12th March 2024
The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson
In the last week or so, Channel 4 (in the UK) have televised and streamed a new 4 part series called ‘The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson’.
After so many biased ‘hatchet job’ programmes shown on TV over recent times, many people wondered whether this new programme would just be more of the same; and lots openly suggesting they would not even watch the programme for this reason.
So, to the question …. Is ‘The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson’ worth a watch ?
What follows is my own view of the balance shown in the programme.
It must be up to individuals to decide themselves, some will determine the programme to be very biased, some will determine it very fair. I suspect most will determine it somewhere between those extremes.
Don’t take someone else’s view on it, watch it yourself and make your own mind up.
It doesn’t make sense to do a minute by minute review of over 4 hours of a TV show, it’s best for people to watch it themselves.
The following section will point out a few pertinent points and what my general view was.
- Deafness - it was stated that Boris had a severe hearing problem until he was about 8. I imagine most people would have been unaware of this.
- Jennifer Arcuri - I only saw her input into the programme as that of opportunist, self promoting chancer, who attempted to use Boris for her own aims. Her involvement was unnecessary.
- Brexit - I think it would be very fair to say that Nigel Farage must be credited with getting the UK to the point where a referendum on Brexit would be held. Without Farage, there would not have been a Referendum. But it’s also clear that the winning of the election for the Leave Campaign had more to do with Boris than anyone else. Boris said he would get Brexit done, and he did.
- Michael Heseltine expressing personal views of bitter, old and jealous old man, who was on the losing side of an argument with Boris, was in the minority of the electorate, and still after many years cannot accept democracy and seeks to undermine it, actually it’s the electorate he seeks to undermine, you and I.
- December 2019 General Election - In 2019, he won the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, turning constituencies blue that had been red for generations. Voters did not vote for their local Conservative candidate in 2019, yes they put a cross against that name, but they were voting for BORIS JOHNSON. This was instrumental to getting Brexit done.
- Covid - Covid reared its ugly head in the first quarter of 2020, and for the next two years took up most of the bandwidth of the Government and the public. Whatever people’s view on the Covid time, that’s what happened. The Government were diverted.
- Ukraine - Boris was immediate and steadfast in his support for Ukraine, and that was instrumental in galvanizing support around the world. He led the world in this, actually.
- The various sections of input made by so-called journalist merely added to my feeling that they we but activists masquerading as journalists. As Elon musk tweeted …
- It was clear that the establishment were frightened of Boris’s popularity. They had never seen anyone like him before, and the only way they could deal with it was to discredit him, and that’s what they set out to do and that’s what whey did. As Labour PR / activist and so called journalist Pippa Crerar tweeted, Boris was the politician that Labour feared the most …
- That there was a plot to undermine and bring down Boris Johnson, there is no doubt. The suitably named book ‘The Plot’ by Nadine Dorries is a must read and joins the dots.
As stated at the very start of Programme 1, ‘This century, no one has done more to shape the destiny of this country than Boris Johnson’.
And that’s true.
Boris is the one true ‘rock-star’ politician in the UK, he always was and always will be.
The Rise and Fall AND RISE of Boris Johnson
I blogged a while ago about the options, as I saw them, that were open to Boris. In many ways, those options are still valid.
If you missed that Blog, you can catch up on it HERE.
Undoubtedly, Boris has been busy since he left office and left Parliament. He has had some well earned and well deserved family time, yet his profile remains high, making many speeches in the UK and around the world, and writing his thought provoking newspaper articles.
He has done what we all would have done, licked his wounds, recharged his batteries and learned some lessons.
And there are some lessons to learn.
Clearly, a massive influence on Boris has been the life and times of Winston Churchill. Boris even wrote a book about the great man.
Boris’s great political hero, Winston Churchill, was Prime Minister of the UK in 1940-45, leading the UK through World War 2, and came back to Lead the country as Prime Minister again in 1951-51.
Boris will no doubt feel that events, and people, conspired against him.
That he still had much to do when he left Number 10, and Parliament.
That the potential wasn’t realised.
And he would be right.
The remarkable mandate that Boris won in the December 2019 General Election was somewhat derailed almost immediately.
What Boris does next must clearly be a decision for him and his family to consider.
He doesn’t need the lure of the spotlight, he has that every single day.
He doesn’t need the money, a very lucrative future lies ahead in whatever Boris decides to do.
But the drive and ambition to emulate his great political hero, and to finish the job he set out to do, will be strong.
And I believe that it will be too strong for Boris to resist.
Boris will be back at the top of British politics within the next 6 years (think about the timeframe), in whatever capacity he thinks is right, and the job he returns to will not necessarily be the job he ends up doing.
And it won’t be the same Boris, after a period of reflection I am sure Boris v2 will emerge, having addresses some of the flaws that he undoubtedly has. And after all, we all have flaws.
And when that happens I am looking forward to seeing an additional programme from C4 called ‘The Rise & Fall & RISE AGAIN of Boris Johnson’.
The Conservative Party knows it.
Conservatives MPs know it.
Conservatives Members know it.
The Country knows it.
Boris Johnson knows it.
The Conservative Party and the Country needs Boris.
It’s time for Boris to come in from the cold.
It’s time for Boris, again.
And finally, to answer the question posed at the beginning of this blog, is ‘The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson’ worth a watch ?, I think it is worth a watch.
There were parts of the programme I liked and thought fair, likewise there were parts I disliked and thought were unfair. There were sections I thought added no value to the programme, and shouldn’t have been included.
It showed a political phenomenon, a politician unlike any other in the last generation, a politician that will be remembered 100 years from now, and a politician that connects with the public.
And it also show a man with flaws, well, we all have flaws, I certainly do.
I wasn’t looking for a programme that ONLY sang the praises of Boris, or a programme that only painted him with negativity, a character assassination.
This programme TRIED to provide at least an attempt of balance, and therefore I think it deserves a watch.
Thanks for reading.
Graham
Twitter : @apple_shwn
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