"That Johnson comeback in full: flew back from a luxury holiday, posed like a twat, begged his rivals, lied about his support, let down his allies and fell on his arse."
That Boris Johnson statement in full:-
"In the last few days I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who suggested that I should once again contest the Conservative Party leadership, both among the public and among friends and colleagues in Parliament.I have been attracted because I led our party into a massive election victory less than three years ago - and I believe I am therefore uniquely placed to avert a general election now.
A general election would be a further disastrous distraction just when the Government must focus on the economic pressures faced by families across the country.
I believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024 - and tonight I can confirm that I have cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations, including a proposer and a seconder, and I could put my nomination in tomorrow.
There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members - and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday.
But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can't govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.
And though I have reached out to both Rishi (Sunak) and Penny (Mordaunt) - because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest - we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this.
Therefore I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds.
I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time."
Boris Johnson
The darkness of Boris Johnson: a psychologist on the prime minister’s unpalatable personality traits
In all the chaos that characterises the administration of Boris Johnson, it’s sometimes difficult to understand why the prime minister behaves the way he does. Why does he never really apologise or admit mistakes?
Most recently, Johnson continues to insist that he did not know he was breaking any rules by having parties during pandemic lockdowns. It’s just the latest example of behaviour that, I would argue, can only be understood in terms of psychological factors.
First, let me be clear: I am not attempting to diagnose the prime minister with a personality disorder. Like many psychologists nowadays, I believe it’s too simplistic to think in terms of specific conditions like narcissistic personality disorder or sociopathy. I prefer to use the concept of a “dark triad” of three personality traits that belong together – psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism. This makes sense because these traits almost always overlap and are difficult to distinguish from one another. The traits exist on a continuum and are more pronounced in some people than others.
Another, more wide-ranging model is called the “dark factor”. This suggests that the essence of “bad character” is a desire to ruthlessly put your own interests before other people’s, and to pursue them even when they cause harm to others. Besides psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism, the dark factor model includes traits of spitefulness, moral disengagement (behaving immorally without feeling bad), entitlement (believing you deserve more and are better than others), and egoism.
The actions of a ‘dark’ personality
There are many aspects of Johnson’s behaviour that make sense in terms of these models. “Dark” personalities are marked by psychopathic traits of a lack of empathy, conscience and guilt, and a failure to take responsibility. They can’t accept that they are ever at fault, so they instinctively blame other people – or other external factors – for negative events. We’ve seen Johnson deflect blame for the Downing Street parties ever since allegations about them first emerged. Now he refuses to take responsibility by offering his resignation.
We also know that Johnson has a tendency to break rules and ignore normal codes of behaviour (a signal of moral disengagement). Even before partygate, he unlawfully prorogued parliament to further his own agenda and refused to sack the home secretary even when she was found to have broken the ministerial code.
An essential feature of “dark” personalities is that they are disconnected. They are trapped inside themselves in narcissistic isolation and find it difficult to take other people’s perspectives. As a result, they lack a clear sense of how their actions will be perceived, or of what type of behaviour is acceptable.
This could help explain some of Johnson’s miscalculations. Take, for example, his attempt to change parliamentary rules rather than sanctioning former MP Owen Paterson for breaking lobbying rules. Johnson assumed this would be acceptable and failed to anticipate the subsequent furore. He obviously also believed that it was acceptable to smear Keir Starmer with conspiracy theories in parliament. This type of response is typical of the spitefulness of dark personalities when they feel under threat.
Machiavellianism, the third part of the dark triad, means the ruthless pursuit of power for its own sake, with the willingness to abandon integrity and morality along the way. Johnson has shown a consistent trait of prioritising his own personal interests over other factors. Why else would he make such reckless promises on the campaign trail, such as his £350 million per week for the NHS after Brexit?
