"[On Boris Johnson] Look, this is a joke but this is not a joke. Somebody has to call a halt to the gathering pretence that if only you're sufficiently comical in politics you can laugh everything off. Somebody has to remind us that it's not enough for those who seek to govern us simply to be: they have to do. Incompetence is not funny. Policy vacuum is not funny. Administrative sloth is not funny. Breaking promises is not funny. A careless disregard for the truth is not funny. Advising old mates planning to beat somebody up is not funny. Abortions and gagging orders are not funny. Creeping ambition in a jester's cap is not funny. Vacuity posing as merriment, cynicism posing as savviness, a wink and smile covering for betrayal ... these things are not funny."
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Ellipsis in the original article. The mention of "gagging orders" (original application for a privacy injunction not pursued by Johnson} refers to the Appeal Court ruling in May 2013 that the existence of a daughter (who resulted from a short extra-marital affair) could be publicly disclosed. Almost a decade earlier, another former mistress had an abortion.
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Matthew Parris
Matthew Francis Parris (born 7 August 1949) is a British political writer and broadcaster, formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1979 to 1986. He was born in South Africa to British parents.
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