Boris Johnson's Finest Hour?

I don't say it is his finest hour, I'm asking the question as I say in my first post, "Could this be Boris's Finest Hour?" Admittedly the title doesn't have a question mark at the end - perhaps a kind mod could edit that as I am not able to?

As for "Why do we insist on comparing to Churchill? Churchill wasn't even that much of a great leader. Boris johnson certainly isn't" - I think you contradict yourself. You say that neither Boris nor Churchill were good leaders - so you are comparing them and finding similarities in their bad leadership

Boris cracked me up when he was on about Mothers Day yesterday evening though.
Similar tbh

Confession: everytime I saw Theresa May I just wanted to give her a hug i don't think a have a strong political opinion but i think she needed a hug

I have been much more impressed with Rishi Sunak. Boris is not doing a bad job, but Rishi has been sensational, so far.

Why do we insist on comparing to Churchill? Churchill wasn't even that much of a great leader. Boris johnson certainly isn't. You say his finest hour. I say his biggest ****-up. He's treading on eggshells. He knows if he doesn't get this right, he will never be forgiven and the tory party won't ever get in again. Not to mention his biggest support base is going to be most affected by this crisis. Surprised at Sunak, though he couldn't really do anything else. Still, he comes from a family of Thatcherites and I expect things to return to normal tory policy once this thing is done and dusted.,

Boris even called the operation to make ventilators "Operation Last Gasp". He's a bit of an idiot, though I think finally he is doing the right thing, what he should have done earlier, closing schools and social places.

and that is EXACTLY what I was about to say.

Hopefully Rishi will be our next PM.

Boris has acted WAY too slowly, especially about the pubs/restaurants. It must have been very embarrassing when Boris's dad, Stanley, said he would carry on going to the pub to help the pub manager make a profit. The scenes on St Patrick's day were very disconcerting. Don't RECOMMEND people stop going to pubs and restaurants, just close them down!

According to my younger son, we are 14 days behind Italy, so we should have got way stricter way sooner. Now Rishi is left to pick up the economic pieces.

Agreed, it sucks that Boris is needed to make these laws/rules. I understand why he doesn't want to lockdown/force places to close. But it is now obvious that the public - not everyone of course - are too selfish to do what is right.

How right you are. We should have been given boundaries much quicker. I can remember when they got a new consignment of loo roll in Aldi. I asked how long it would last and they said one family is now rationed to 5 x packs of 24 loo rolls each. It should have been one pack of 24 right from the start, with store security enforcing it if necessary.

How right you are. We should have been given boundaries much quicker. I can remember when they got a new consignment of loo roll in Aldi. I asked how long it would last and they said one family is now rationed to 5 x packs of 24 loo rolls each. It should have been one pack of 24 right from the start, with store security enforcing it if necessary.

Agreed. I work in a pharmacy and on Thursday on my way home the tube was very busy. There is no way everyone is a key worker. People need to start taking responsibility and businesses need to give as many staff as possible the ability to work from home.

Agreed. I work in a pharmacy and on Thursday on my way home the tube was very busy. There is no way everyone is a key worker. People need to start taking responsibility and businesses need to give as many staff as possible the ability to work from home.

Does anyone else think that Boris Johnson is coming across a bit like Winston Churchill during the war and that his popularity must have soared? Previously, he seemed better suited to Have I Got News For You than Politics - when asked if he had any real convictions, for example, he answered: “Yes, one for speeding years ago.”

At his daily briefings, however, he seems like a real Prime Minister which begs the question, Could this be Boris's Finest Hour?

He's hopeless.

See the points below for how he could improve (written by Alastair Campbell) - he should listen to these.

1. Start all briefings with factual updates. How many cases? How many deaths? How many full recoveries? Stats on NHS activity. Stats on Covid-19 tests. Stats on NHS staff tests, and sickness. Stats on ventilators. Stats on protective equipment. Stats on retired NHS staff returning. Explain any regional variations in cases and mortality that may be of interest/concern. Use visuals and graphics. Detail, detail, detail.

2. Express sadness and regret at deaths, and thanks for all those in the public services and beyond who are helping. I can barely remember you talking about the dead and dying. Empathy matters, and make sure it is not formulaic.

3. Have stories to tell of developments, and recovery, from the UK and elsewhere.

4. Have a small team working round the clock on a global analysis of what is happening. Provide a short, distilled account of it. The good news and the bad. The trends, and good ideas, developing. The examples being set. Show the kind of thing that is informing your thinking and decision-making.

