Boris Johnson

[Billy The Radio Scatterling]

What a load of old rubbish – can’t think of anything positive to say about this. Ah well, I’ll look forward to Chris Evans next week – hopefully he didn’t attend an Oxbridge college.

[Sally]

What a load of old rubbish?

I was all prepared to toss the Boris pot. Then I stopped, looked at that shock of blonde hair and thought - why not give him a chance?

I liked him. All my buttons were primed not to. But I liked him.

Van Morrison, George Harrison and a scattering of yer 'classical' what more could a person ask?

Mustard, I hear you cry.

He gave us that too.

This man Boris is no fool - he merely has to appease our dear Billy somehow.

A man with humour could and should rule the world.

After all, what a comedian that GOD chap was.

[Crusoe]

Billy said:

What a load of old rubbish – can’t think of anything positive to say about this.

Hee hee, well, you don’t mince your words, Billy.

It certainly wasn’t my favourite, so far, but I didn’t think it was to bad. Although Boris went to Oxford, I got the impression that he worked quite hard at his studies, which should be commended, although I got the impression that his later career has succeeded as a result of who he knows more than what he knows.

I did enjoy the choice of “Soul Limbo” by Booker T and the M.G.s, the cover of which might well have been produced here on the island:-



I did, however, feel that the choice of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was a bit tokenistic (it had the feel of a politician trying to prove that he’s hip and “down with the kids”).

As for the interview itself, Boris came across as a likeable enough sort of person but it all seemed a bit superficial and shallow and I notice that, in true politicians’ style, he ducked the interesting/ awkward questions.

All in all, I didn’t think it was a wasted forty minutes but I didn’t think it was essential listening, either.

[Crusoe]

Sally said:

After all, what a comedian that GOD chap was.

Hee hee, how true, Sally.

[Billy The Radio Scatterling]

Sally said:

I was all prepared to toss the Boris pot. Then I stopped, looked at that shock of blonde hair and thought - why not give him a chance?

Can one correlate hair colour/color and likeability? Would you have still liked him if he used Brylcreem?

Van Morrison, George Harrison and a scattering of yer 'classical' what more could a person ask?

Well if he was born on June 19th 1964, then he must have been a teenager when Buzzcocks, Magazine, Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Tear Drop Explodes…..Stiff Records came along. How come all this music passed him by? What kind of music do young Tories listen to?

Mustard, I hear you cry.

I love mustard and have just saturated tomorrow's sanis with it!!!!!

This man Boris is no fool - he merely has to appease our dear Billy somehow.

I never suggested that he was a fool; quite the opposite and I believe this pseudo humour is a weapon he uses to disarm the interviewer - especiallly females. He reminds me of Nigel Pargetter and I’ve always found him rather sinister.

A man with humour could and should rule the world.

Exactly soooo and Lord Birt has done pretty well for himself and his jokes often make me laugh.

[Billy The Radio Scatterling]

webb said:

I did enjoy the choice of “Soul Limbo” by Booker T and the M.G.s, the cover of which might well have been produced here on the island:-

Well this is a surprise Crusoe and I just hope you wore your Sir Tim Rice overcoat whilst dancing to this.

I did, however, feel that the choice of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was a bit tokenistic (it had the feel of a politician trying to prove that he’s hip and “down with the kids”).

Oh yes, defo to this. I'm suprised that he didn't choose something by Queen in order to gain the R4 vote from Quote Unquote listeners.

the interview itself, Boris came across as a likeable enough sort of person

Alan Bennett's recent R4 interview, suggested that we should be cautious about celebrities who work hard at getting us to like them.

One other point, there were extracts of this interview quoted in either today’s Observer or Sunday Times (sorry I forget which one it was) and I’d like to know who actually leaked this. They get huge cobs on at R4 if DID issues are leaked, so I wonder who’s responsible? Anyone at R4 called Scooter?

[sea horse]

Billy said:

Well if he was born on June 19th 1964, then he must have been a teenager when Buzzcocks, Magazine, Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Tear Drop Explodes…..Stiff Records came along. How come all this music passed him by?.

Some years ago, before her deep involvement with dogs and Le Pen, I heard Brigitte Bardot interviewed on French radio's equivalent of DID and she, like Boris Johnson, also chose the Beatles' 'Here Comes The Sun' as her opener. But she was more of their era.

Billy said:

I never suggested that he was a fool; quite the opposite and I believe this pseudo humour is a weapon he uses to disarm the interviewer - especiallly females.

I had the impression Sue Lawley sounded quite smitten with him. In fact even before he opened his mouth.

[Nurse Duckett]

Billy said:

What a load of old rubbish – can’t think of anything positive to say about this. Ah well, I’ll look forward to Chris Evans next week – hopefully he didn’t attend an Oxbridge college.

