demographic. The latter markets virulent feminism along with a host of causes unworthy of close inspection.

      Also, attendance at Eton and Oxford is no strong predictor of possession of anything above bog standard sentience. For example, the Oxford ‘Philosophy, Politics, and Economics’ degree (PPE) was designed to enable the dimmer sons of well-off gentlefolk to attend Oxford in order to socialise and make contacts. That is why the PPE attracts would-be professional politicians. Being essentially equivalent to first year studies in each of the three disciplines and with little attempt at cross-discipline consolidation of insights, the PPE is not too taxing and should not intrude far into the social lives of students with little curiosity and negligible interest in matters intellectual.

      Of course, Johnson having read ‘Literae Humaniores’ ought be a cut above PPE colleagues. The Classics traditionally are very demanding and offer valuable transferable skills. To this day they hold their own with the rest of the humanities and outrank most of them (e.g. English literature). However, knowledge and skills derived solely from studying humanities is inadequate for the 21st century.

      Johnson is quite bright in the conventional (and Eton) sense. However, it is clear he has innate flaws no amount of education can rectify. His thoughts too often come across as shallow and muddled. What Johnson is successful at is as a ‘social being’. He has sufficient ‘cocktail party’ wit and outward charm (when he tries) to gull people into believing him a deep and charismatic figure. Hence ‘success’, in Johnson’s terms, at politics. Doubtless Johnson has attributes to justify placing himself above plebeians. Certainly he holds position regarding taste and discrimination above members of the royal family and the ‘barrow-boy’ tycoons he cultivates. Yet, esteem due to him is far less than he imagines.

      Having stated I broadly agree with the Johnsonian opinion of the masses, I now depart from it by virtue of differing with respect to implications to be derived from the observation. I assume Johnson and most of the like-minded take the distinction they have drawn as representing immutable ‘fact’: that’s the ‘human condition’ and we must work with it. If that were so and if they have a shred of decency they might adopt the stance of noblesse oblige. Instead, the what to them may be untermenschen are there to mercilessly be exploited (a key neo-liberal article of faith).

      My quasi-socialist outlook leads to different conclusions. Whilst no more wishing to take up plebeian pursuits or to give them equivalence to high culture than might Johnson, I question whether things need be as they are.

      Human innate abilities differ widely. Added to ‘nature’ is the largely unquantified influence of ‘nurture’. Whilst not doubting there shall always be an element of the population incapable of advancing beyond ‘Strictly Dancing’ it doesn’t mean there are not many more who could be aided to avoid shackles imposed by popular culture and the shallow expectations it engenders.

      As matters stand it is not merely a case of things being as they are but rather one of deliberately perpetuating that which is to suit narrow financial interests. For many post-war decades popular culture has been moving from being participatory to something sold to passive recipients. It is owned and shaped by entertainment industries, notable among these for aggressive stance is the recorded music industry. Taste in, say, music is manipulated for profit maximisation (now the mantra in business schools). Maximisation entails identifying the lowest common denominator. Choice becomes restricted. Woe betide anyone striving to be other than a passive recipient. Participation is stamped upon through using copyright legislation; dare to ‘derive’ (the keystone of creativity) and suffer dire consequences.

      Tight control of popular culture along with dumbing down expectations runs in parallel with declining demands made on young people in schools and universities. Industrial grip has been strengthened by foolish people, many calling themselves socialists, insisting cultural equivalence/value across a range encompassing Justin Bieber and, say, Stephen Hough. ‘Discrimination’ is frowned upon. Is it not tragic that ‘classical’ music is played to dissuade idle teenagers from congregating outside shops? The cultural divide is becoming unbridgeable.

      The values propagated by popular culture, combined with silly education policy (e.g. destroying grammar schools), are leading to curtailing ambition, demeaning striving for personal excellence (other than in intellectually vapid sport), and acceptance of passivity. This superb preparation for serfdom under neo-liberalism.

      —–

      Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international license.

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    3. I read an article a while back about this family. Apparently, the Johnson children were regarded as ‘the wild feral bunch of the village’. An old frayed, creased black and white photo showed a scruffy longhaired podge of a leering prepubescent Boris in wellies accompanied with other similarly unkempt of his siblings where the young ‘Midwich Cuckoo Boris’ looked self-absorbed as though musing upon some ghastly prank he’d just committed upon other unsuspecting innocent happy-go-lucky village children. The article said that respectable families demanded of their children, in so many words that sternly commanded, ‘Do NOT on any account play with those weird Johnson children – there’s something not quite right about them’.

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    4. What does the concept “educated” mean? A social standard one is versed in?
      What’s amazing are the millions of people who don’t have that education who have real brains to make the world go around. Too bad for England among the upper class, and supposedly well educated there is no concept of a socially integrated group as a whole.
      Its a very glaring omission.
      Either your the rulers who are educated, or the plebians who are too dumb to be of any use.. Its your choice who you want to be seems to be about it.
      Fortunately France overcame this attitude with a Revolution, and the Americans with some enlightened ideas about how to treat humanity for the greater good of all of us.
      England feels like a land of the oppressed, and by whom is this idea furthered?
      The educated?

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    5. Boris Johnson’s dad just revealed his family’s ugly thoughts about the British public

      WELL NONE! TORY-VOTERS!!
      Tory voters Boris’s pop (DAD) live on T.V. B.B.C.
      seem to think we are all STUPID Us NON-Tory voters
      well we are not STUPID people/voters O.K.
      ///
      So, in my area of Lancashire/Pendle /Colne/Trawden areas Is full of NON-Tory voter, this area is run by a Tory M.P. Andrew Stephenson that hangs around with Boris plus possibly his dad now hiding in LONDON area.
      //
      Therefore, I ask all voter in our area what give this RICH person the right to call us all Stupid or incompetent
      I see now where all Tory voter that responded to my post
      Always saying + going on about my Spelling + Grammar problem it come from Tory party M.P. Ministers P.M.
      PLUS, their arrogant family members in London possibly including the Rich party funders as well.
      ///
      So just to educate Boris’s /his DAD /all of Tory party rich member + funders including its voter this every true ‘FACT
      You do not need good spelling or good grammar to put a (big X mark) at the side of other parties name a FACT!
      //
      Therefore, NON-Tory voters in Lancashire/Pendle/Colne/
      Trawden/ areas please remember what this Tory party rich member (Boris-DAD) calls us all live on T.V. and our Tory M.P. Andrew Stephenson thinks the same about us NON-Tory us in Pendle.
      //
      Therefore, in Dec G.E. I do suggest us stupid NON-Tory voters in Pendle/Colne/Trawden areas should put our,
      (X mark) at side of other parties’ names Not Tory party
      //
      Then when Tory party loss M.P. in our area of Lancashire/Pendle/ in Dec G.E. maybe rich Boris + his rich dad + rich A/Stephenson our Tory M.P. until Dec 2019.
      Will then think before slagging us less well-off/ educated voters/poorer resident + voter off/ live on T.V. just to look good, we call this holding them to account fully for their own personal action plus spoken words towards us public + voters in the U.K./Wales/N/Ireland/Scotland as well.

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    6. The essence of all this is that politicians are public servants, in theory anyway they work for us.
      They call it the great game but for the rest of us it is deadly serious, lives depend on decisions made in Westminster.
      An election is a chance to change things, it isn’t a personality contest.

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