5. Provide short, simple updates of everything happening across government as it relates to the virus. Pre-empt the difficult issues that are bound to arise, be that prisons, mental health, domestic violence, and so on, and set out the work being done, any changes being made, any messages you want to send. Do not shy from the complexity and the vastness of the possible ramifications. Do not pretend it is easy or straight-forward.

6. Explain how any progress made in the fight against the virus, or any setback encountered, relates to announcements made in the past, or being made now. Provide real, factual detail. Visuals, graphics. At each stage you have made changes, and said it was the right time to do so, you have not produced sufficient evidence as to why, or how the change relates to a broader plan. This erodes confidence.

7. Consider doing the main briefing in the morning, and an online only, shorter version later in the day. Allows you to control the agenda better, use the morning meeting processes to think through all difficult questions, use the afternoon to maintain momentum and prepare for the next day. There is no such thing as a media deadline in this. Set the rhythm of the day according to your needs, and the reality of the crisis, not the media’s.

8. Without being alarmist, be honest about how bad things are, and how bad they might get.

9. Do not make major change announcements without thinking through answers to every question likely to arise. It doesn’t matter if the answer is ‘we don’t know 100percent at this stage,’ but in some of the key changes announced, from school closures to pub closures, from help for business to help for workers, there have been too many unanswered questions, and too much confusion created by what you say. I am totally sympathetic to how hard this is, the pressures you are all under, the pace at which events are moving, but it has felt too fly by night.

10. Use visuals and graphics, and get them out on social media as you speak. You are getting large TV and radio audiences for the briefings, but most people will continue to absorb the news in bite size chunks and online, after the event. You need to be providing them, verbal and visual.

11. Resist the snappy one liners and the smart arse language. I like to think I know my English, but I still had to look up ‘sedulously’ when you told the country that is the approach we should take.

12. Use powerful images already established in the media and public mind. I was surprised you did not speak out more strongly against panic buying. This may be your libertarian instincts. But your ‘I am sure everyone will be reasonable’ sounded ridiculous set against what we all knew to be happening – empty shelves, queues and fights in supermarkets, crowded pubs and clubs after you had suggested people didn’t go to them. How much better might it have been if you had played the clip of the Yorkshire nurse in tears because she could not buy the food she needed? To those who seem to think youth makes them invulnerable, play the clip of the Italian doctor talking about the people in their 20s and 30s, or the man in his 30s struggling to breathe as nurses in protective gear rushed around him.

13. Be ready to liven up the format. People will tire of the same format, and there is a risk they stop listening. Sad, but true. (Small Brexit point if I may … the two Union flags framed in every shot are there because you thought this was going to be the Getting Brexit Done Parliament … this is a global pandemic. The flags do not help project you as a global leader.)

14. Smarten up. Comb your hair before every briefing. This is not a trivial point. In times of crisis, people look to leaders for confidence and strength. If you look a shambles, the fear people sense is that you are a shambles.

15. Stop charging into the briefings as though you are chasing down that boy you smashed on the rugby field in Japan. People want to see calmness.

16. Stop hitting the lectern as you speak. It buggers up the sound. I know you want to communicate energy and drive, and that is fine. But wind down a couple of gears when you get into full flow.

17. No more homilies and rambles. Factual. Businesslike. When in doubt, shut up.

18. Emphasise the long haul. Yes, people want hope, but the 12 week line was a line not a plan. ‘Sending the virus packing’ was a line not a strategy.

19. End the silly boycott of certain news channels and programmes. It was childish at the time and it feels more childish now.

20. Broaden the team. You have to front most of this, but you also have to do a lot of work behind the scenes. Your ministers are also busy, but some more than others. Take three or four of the less busy ones, and turn them into all purpose government communicators, a bit like you did with Rishi Sunak before the election.

I rate his performance at 7/10 so far.

I think he's taking the right measures in the right way without rushing blind. He loses a few points purely because one or two actions should have been taken earlier (though not the school stuff which people seem to focus on).

Polling so far suggests that most people probably agree with me and those who are really against him in this thread for example (Barnetlad, FOS, Ferrograd) are people that have always wanted him burnt at the stake anyway.

With regards to the thread title it probably will be. If we come out of this at roughly the same time as the US and European countries he will be the political equivalent of a saint (deserving or not). Equally it has the potential to make Labour's remote chance of victory in 2024 that much more likely if handled badly.

With regards to the thread title it probably will be. If we come out of this at roughly the same time as the US and European countries he will be the political equivalent of a saint (deserving or not). Equally it has the potential to make Labour's remote chance of victory in 2024 that much more likely if handled badly.