Boris Johnson’s dad suggested that the UK public lacks basic knowledge on the 29 November edition of BBC‘s Victoria Derbyshire. And his comments reveal what his family and the Conservative Party think about the British public.
Doesn’t have that “degree of literacy”
Responding to a comment from a viewer that branded his son “Pinocchio”, Stanley Johnson said:
That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn’t necessarily have
https://twitter.com/ScouseGirlMedia/status/1200370933556494339
On social media, people felt the comments betrayed the Johnson family’s classism:
https://twitter.com/davidellis85/status/1200368730691244032
The prime minister wrote that working class men are “likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless” in a 1995 magazine column. He also said that the children of single mothers are “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”. Johnson has refused to apologise for the remarks.
Appearing on Victoria Derbyshire this morning one of most surreal media things I’ve done. Stanley Johnson said the great British public wouldn’t understand a literary reference to Pinocchio & told me I couldn’t possibly imagine the no of commitments in a PM’s diary.
— Sonia Sodha (@soniasodha) November 29, 2019
Boris Johnson was educated at Eton and is a descendant of King George II. And it goes beyond Boris Johnson’s words and upbringing. Austerity policies have also reflected the classism of the Johnson family and the Conservative Party as a whole. In 2015, it was reported that the UK’s richest 1,000 families increased their wealth by almost £500bn since the financial crash, while the majority of us have faced brutal austerity cuts.
Wonder where Boris Johnson gets it from…
On the BBC, the prime minister’s father then continued:
I think it’s utterly absurd and wrong that you can read out on air a tweet… which calls the prime ministser a liar
But there is literally a website called Boris Johnson Lies that documents pages and pages of outright lies from the Conservative leader. These span from claims about how many hospitals the Conservatives will build, to denying he said things he categorically has said to even lying about giving up drinking.
Unprompted, Stanley Johnson seemed to reveal his disdain for the people of Britain on the BBC. We deserve a hell of a lot better than this.
Featured image via BBCiplayer
