{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/9a03fe9e-1ff0-4dcc-b3f6-50bd1f016ea4/79ec5ff3-1718-434c-aec8-07c6d42e8c42?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Who is Boris Johnson?","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6195701f2eacc3a36070252a/619570bccb3c660012e3d1d5.jpg?height=200","description":"<p>We try to work out what the current favourite to be next Tory&nbsp;leader actually stands for.&nbsp;Can his time as Mayor of London tell us&nbsp;what kind of PM he might be?&nbsp;Will his journalistic past come back to&nbsp;haunt him?&nbsp;Does he have a political philosophy beyond 'doing Brexit'?&nbsp;Plus we discuss whether the Johnson-Trump comparisons really stand up.&nbsp;With Helen Thompson and Chris Brooke.</p><p><br></p><p>Talking Points:</p><p><br></p><p>What does Boris Johnson stand for?</p><ul><li>He’s emphasizing is his experience as Mayor of London, especially his ability to assemble a good team (of course this can be debated). </li><li>But the other side of his pitch is about Brexit, and the politics of that are going to overshadow everything that a Johnson cabinet could do. </li><li>He would need a chancellor to do a lot of heavy lifting. Who would that person be? And is Johnson self-aware enough to see this?</li><li>Johnson wallows in imperial nostalgia. This puts him in direct opposition to Corbyn. Could this lead to more public sparring over foreign policy?</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Could Johnson’s journalistic past create problems for him? </p><ul><li>On the one hand, the people he offends aren’t likely to vote for him anyways. It’s hard to imagine a skeleton that would cut across political divides.</li><li>Michael Gove is clearly being held to a different standard right now. In some ways, Johnson has set himself outside of the traditional boundaries of political morality.</li><li>At the end of the day, however, the Conservative Party needs someone who can appeal to the Brexiteers, even if it might lose them some support elsewhere.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Does Johnson have a political philosophy?</p><ul><li>He’s not particularly ideological.</li><li>His best pitch might be tax cuts plus Brexit, which looks a lot like Trump.</li><li>A lot of Conservative MP’s don’t like Johnson at all—they think he’s only out for himself.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Hunt is saying that the one thing we cannot have is an election; Johnson is saying the one thing that we cannot do is stay in the EU. Which is riskier?</p><ul><li>The Conservative Party is in a bind, and it’s not clear how it will get out of this crisis.</li><li>But the problems run deeper than the Party.</li><li>Part of the reason for this impasse is that politicians keep postponing the moment of reckoning. Nothing that has happened so far has changed the fundamental issues.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Mentioned in this Episode:</p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/30/boris-johnson-caught-on-camera-reciting-kipling-in-myanmar-temple\" target=\"_blank\">Johnson recites Kipling in Myanmar</a></li><li><a href=\"https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/constitutionalbreakdown?autoplay\" target=\"_blank\">Constitutional Breakdown</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p>Further Learning:</p><ul><li><a href=\"https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/brexitlessons\" target=\"_blank\">Brexit Lessons</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n14/jonathan-coe/sinking-giggling-into-the-sea\" target=\"_blank\">More on Boris Johnson, political satire, and “Have I Got New For You”</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/12/was-boris-johnson-as-successful-as-london-mayor-as-he-claims\" target=\"_blank\">On Johnson’s mayoral record</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: </strong><a href=\"http://lrb.co.uk/talking\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>lrb.co.uk/talking</strong></a></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"David Runciman and Catherine Carr"}