Other People's Elections

I had no intention of writing about the upcoming UK parliamentary election, since my opinion on it is obvious. But then I saw this clip of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's father and I just can't stop thinking about it.

I've never seen this man before, but my first impression — even before he speaks — is that he seems extremely pleased with himself, which is quite off-putting. Then, when asked for his response to people calling his son Pinocchio, he responds, "That requires a degree of literacy, which I think the Great British public doesn't necessarily have."

Which is absurd, of course, since Pinocchio is a story that is part of oral and particularly media culture, probably more than it is in written form.

Kudos to the interviewer for pressing him on his statement by asking what he meant by that. Johnson tries to brush her off with a smile and "I'm not going to get into that," but again, she wouldn't let it go, calling him on the pejorative nature of his words. Then he says, "They couldn't spell Pinocchio if they tried."

And still she presses, asking, "Why would you say that?" He then asks her if she can spell it, and tries to pretend he was just joking. The other interviewer joins in on asking him what the heck.

At this point Johnson switches tracks to something that's just as bad in a different way: "I think it is utterly absurd and wrong that you can read out on air a tweet, coming in from one of your readers, which calls the Prime Minister a liar. I think it's amazing you can do that."

So not only did he insult everyone in his nation, he also said the free press of his country shouldn't be allowed to call an elected official a liar. Now, I know the UK has problems with press freedom and particularly has libel laws I disagree with, but that's an amazing statement.

The only good part of this appearance was the interviewers.