Talk:Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson is currently a Politics and government good article nominee. Nominated by Bangalamania (talk) at 16:56, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

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January 12, 2005	Articles for deletion	Kept
January 2, 2013	Good article nominee	Not listed

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Alex Hern (16 June 2014). "Boris Johnson says Uber ban in London would be 'difficult'". The Guardian. Johnson also addressed the recent ruling by the ECJ on the "right to be forgotten," saying he could see how it was "practically possible". "I am on the side, basically, of history, free speech, of people's right to know what's going on in the world, and I think there are worse things in life than to have your Wikipedia entry mildly inaccurate – as mine is, at several crucial points," he said.
Nish Kumar (5 September 2019). "The Mash Report Series 3 Episode 1". The Mash Report. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if his name wasn't even Boris Johnson... was the joke we were going to put in here, until someone checked and found out his first name isn't Boris, it's Alexander. [points to Wikipedia screenshot] My main man Xander, he's lied through the entire Brexit process. [...] I'm not even going to talk about all his lies before the referendum because, as we all know, they were ceaseless to the point of his Wikipedia page stating that he has "Five or six children".

Boris Johnson received a peer review by Wikipedia editors, which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

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The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Sylvester, Rachel (7 January 2020). "How right wing is Boris Johnson?". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
Helm, Toby (19 January 2020). "Liberal, nuanced, cautious: is this the real Boris Johnson?". the Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
Bellack, Marisa; Laurent, Olivier (22 July 2019). "Who is Boris Johnson?". Washington Post. Retrieved 25 May 2020.

Comment: These sources may be useful if expanding/updating the Political positions and ideology section

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Ewen Fergusson

This article reports that "Government passed over 171 candidates to pick Bullingdon Club ‘chum’ of Boris Johnson for sleaze watchdog role". It's also reported here and here and here, etc. etc. Is this notable? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:28, 5 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Where would it go? By itself in exclusion, probably not. There isn't a subsection in the second ministry where it would slot in, nor is there an obvious section that could be created for it – and there's WP:RECENTISM to contend with if it's added as a chronological event within his premiership (it's questionable how notable it will be in the scheme of his PMship, more likely it's just a minor scandal which will disappear in the next news cycle as people forget about it). While that's a bit of a sad reflection of the standards of public office, we're just here to follow the sources. Where I could envisage it fitting in is the reception section, as part of a sourced paragraph there detailing how allegations of "sleaze"/"cronyism"/"dishonesty" have been a consistent, notable aspect of critical coverage of his premiership/life (cronyism is already mentioned in the lead, suggesting there's due weight for this, there's also sources such as this [1]). Jr8825 • Talk 15:19, 5 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I should have guessed, really. We now already have Ben Elliot and his cash-for-access club, which has now even touched our future King?! [2]. So Mr Bullingdon Fergusson will soon be forgotten I guess. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:29, 5 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Afghanistan

Over the last month or two, we've witnessed two things: Boris Johnson (in quite a quiet, near-secretive manner at that) withdrawing the remainder of the UK military from Afghanistan ahead of the US withdrawal - and trying to back it up with the statements we now know to be false that I will come back to at the end - and the Taliban sweeping across Afghanistan in a month.

Afghanistan, as in the US, is also significant in the UK. We've been nearly as involved as they are, and although we haven't been quite as involved over the last several years as maybe the US has, Boris Johnson has been a major part of the withdrawal - and its effects - and let's be honest, it's blown up in his face nearly as badly as it blew up in President Biden's. Let me now use two of the quotes - "There is no military path to victory for the Taliban" (Boris Johnson, July), "I do not think the Taliban are capable of victory by military means" (Boris Johnson, also July). It's also important, if this section is approved, to include the criticism - particularly from the Leader of the Opposition's speech to the Commons on Wednesday 17th August, whereby he criticised PM Johnson for being "wrong and complacent", and where in particular his rather (in my opinion) vague and meagre plans for refugee housing - including 5,000 refugees that he'll send back at an undetermined point - were attacked, as well as where he stated the military's lives were "not in vain". It's very important to listen to both sides - especially when PM Johnson's side is clearly seen as wrong, including by his own MPs who were in agreement with most of his speech.

There's also been a very important development with Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson alike - their holidays at really, really, really pivotal times. Dominic Raab is still on holiday in Cyprus as I write this, unless I'm mistaken, and Boris Johnson went on holiday the day Kabul fell (and returned the following day). It doesn't need saying that this faced intense scrutiny and criticism, including the term dereliction of duty from military leaders.

This has been a major moment in Boris Johnson's premiership, and should be included in his article of his premiership. (talk) 10:49, 4 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Forvana, mischief-making by the opposition is not notable as that is predictable and not necessarily anything more then feigned indignation, so to add it would be to give it undue weight. However, if they were to support what the government were doing, that might well have due enough weight for inclusion.

That doesn't mean that robustly sourced comments by qualified expert commentators on this matter should be excluded though. -- DeFacto (talk). 11:18, 18 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 8 September 2021

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It has been proven beyond repute by Peter Stefanovic that Borris Johnson has lied to parliament and the British public repeatedly.

A short video exposing Borris Johnson's lies can be viewed on Stefanovics Twitter or YouTube pages.

Source: https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1434792759911751681?s=19 86.145.116.214 (talk) 03:23, 8 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. Please discuss if the source is reliable for inclusion - FlightTime (open channel) 03:38, 8 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Confirmed number of children

According to Sky News he has confirmed in an interview with NBC that he has six children: [3] 84.92.90.18 (talk) 13:53, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

There are currently four different sources, supporting that fact, in the infobox alone. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:24, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Should it not remain "At least 6"? The logic behind this previously being that 6 were confirmed, and there was speculation of more due to other affairs. He has now confirmed 6, but the speculation of more remains valid. Cjeam (talk) 17:36, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

From what I can see, reliable sources see this as confirmation of the number of children he has, so we should go with that Jopal22 (talk) 17:40, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

So the interviewer's question was about "six" not "only six". Johnson was hardly like to respond with "as far as I know" or "at least", was he? Martinevans123 (talk) 17:52, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I also wonder if it might be better to still say "At least 6". There are numerous sources in the article of him being accused of lying. Just because he says something doesn't mean it should be accepted as fact. At the very least, the speculation should be mentioned in an infobox note because his previous refusal to disclose a number caused a lot of press. Abbyjjjj96 (talk) 19:32, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Answering in the affirmative to the question "do you have six children" is not a direct lie if you, in fact, have more than six? You might even call it a "politician's answer". This all assumes, of course, that he actually knows. Maybe there are some paternity tests that have never been done. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:23, 21 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Plantsurfer: Regarding the disagreement over the use of conceived/fathered here. Conceive doesn't always mean to get pregnant, it can mean to "create (an embryo) by fertilizing an egg". The Independent source uses "conception" (which is a direct quote from the court case) while the Guardian source uses "conceived". "Fathered" means the pregnancy resulted in a child being born. It's possible he had an extramarital affair result in a pregnancy without a child being born. Saying he "fathered" two children from affairs is not supported by the sources. Abbyjjjj96 (talk) 01:31, 22 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Regardless of that, conceptions that failed to come to term are not notable, and obsessing about how many there were looks like prurient interest. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia, not a red-top. Plantsurfer 10:53, 22 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 22 September 2021

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Remove death and cause of death, as Boris Johnson is still alive. 82.30.230.50 (talk) 19:06, 22 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]