Safe havens, such as London, as well as their governments, have to support and help Nigeria. The muted response by British politicians suggests complicity. He has been working with Finance Uncovered since January , joining as a full-time senior reporter a year later.
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Social Media Social Media. The same is true of Brexit: Most economists are sure Britain will not be as prosperous outside the EU as it would have been if it had stayed in, but that does not make leaving an illegitimate decision.
Read: Boris Johnson can remake Britain like few before him. Where it differs from the simple lie is in its intent. Some insist that he was never really a euroskeptic journalist, or that he never really believed in Brexit but was happy playing the part because it brought him fame, notoriety, and power.
When it comes to taxes or any manifesto commitments, does Johnson really care about them or is he prepared to say anything to win an election? This, ultimately, is a subjective judgment. It cannot be fact-checked.
Indeed, if making promises that cannot be delivered or saying half-truths to win elections is to be the criteria on which politicians are judged, then God help Western democracy. The anti-Brexit Remain campaign itself looks far from perfect, having claimed that the British economy would contract by 3. In the event, the economy grew, as did employment. Was this, then, a lie?
It was certainly an incorrect forecast. But was it sincerely made? That is ultimately a question of judgment and trust. The problem—as ever with Johnson—is that the reality is more complicated and subtle than whether he is a liar or not, sincere or fraudulent. Anyone who has studied Johnson or knows him well understands that he is intensely focused, but has successfully eluded, through a persona of carefree liberation, the usual stigma attached in Britain to the overly ambitious.
To say this makes him entirely fraudulent misses the point and, paradoxically, gives him too much credit. Indeed, if Johnson is a bullshitter, he is not a good one: Voters seem pretty clued in to his intent. If anything, his entire public life seems to have been one long nod and wink with the public. In , Theresa May was finally forced to resign as prime minister, paving the way for Johnson to realize his lifelong dream.
Amid whirling expectation that he would soon announce his candidacy, he was asked whether he wanted the job. This is, of course, entirely what the joker wants — not just in politics but the classroom, the office and even the dinner table. In my new job as a teacher and my lifetime role as a parent, like anyone in those positions, one soon spots the joker, decodes the reason for the constant jokes and develops coping strategies for getting the moment back on track.
And before you all write in accusing me of being a miserable old git — which may be true — I am not talking about having a laugh with mates in the pub here.
I spoke to a Year 7 mother this week about the danger of her son becoming the class clown after only four weeks of a new school. She sighed, acknowledging the lack of focus, both of us entirely certain of his motivation: to generally sidetrack the class learning process in order to cover up the fact that he had not done any of the required work. Or, that any work done was lazy, slapdash and lacking real substance. Sound familiar?
Of course, there is also the underlying insecurity of so many jokers: the desire to curry favour through playing the fool. For decades we have become too familiar with the sad clown, masking all manner of insecurities and worse.
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