And what is wrong with having attended an Oxbridge college?

[Captain Nudnick]

Billy said:

Well if he was born on June 19th 1964, then he must have been a teenager when Buzzcocks, Magazine, Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Tear Drop Explodes…..Stiff Records came along. How come all this music passed him by? .

Just born lucky, I suppose...

[Billy The Radio Scatterling]

nurseduckett said:

And what is wrong with having attended an Oxbridge college?

Attending university shouldn’t be seen as a means to an end, nor should it be employed as a social tool. The profound love of one’s subject or discipline should be the motivating force. I wanted to be an engineer from the age of about seven, so attending university was an issue of becoming equipped with the mathematical tools to model the electromagnetic fields that home made aerials produced or learning how to predict the performance of a 500 MVA generator after exposure to an external transient. Any genuine engineer will narrate a similar story

Once the primary importance of a university becomes an issue of social status, then it ceases to serve any useful purpose and it’s even more disturbing when it becomes apparent that there’s a large discrepancy between the incomes/wealth of students’ parents within the Oxbridge universities, compared with those attending the red brick or other educational establishments. Attending university should be dependent on inherent intelligence and not a function of parents’ income or wealth.

Social status really is the feedstock that drives the BBC’s internal combustion engine (1), especially R4. Just take a look at the biogs. of some of the presenters and other personnel within R4 – Oxbridge arts graduates in abundance. A weighting such as this goes well beyond any statistical predictability, nor does it suggest that R4 regards the presenter/listener relationship as worthy of consideration. In fact individuals with ‘charmed’ backgrounds are probably the last people in the world who should be addressing or attempting to form an empathic bond with a mass radio audience.

DID in, particular, has constantly reflected the listening interests of its internal personnel (an abundance of Oxbridge graduates) and wealthy SE of England audience, as opposed to the tastes of the larger external radio audience. Crusoe listens reasonably closely to DID and will verify how it’s a regular occurrence on the programme to hear an Oxbridge graduate comment on how little work they did whilst at university. Two examples: Martha Lane Fox and Michael Winner. I could name many more, but it wouldn’t serve any useful purpose. Why should it be regarded as laudable or intelligent to boast about not working at university?

Notes

(1) There’s even a profession pecking order within R4, Medicine comes top, with Law a close second! Ever noticed the manner in which Mark Porter always says: ‘I’m Dr. Mark Porter’ on Case Notes? In other words I’m so important because I’m a member of the medical profession! You’d never hear such smugness from an engineer with a doctorate. In fact it’s quite a rare event to hear an engineer with a doctorate addressed as ‘Dr’.

[Captain Nudnick]

But whats wrong with attending an Oxbridge college?

[OXO CUBE]

I was wondering that too !

[Captain Nudnick]

You’d never hear such smugness from an engineer with a doctorate.

It depends what country you're in - A German with an engineering qualification is addressed as 'Ing. Schmidt' rather than 'Herr(n) Schmidt'.

[Crusoe]

Billy said:

webb said:

I did enjoy the choice of “Soul Limbo” by Booker T and the M.G.s

Well this is a surprise Crusoe and I just hope you wore your Sir Tim Rice overcoat whilst dancing to this.

Only after I’d removed my MCC nightshirts – you know how we louche types like to stay in our nightwear half the day

Billy said:

Alan Bennett's recent R4 interview, suggested that we should be cautious about celebrities who work hard at getting us to like them.

Yes, there may well be something in that, although there aren’t that many people who don’t like to be liked. It is, perhaps, ironic that Mr Bennett is, himself, very well liked as a result of his public image (something which he has expressed discomfort about, previously).

Billy said:

One other point, there were extracts of this interview quoted in either today’s Observer or Sunday Times (sorry I forget which one it was) and I’d like to know who actually leaked this. They get huge cobs on at R4 if DID issues are leaked, so I wonder who’s responsible? Anyone at R4 called Scooter?

Hee hee, well you may have a point – I’ve no doubt it was an authorised leak to help publicity. Radio 4 seems to have been all over the ‘papers, recently – mostly “whose baby is it?” Archers stories.

urchin said:

I had the impression Sue Lawley sounded quite smitten with him. In fact even before he opened his mouth.

Yes, I thought that, too, Seahorse – in fact there seemed to be a certain amount of giggling in the manner of an infatuated schoolgirl. Perhaps it’s that blonde hair?

[rosalie]

Didn't hear this one either, but Boris Johnson - or rather the Boris Johnson that comes over on tv radio and through his newspaper articles, represents the sort of person that I can't stand on all kinds of levels.