As if by clockwork…
Funny how similar a line this is to one frequently trotted out by a now less-spotted former poster.
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Martyrdom?
Not sure the current Tory leadership wants to have a charismatic, pin-up boy racist waiting in the wings who just “says what everyone else thinks”.
To combat that sort of character last time, Cameron had to agree to a referendum.
I think the snidey wanker is making a political play. He can see the agro JC is getting regarding antisemitism and has decided to take an issue, which if treated respectfully, probably deserves some debate, and weaponise it by making purposely inflammatory statements. He is too eloquent a writer not to know what he was doing.
Now he is forcing May and the Tory leadership into a corner - do they do nothing and risk a Corbynesque crisis which would surely do for May, or do they go for him, risking the slim majority that they have if his supporters throw in behind him, which could also do for May. Boris’ issue is that he has sidelined himself by resigning and has to find a way to stay topical - he has nothing to lose and everything to win.
Personally, I would start party disciplinary proceedings against him and let process take its course. He will probably get an official reprimand or the like. I also think he might have overplayed his hand on this one.
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Not so sure about that. I’m with @KRG on this. Steve Bannon came over here and made it clear he would be working with right wingers in order to create a British trump style situation. It’s populism plain and simple. It’s reading the mood of a large number of people, fed up with migration and turning more and more nasty. There’ll be a lot of people out there agreeing with Johnson, not seeing a problem with the language used and he’s been cute enough to take a topic which merits discussion (this is the downfall of intellectuals - they can see it warrants debate but probably know it’ll get twisted to fit the growing racism but the argument will be about freedom of speech and (as Johnson has already said) liberal values.)
Boris knows exactly what he’s done and he’s in a win- win situation. If they sack him then he’s a martyr for the right and he’ll have all the brexit voting racists (not saying all Brexit voters are racist, clearly some voted for other reasons) singing his name. He can then swoop in on a massive wave of popularity…our version of the Donald. If they don’t sack him it just further weakens May and her position.
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Post boxes aren’t even black.
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As they say, not all brexit voters are racists but all racists are brexit voters.
Worryingly, I think you might be right. He knows May is in a precarious position. MPs being what they are, if he goes for the leadership and they see he has the support of the 52%, they’ll back him and, lo-and-behold, into power he’ll go.
We’ll see how it pans out but he may well have played a blinder here 
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Boris is of course, a self-serving twat. Is what he said this time racist?
I’m not so sure. Here’s why.
If I had taken a moment to compare ninjas with bank robbers or pillar boxes, would I suddenly be having a whack at the Japanese? I think not.
My personal view is that niqab wearing is a problem so small that it doesn’t bear the level of disproportionate discussion. A small minority of Muslim women choose to wear it. That’s the first point that needs to be made. I am personally not in favour, but I’m far less in favour of the state dictating what you can wear each day. Employers get to impose that sort of thing enough.
My objections are practical and ideological. I think you lose too much in the way of communication and human connection. I cannot imagine having the same kind of relationship with @Intiniki if I’d never seen her face. I wasn’t able to write that last sentence without a visual image of popping up in my head of what she looks like. I know what she looks like when she is amused, when she’s pissed off and when she’s leathered (spoiler warning; leathered is basically identical to sober). You lose all that with face coverings.
Ideologically, I’m opposed because I think that sort of contact, being able to see someone’s face, and have your face seen, is kind of a human right. More than any other part of your anatomy, it is your identity in physical form. Why would anyone want to prevent you from having that?
I think he said letterbox not post box…
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Of course any such crisis will either happen or not happen based on the desire of our media to put it in front of our eyes day after day and night after night - as they have done with Corbyn.
I reckon Boris will be just fine.
And if they did put him in front of us I’m sure the narrative would be “Is Boris right to ask the question?” as opposed to “Should Boris resign?”
I think he could even have picked on a Jew for his bewildered amusement and it would have blown over. But of course that would never have happened because what he did was not a clumsy slip and apparently in our world Jews > Muslims.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Jews == Muslims.
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I assume the Conference season is still months away…
Oh.
Ha, Boris has all the bases covered.
Yeah I’d wonder over whether his comments constitute a racist statement too.
But I have no doubt that they do nothing to engender racial harmony and could therefore make a case for his comments fermenting racial hatred.
Try taking the piss out the curls on a hasidic Jew Boris or even the small hands of your president.
You’d be fucked then, mate.
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If there’s anything significant Boris will have learned from the likes of Farage and Bannon, it’s the double down strategy.
It works like this. You say an offensive thing, your political opponents go apeshit, spending days calling you and your views fit to burn. At maximum outrage level, when people are calling for apologies and retractions, you don’t do any of that.
You say it again.
Your political opponents go apeshit again.
Two weeks of free media coverage. Rinse and repeat until there’s a cunt with stupid hair running the country of your choice.
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I don’t think it is racist. I think he is being deliberately offensive.
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Yep, I agree. Deliberately offensive and inflammatory.
As I said before, he’s played a blinder. This is something worthy of reasoned debate and discussion and he said it to the backdrop of apparent liberalism so while his opponents are ranting and baying for blood, he can smugly sit there and ask (with some legitimacy) what he has really done wrong. In the meantime, real racists and bigots up and down the land are given licence to abuse muslims because, if it’s okay for Boris, it must be okay for them.
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Don’t be surprised if he adopts Bannon Stage 2, which is to insist it’s a freedom of speech issue, and his rights are being impaired.
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The problem is that no-one really likes him.
His stint as mayor tells us that. If people liked him, he’d have gone into that position surrounded by people he knew, trusted and respected. As it was, he appointed two deputy mayors he knew nowt about, both of whom ended up mired in scandal.
Done in half an hour by Gove, too. I smell a very big dirtheap.
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Hooray! Cameron’s Big Society is back! A lovely era is upon us when the poor and needy are fucked off by the council and left for the poorhouses and charities.
New ‘big society’ bid to boost charities’ role in public services
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