Quillette has a piece on the political demise of Boris Johnson. Mildly amusing but mostly pointless and unhelpfully supercilious. Worth reading as an example of how promising online publications can go wrong.
Those who voted for him in 2019—unless blind, deaf or over-generous to the point of idiocy—knew very well what they were getting. Boris Johnson was the bodger, the gaffe-monger, the overgrown schoolboy who steals all the sweets and second helpings for himself, then diffuses your annoyance with spaniel eyes and a solar smile. This was not a political titan or a man of any particular conviction.
Then we have his political opponent described.
Seldom has a choice of Prime Ministers been so stark. The ludicrous manhole-snapping, these-are-my-pronouns figure of Jeremy Corbyn looked just the man to take our sweets and order us to stop laughing. He was the Oliver Cromwell of modern British politics, promising a puritanical revolution supported by those ever-ready to seek and find offence. The world Corbyn offered looked bitter, shriveled, paranoid, joyless, and likely to be populated by ideologues who could barely register humour, let alone produce it.
Maybe the piece was intended to be amusing and nothing else, but a reader's comment makes some good points about the whole thing.
JackEddyfier
This is a species of sneering, self-righteous, journalism typical of the British press and Westminster political correspondents. Pointless and tiresome in the extreme but all over the British press. Full of meandering gossip and sneering but making no substantial political nor social points. I didn’t subscribe to Quillette to read it here too. Please exercise better quality control; just because you can publish something doesn’t mean you should.
This is a species of sneering, self-righteous, journalism typical of the British press and Westminster political correspondents. Pointless and tiresome in the extreme but all over the British press. Full of meandering gossip and sneering but making no substantial political nor social points. I didn’t subscribe to Quillette to read it here too. Please exercise better quality control; just because you can publish something doesn’t mean you should.
3 comments:
Yes, not much cop. The problem with essays like this is that unless you agree with the initial conceit, it just looks like a lot of pointless parallels.
I do agree with one bit, which is that Covid required someone totally different. Boris's posh-boy harrumphing was out of place. Perhaps that's why he always appeared at the lecterns with those weird science bods. Perhaps he was just unlucky. Without Covid he might have got away with it.
The piece does go on a bit, doesn't it!
I'm already bored with the whole issue of a new PM, especially as the late arrivals usually get the top slots, and eventually the prize - for what it's worth...
Cynical? Me?
Sam - he was unlucky with Covid, but perhaps he was always going to pay a high price for Brexit. Maybe he'll now tackle his memoirs which could be interesting.
Scrobs - I'm bored with it too. I can't see it making much difference.
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