Boris Johnson has outdone himself in offensiveness and hyperbole.
Boris Johnson has outdone himself in offensiveness and hyperbole, writes Jenny Jones
Although it’s part of my elected role to scrutinise Boris Johnson, I try not to read his Telegraph articles as they sometimes bring me to the brink of despair that someone so talented, so clever and so funny can write such utter drivel on so many important issues.
And I’d have hoped that if Johnson were to write about Nigeria and the Boko Haram, he’d have mentioned the kidnapped girls, the world’s outcry, and the lacklustre efforts of the Nigerian government to find them.
But instead, he chose to compare the BBC to Boko Haram – for sacking a DJ:
“In our own modest way, we live in a Boko Haram world, where it all depends on the swirling rage of the internet mob, and where terrified bureaucrats and politicians are borne along on a torrent of confected outrage.”
Being abducted by a religious death squad, probably raped and beaten and sold as a ‘wife’ in a market, is the same as getting into trouble for saying the notorious N word, according to the Mayor of London.
Johnson has indeed outdone himself in offensiveness and hyperbole.
I might agree that the BBC is losing the plot and lacks consistency, but his writing that “In our own modest way, we live in a Boko Haram world” is absurd, even if it is (hopefully) being written tongue in cheek. The kidnapping of Nigerian girls by a religious death squad (Boko Haram) is plainly not comparable to the plight of a DJ being sacked by the BBC, nor to Jeremy Clarkson.
Boris Johnson likes to shock and outrage. I’m just irritated. I wish he’d concentrate on the day job of running London and making our lives better.
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26 Responses to “No Boris, the BBC are not Boko Haram”
Alec
You’re a semi-literate troll.
~alec
Bill Ellson
You made up that the BBC tried to ‘bollock’ the DJ. You made up that I defended BBC management. You made up that BBC management wanted the matter to be hanging over the DJ like a bad smell.
Alec
Yes, because “bollocking” is a recognized term which means summat like final written warning.
No, actually, that’s bollocks.
His managers were not going to say “well done, David! Keep up the good work”. They were going to give him a bollocking.
But in secret, without any subsequent mention of it in the medium which the original ‘offence’ took place as is commonplace with such apologies. Because it would have shown they’d mishandled the situation without any sense of proportion, gave a vexatious complainant far more deference that they deserved and were rightly embarrassed about the way the organization had bent over backwards to save the far more egregious Clarkson.
Jenny “what are those rozzers complaining about, they only had flesh ripped from them” Jones made it plain that Lowe said the n-word. He didn’t. That’s making things up, if you’re interested.
~alec
Bill Ellson
A lie is a lie, however many times you repeat it.
Bill Ellson
Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, meet Pot.