A good case could clearly be made for the trait of entitlement (believing you deserve more and are better than others) in Johnson’s case, too. A consistent complaint against the prime minister is that he behaves as if rules don’t apply to him. During strict lockdown, he apparently believed it was acceptable to sidestep restrictions. He also believed that he was entitled to solicit donations from Tory donors for renovations to his Downing Street flat.
What is ‘truth’?
Johnson is often accused of dishonesty. However, it may not be so much that he intentionally lies, but that he doesn’t have a fixed notion of truth.
Since dark triad personalities are self-absorbed, they are disconnected from objective criteria of behaviour and have a strong tendency towards self-deception. They select information which supports their positive image of themselves and ignore negative information. They believe whatever suits their view of reality.
When he claims not to have broken lockdown rules or not to have misled parliament, Johnson may simply be selecting information to support his preferred version of reality. It’s likely that he has convinced himself that the events he attended really were work events, and that his attendance of them was purely inadvertent. This also relates to Johnson’s apparent inability to apologise, which would mean admitting to an imperfect image of himself.
Dark personalities are also unable to tolerate criticism, which brings a tendency to try to avoid dissenting voices. Whereas sensible prime ministers select ministers on the basis of ability, Johnson has packed senior government roles with loyalists, which has led to a lack of expertise and creativity.
Inevitable decay
Unfortunately, it’s common for dark triad personalities to become leaders. Motivated by a deep unconscious sense of lack, they have a strong desire for power and dominance. And their ruthlessness and ability to manipulate means they attain positions of power quite easily.
When a “dark” leader attains power, conscientious, moral people rapidly fall away. A government operating under these conditions soon becomes what the Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski called a “pathocracy” – an administration made up of ruthless individuals devoid of integrity and morality. This happened with Donald Trump’s presidency, as the “adults in the room” gradually headed for the exit, leaving no one but staffers defined by their personal allegiance to Trump. A similar decay in standards has occurred in the UK.
In an ideal society, there would be measures to restrict such people’s access to power, and we would be more likely to have the kind of leaders that we deserve.
Steve Taylor
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University
--oo00oo--
Most probation officers are very familiar with clients who, for whatever reason, shall we say display disordered thinking of one sort or another. There will be some who are clearly suffering a mental illness of some kind; some who have unattractive personality traits and some who clearly have personality disorders. Then we have Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. I notice that psychologist and academic Steve Taylor has discussed both in the recent past, the former US President here and the former British Prime Minister on The Conversation here:-
In all the chaos that characterises the administration of Boris Johnson, it’s sometimes difficult to understand why the prime minister behaves the way he does. Why does he never really apologise or admit mistakes?
Most recently, Johnson continues to insist that he did not know he was breaking any rules by having parties during pandemic lockdowns. It’s just the latest example of behaviour that, I would argue, can only be understood in terms of psychological factors.
First, let me be clear: I am not attempting to diagnose the prime minister with a personality disorder. Like many psychologists nowadays, I believe it’s too simplistic to think in terms of specific conditions like narcissistic personality disorder or sociopathy. I prefer to use the concept of a “dark triad” of three personality traits that belong together – psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism. This makes sense because these traits almost always overlap and are difficult to distinguish from one another. The traits exist on a continuum and are more pronounced in some people than others.
Another, more wide-ranging model is called the “dark factor”. This suggests that the essence of “bad character” is a desire to ruthlessly put your own interests before other people’s, and to pursue them even when they cause harm to others. Besides psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism, the dark factor model includes traits of spitefulness, moral disengagement (behaving immorally without feeling bad), entitlement (believing you deserve more and are better than others), and egoism.
The actions of a ‘dark’ personality
There are many aspects of Johnson’s behaviour that make sense in terms of these models. “Dark” personalities are marked by psychopathic traits of a lack of empathy, conscience and guilt, and a failure to take responsibility. They can’t accept that they are ever at fault, so they instinctively blame other people – or other external factors – for negative events. We’ve seen Johnson deflect blame for the Downing Street parties ever since allegations about them first emerged. Now he refuses to take responsibility by offering his resignation.
