By Bobby Jung
We all know Boris Johnson. He’s the Prime Minister of the UK, a bumbling humorous figure with perennially disheveled hair. Some compare him to Donald Trump. Yet, beyond the viral clips of him tackling a Japanese schoolboy in Rugby or offering tea instead of answers to reporters at his constituency home, it is arguable that people generally know far less about Johnson’s actual politics. Often, it seems that the bumbling, wisecracking front the PM displays shields him from valid criticism and allows him to pivot away from being held accountable - near certainly a strategic move on Johnson’s part. He has been observed to purposefully ruffle up his hair and on occasion his tirades seem forced such as his “Ping Pong speech” where he seems to play a comedic role.
When asked by the BBC whether his days as an actor at Eton taught him about making people laugh by deliberately forgetting lines, the PM in a rare candid moment replied “Well I certainly think that as a general tactic in life if that’s what you’re driving at it is often useful to give the slight impression that you are deliberately pretending not to know what is going on…” Combined with his ambition for power which dates back to his dreams of becoming “world king” as a child, Johnson crafted a highly effective method towards his professional life.
The fruit of this butt-of-the-joke persona is that Johnson is held under less scrutiny for his controversial, unsavoury opinions as he is seen as a friendly, clumsy and charming Englishman rather than the cunning political animal he is. As a writer at The Daily Telegraph in the 1990s, Johnson referred to Africans as having “watermelon smiles” and expressed support for colonialism in Uganda. As Foreign Secretary under Theresa May, he could not help himself from reciting the colonialist poem The Road to Mandalay during a visit to Myanmar. He is known to have had a myriad of extramarital affairs and was fired from The Times for inventing a quote about King Edward II and his rumoured gay lover.
Yet, when we think of Boris, these details hardly come to the mind at all. We think of him as the charismatic fool being stuck in a zipline and ridiculously waving a vacuum-sealed cod while lamenting the costs of the EU. As David Cameorn once joked, “If any other politician anywhere in the world got stuck in a zipline, it would be disastrous. For Boris it would be an absolute triumph. He defies all laws of gravity.” It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that most see him more as a TV personality than a Tory that supports Brexit.
More consequentially, Johnson’s concocted personality is no doubt dangerous for the issue of Brexit. During the referendum to leave the EU, Johnson promoted the dangerous false claim that 350 million pounds were paid weekly to Brussels and under his government, a no deal Brexit looks likely which most economists believe will plunge the UK into a deep recession. Though he has come under fire for all the aforementioned controversies and continues to face criticism for his handling of COVID-19, there is no doubt that Johnson’s public persona has shielded him from justified criticism.
Alarmingly, the effectiveness of his calculated persona has seemingly inspired other politicians. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the current leader of the House of Commons has created for himself an “upper class” and aristocratic persona known for “posh insults” despite his non-aristocratic albeit elite background. Like Johnson, clips of Rees-Mogg’s antics have gone viral on YouTube and judging by the comments, it is evident that hardly anyone sees him as being a phony or an elitist - rather, most seem amused and charmed.
While his public persona may be endearing, it seems that his peers in parliament can clearly see through the charade. He was fired from the frontbenches for concealing an affair from the Tory leadership in 2004 and John Major, a former Tory PM, famously detested Johnson’s character. In the end, though his persona has not shielded him completely from criticism, it is remarkable how far Johnson has come just from learning that being the butt from the joke could endear himself to people. Incredibly, for many, the idea of a charming, bumbling Englishman overshadows any scandal or any deed. For many aspiring politicians, the experiment that is Johnson’s political career may be a testament to the effectiveness of eccentric, humorous personas and in the future, we may see a new generation of politicians with carefully calculated, larger than life personalities.
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