UNDOUBTEDLY, Boris Johnson is an engaging newspaper columnist. And a newspaper columnist, generally speaking, has to be entertaining and often controversial. But, with that privileged role, comes a sense of responsibility.
True, that stricture may be honoured more in the breach than in the observance but, when the newspaper columnist is also an MP, quondam statesman, former government minister, and even someone mooted (however disturbingly) as a future Prime Minister, that sense of responsibility surely has to be heightened.
And it has to be exhibited by the writer him or herself. It’s their judgment as to how far they can go or how offensive they want to be. Mr Johnson stands accused of having gone too far with his comments on Islamic headdress in his latest newspaper column. While opposing a ban on the burka, the former Foreign Secretary said those who wore it looked “absolutely ridiculous”, like “letterboxes” or even (send in more similes) “bank robbers”.
Although on one level this might be seen as knockabout stuff, particularly in such over-sensitive times, it also seems calculated to cause offence. Put another way, one would have to be extraordinarily ignorant as a newspaper columnist not to realise how disrespectful it was. And Mr Johnson, for all the facade of clownishness, is far from ignorant.
So why do it? Some say it’s to boost his own profile with the far right, feeding off populist sentiment as, to quote David Lammy MP, “a poundshop Trump”, a cheap jibe itself perhaps but one that invites us to remember that Mr Johnson recently met the American President’s former Svengali, Steve Bannon.
If one still sensed more madness than method in the choice of words, the remarks might indicate a joyful sense of freedom of expression following the strictures of government. But Mr Johnson never minded these strictures anyway.
Even if merely writing for effect, he must – as a former minister with designs on a future Cabinet return – know that when he goes over the top, a hail of sniper-fire will greet him. He must also know the difficulties faced by liberals or progressives when it comes to the burka and similar strictures on women.
Islam (where burka-wearing is anyway a minority practice) cannot be ringed-fenced from criticism. But it doesn’t help in that debate to be disrespectful and abusive. Mr Johnson has never been able to decide if he’s a responsible statesman or a reckless writer. He wants to have his cake and eat it. Indeed, to quote his own more entertaining words: “My policy on cake is that I am pro-having it and pro-eating it.” Fair enough. But there’s no need to ice the cake with insults.
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