We also know that Johnson has a tendency to break rules and ignore normal codes of behaviour (a signal of moral disengagement). Even before partygate, he unlawfully prorogued parliament to further his own agenda and refused to sack the home secretary even when she was found to have broken the ministerial code.
An essential feature of “dark” personalities is that they are disconnected. They are trapped inside themselves in narcissistic isolation and find it difficult to take other people’s perspectives. As a result, they lack a clear sense of how their actions will be perceived, or of what type of behaviour is acceptable.
This could help explain some of Johnson’s miscalculations. Take, for example, his attempt to change parliamentary rules rather than sanctioning former MP Owen Paterson for breaking lobbying rules. Johnson assumed this would be acceptable and failed to anticipate the subsequent furore. He obviously also believed that it was acceptable to smear Keir Starmer with conspiracy theories in parliament. This type of response is typical of the spitefulness of dark personalities when they feel under threat.
Machiavellianism, the third part of the dark triad, means the ruthless pursuit of power for its own sake, with the willingness to abandon integrity and morality along the way. Johnson has shown a consistent trait of prioritising his own personal interests over other factors. Why else would he make such reckless promises on the campaign trail, such as his £350 million per week for the NHS after Brexit?
A good case could clearly be made for the trait of entitlement (believing you deserve more and are better than others) in Johnson’s case, too. A consistent complaint against the prime minister is that he behaves as if rules don’t apply to him. During strict lockdown, he apparently believed it was acceptable to sidestep restrictions. He also believed that he was entitled to solicit donations from Tory donors for renovations to his Downing Street flat.
What is ‘truth’?
Johnson is often accused of dishonesty. However, it may not be so much that he intentionally lies, but that he doesn’t have a fixed notion of truth.
Since dark triad personalities are self-absorbed, they are disconnected from objective criteria of behaviour and have a strong tendency towards self-deception. They select information which supports their positive image of themselves and ignore negative information. They believe whatever suits their view of reality.
When he claims not to have broken lockdown rules or not to have misled parliament, Johnson may simply be selecting information to support his preferred version of reality. It’s likely that he has convinced himself that the events he attended really were work events, and that his attendance of them was purely inadvertent. This also relates to Johnson’s apparent inability to apologise, which would mean admitting to an imperfect image of himself.
Dark personalities are also unable to tolerate criticism, which brings a tendency to try to avoid dissenting voices. Whereas sensible prime ministers select ministers on the basis of ability, Johnson has packed senior government roles with loyalists, which has led to a lack of expertise and creativity.
Inevitable decay
Unfortunately, it’s common for dark triad personalities to become leaders. Motivated by a deep unconscious sense of lack, they have a strong desire for power and dominance. And their ruthlessness and ability to manipulate means they attain positions of power quite easily.
When a “dark” leader attains power, conscientious, moral people rapidly fall away. A government operating under these conditions soon becomes what the Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski called a “pathocracy” – an administration made up of ruthless individuals devoid of integrity and morality. This happened with Donald Trump’s presidency, as the “adults in the room” gradually headed for the exit, leaving no one but staffers defined by their personal allegiance to Trump. A similar decay in standards has occurred in the UK.
In an ideal society, there would be measures to restrict such people’s access to power, and we would be more likely to have the kind of leaders that we deserve.
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University
Serial liar, sex pest & damaged-in-general narcissist can't take responsibility for anything, hence even this current attention-seeking ploy is everyone else's fault. Applies to Trump & Johnson equally.
