Irresistible

[poliphilo]

Jennifer Arcuri, the American businesswoman who received grants of public money whilst enjoying a close relationship with Boris Johnson, complains that he has now tossed her aside like "some gremlin". I love the image that conjures up.

If Johnson were an ordinary politician he'd have been sunk long ago by one or other of the incoming missiles from his colourful past- but- like Trump and a very few others- he seems surrounded by a force field from which everything just bounces off. His forward march has seemed- in hindsight, anyway- to have been inevitable, irresistable. People don't particularly like him (he's too tricky, too disloyal, too amoral) and he has shown no very great aptitude for any of the positions he's filled- and yet on and on he goes- with everyone accepting that- in spite of everything- he's a man of destiny.

It's a kind of magic. And I mean that literally. People like Johnson, like Trump, have such self-belief, such fixity of purpose that they bend the world around them.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Although hubris usually finishes that sort in the end.

Problem is the damage they do in the interim.

[poliphilo]

As Enoch Powell is supposed to have said, All political careers end in failure.

[qatsi]

It helps Johnson that he is up against insipid and equally untrusted opposition. He wouldn't fare nearly so well against Blair, for example.

[cmcmck]

This is definitely going to be a who do you dislike least sort of election!

[poliphilo]

Blair was another "magician". His gifts were limited- but he couldn't half put the fluence on people.

Corbyn is that rare thing- a politician with real integrity- but his magic is weak.

[qatsi]

I think of it more as "intransigence" than integrity, though I accept that could be because he fails miserably in communicating with anyone other than the converted.

After I posted my first comment, I reflected on the line attributed to Powell. I was, of course, thinking of "Peak Blair"; his career took a long time to fail, triggered by his being in thrall to the Americans.

[poliphilo]

Blair hasn't fallen so very far. He's not exactly living on skid row. And the media still turn to him for commentary on current events. I believe he wields considerable power and influence behind the scenes.

[razorbladeromance]

Ugh. Just... ugh.