Thread by @StefSimanowitz

“He postpones necessary but unpalatable decisions, like a child pushing vegetables around a plate. He wants to be liked. He has no qualm about betraying people behind their backs, but he has a horror of upsetting them to their faces.” @rafaelbehr on the PM
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

2/. He loves to be upbeat

On 19/3 he said:

“We can turn the tide in 12 weeks. I’m absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing”

Earlier in the month, he boasted of shaking hands with #COVID patients

Days later, he was in hospital himself

3/. This interview shows is that the bumbling, tousled-hair comedy character, we’ve been watching for the last decade, is just that: a character

It also shows his approach to “politics & human nature”: that you can “make a good case for anything at all”.

4/. “He put on a buffoon mask to become a celebrity, and now he can’t take it off.” (John Lanchester)

“He seems to know that if we’re chuckling at him, we’re not likely to be thinking hard about his agenda, or doing anything to counter it.” (Jonathan Coe)

5/. On Valentines Day, when UK should’ve been preparing for lockdown, he went to Chevening for 12 days

“Some people in Downing St were concerned the PM just wasn’t taking a lead. We were told that aides were told to cut down documents or he just wouldn't read them.” @JCalvertST

6/. In a meeting in May, @BorisJohnson reportedly listened as the plan for lifting lockdown was outlined. At the end he asked:

"Who is in charge of implementing this delivery plan?"

SILENCE

"Is it you?" he asked @marksedwill

"Er, no. It's you PM”

Sedwill quit the next month.

7/. “He covers up crime with scandal & covers up malice with incompetence. They want to project an image of being inept, instead of as having a cruel & well-defined plan”

@sarahkendzior wrIting on the Trump admin, argues Trump’s incompetence & bluster was used to mask & distract

8/. But what might they be covering up?

This speech, made on 3 February, offers a clue

Here @BorisJohnson warns there’s a danger that #COVID19 will “trigger panic & [measures] that go beyond what’s medically rational to the point of doing real & unnecessary economic damage.”

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1250894405323628545

9/. Do “medically irrational panic measures” = lockdown?

Is he outlining the govt’s #HerdImmunity strategy?

This explains inexplicable decisions to stop community testing, delay lockdown, transfer people untested to care homes, not check ppl at airports.

10/. "PM, throughout this pandemic you seem too have frequently over promised & undelivered...Its become a pattern we've become increasingly familiar with. Why do you keep doing it & do you recognise it causes public confusion & crucially erodes public confidence?" @PippaCrerar🔥

11/. With the UK at its lowest point since WWII, he tries to laugh it off

This tactic may have worked for him all his life, but no one is laughing any longer

We KNOW he ruffled his hair just before the briefing

We KNOW he doesn’t believe what he says

It’s NOT FUNNY, ‘Boris’!