Lord of the Lies

or the 'Maestro of Mendacity'

 I asked for this book at Christmas with the idea of getting some inkling of just what goes on in this man’s mind. Having read the first half of the book this week, it is just what we always suspected: the only thing that matters to Boris - is Boris. He is without morals, principles or any feelings of guilt and it is not Boris’s fault because it is hereditary: it is all his father’s fault.
 
The more I read of the book the more irritated I become by it. Bower always refers to him as Boris rather than Johnson, while everybody else is Cameron, Osborne, May, Gove etc. and he takes delight in Boris’s ability to outwit or upstage them all. He seems to enjoy Johnson’s jokes and how he uses humour to cover up his truly alarming lack of knowledge on whatever subject he is giving a speech on.  He is overly impressed by the fact that Johnson’s degree is in Classics and his habit of reading Greek poetry in bed. Johnson’s many affairs are regarded as perfectly understandable and almost admirable in his ability to slip off to Shoreditch to Jennifer Arcuri’s flat for a quickie before or after some important public engagement. 

However, some balance is provided by quotes from the likes of Max Hastings when he wrote: 

'It is dismaying that he has become the most popular Conservative in Britain ... It is crazy to speak of him as a prospective prime minister. If Boris reached Downing Street, government would become a permanent pier-end panto, probably with a striptease thrown in ... Surely the  British people deserve better than a comic, a cad and a serial bonker, however entertaining.'


and further:


'If the day ever comes that Boris Johnson becomes tenant of Downing Street, I shall be among those packing my bag for a new life in Buenos Airies or suchlike because it means that Britain has abandoned its last pretensions to be a serious country ... most politicians are ambitious and ruthless, but Boris is a gold-medal egomaniac. I would not trust him with my wife nor - from painful experience - with my wallet ... he is far more ruthless, and frankly nastier figure than the public appreciates. He would be wretched prime minister. He is not a man to believe in, to trust or respect save as a superlative exhibitionist. He is bereft of judgement, loyalty and discretion.'