ReplyDeleteWestminster whispers suggest that while he's been out of office & out of the UK, plenty of fresh & very damning evidence has been submitted to the Privileges Committee
To remind ourselves of established, apt meanings 'in the vernacular' :
Trump - fart, emit unpleasant hot air
Johnson - prick, cock, male member
On Sunak: "Economically, he will deliver austerity. I suspect he will keep Hunt in office. They agree on crushing public spending. Fear for the NHS, education, benefits, pensions, public sector employees and so much else. Destruction is their chosen path for public services... what there will not be is any policy to tackle the other problems we face, in addition to those Sunak will create all on his own. Covid? Forget it. Climate change? Leave it to the grandchildren. Productivity? For business to solve. And inequality? More, please, he will say... All those who look at polls now and think Labour is guaranteed 2024 are, I suggest, seriously mistaken. I don’t think so. The English like being punished by the wealthy... Sunak is a pure neoliberal. He is going to unleash its power to destroy more than any other prime minister to date. But we have an opposition too frightened to use the government’s power to create money to unleash the potential in our economy for public good."
ReplyDeleteWords I cannot disagree with from @RichardJMurphy, Economic justice campaigner. Professor of Accounting Practice, Sheffield University. Chartered accountant. Political economist. Co-founder, the Green New Deal.
I think a bit too much reading of Gross here.
ReplyDeleteLet's just recognise it's an arm of the Tories to let bojo into lead. They need a front for brexit a fool a coward the clown.
In bojo they got all they needed an idiot who appealed to the ordinary because he's scruffy and a bit reckless. He lies because he's not able. All the pathological scrutiny should just be kept for the viloently deranged.
Bojo is now lost into political oblivion and this latest attempt at nothing was to retain popularity need. Its over now and we move on. What we need is to educate properly in schools the relevance of post war Britain. The Tories want colonialism back and class structures so we doff our hats and are grateful poor. There are too many in probation actually voted for this shower and they will remain as ignorant politically as it gets.
For all those MPs worried about losing their seats. Calm down! We live in a high wage, high skilled economy, with unemployment at a historical low.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing to worry about!
Maybe they could take two years out and train to be Probation Officers!
ReplyDeleteWhat ! One lot of self obsessed importance centric busy bodies telling the less fortunate what to do is enough combine that with right wing grandiose ex Tory MPs self righteous and the npps will be truly aligned.
DeleteI realise you didn't mean probation officers for ex mps but surely MPs as senior managers.
DeleteBut the alternative is a man who was a key part of the Johnson cabinet and is so wealthy he has no idea what real life for many really is.
ReplyDeleteI’m pleased Sunak broke through the glass ceiling for British Asians, but with over £700 million in the bank how could he possible understand how anything he does will affect regular people.
Johnson, Truss, Sunak together represent a trilateral of disasters for the UK.
From Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Iain Duncan Smith tells @AndrewMarr9 show that Boris Johnson “made no plans….had no team. He kind of expected I think when he arrived that there would be at least 150 claiming him...suddenly they find themselves struggling and begging people for votes. That was demeaning.”
It shows you what we know bojo is a supreme idiot nothing more. He fails to appreciate what a mess he made and there is not many second chances in politics. His idiocy to party and throw away a 10 year premiership will haunt him for the rest of his days and I take joy from that . The other idiot truss will never be able to reflect her own incompetance. The party betrayed her she had told them.what she was doing and yet they let her do it. Her Johnson who cares he won't end up doing the head count at any conference or helping as he only thinks of himself as godly but he might start to realise his great return is just a dream after all. Sunack will eclipse all memories of Boris glad to say. Boris never learned his classics properly as he appointed the trendy young buck who stabbed in the back with a pen mightier than a sword a metaphorical Brutus.
DeleteI notice you posting on twitter a quote from the Times suggesting Braverman as Justice Sevretary appointment. Of course, some dishing out of cabinet posts to appease various factions... and:.. Justice of course, some right wing nutter cant do much more harm there, can they, and even if they did, nobody reading the Daily Fail or the Torygraph gives a F
ReplyDeleteShe's there to force staffing cuts nothing else she has no morale stable compass a nasty piece of work. The top brass in gold team will need to think about their own safety too now with braverman.
DeleteIts bloody raab again so we are had it.
DeleteNo it’s Dominic Raab back as Justice Secretary. This means NO CHANCE for Probation Officer’s getting parole report recommendations back.
DeleteWell done sunack a cabinet of the same old talentless.
ReplyDelete