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Clever But Not Quick
Dec. 10th, 2019 08:37 amBoris Johnson got into my dreams last night. He was pleading with us not to let him drink alone. "When I do that," he said, "I become horrible."
His poor handling of the incident yesterday- when he initially refused to look at a picture of a kid with pneumonia who'd been forced to sleep on the floor of a hospital A & E because there were no beds available- or engage with the issue except on the windiest level of hospital funding- and then absent-mindedly pocketed his interlocutor's phone- shows two things. 1. That his capacity for empathy had/has gone out the window and 2.that he can't think on his feet. Throw something at him that he isn't prepared for and he panics and loses control. He's very clever but he's not quick. It's why he's been dodging debates and open forum questioning and all but the least threatening of face to face interviews. Does this matter? I think it does. If he can't hack a confrontation with a humble TV reporter how's he going to manage negotiations with sharpies like Putin and Trump and the EU mafia.
Trump a sharpie? Well, put it this way, he's never stuck for an answer. It may not be a smart answer but he'll always come back at you. And that's an ability Johnson lacks.
His poor handling of the incident yesterday- when he initially refused to look at a picture of a kid with pneumonia who'd been forced to sleep on the floor of a hospital A & E because there were no beds available- or engage with the issue except on the windiest level of hospital funding- and then absent-mindedly pocketed his interlocutor's phone- shows two things. 1. That his capacity for empathy had/has gone out the window and 2.that he can't think on his feet. Throw something at him that he isn't prepared for and he panics and loses control. He's very clever but he's not quick. It's why he's been dodging debates and open forum questioning and all but the least threatening of face to face interviews. Does this matter? I think it does. If he can't hack a confrontation with a humble TV reporter how's he going to manage negotiations with sharpies like Putin and Trump and the EU mafia.
Trump a sharpie? Well, put it this way, he's never stuck for an answer. It may not be a smart answer but he'll always come back at you. And that's an ability Johnson lacks.
