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Boristopia

Charles EP M.

Well-known member
Published by SLP
Bought and read after the preview chapter and, uh, hooooo, the comedy sure is a lot darker as "this may now happen" bears down. Accurately getting "Gove, backstabber" and "Ummunah makes his big move and stumbles" is impressive, and so is being utterly right that Steve Moffat would still be doing Doctor Who in 2017 and ratings would be down. (Someone was not a fan of his run. And as well as me, neither's Tom Black) Hopefully "Boris wins and is there for election after election" is not an accurate one, but who knows, maybe we'll get Huntopia in 2021
 
Bought and read after the preview chapter and, uh, hooooo, the comedy sure is a lot darker as "this may now happen" bears down. Accurately getting "Gove, backstabber" and "Ummunah makes his big move and stumbles" is impressive, and so is being utterly right that Steve Moffat would still be doing Doctor Who in 2017 and ratings would be down. (Someone was not a fan of his run. And as well as me, neither's Tom Black) Hopefully "Boris wins and is there for election after election" is not an accurate one, but who knows, maybe we'll get Huntopia in 2021
Seb Coe being remotely a thing is probably the thing that dates it most. Or, arguably, the total absence of anything resembling Corbynism.
 
Her Maj is still alive (in the book she died on 1st January 2016, or 2017), the country has not been broken down and renamed the Union of Britain, we don't (yet) have a national digital database of every Briton's voice and smartphone metadata, we don't perceive the democratic process as saccharine entertainment.
 
I just reread this as part of an ebook binge on the long journey back from Melbourne to London.

I'd forgotten the quiet nastiness of the story- the rot disguised by the buffoonery. I think that's perhaps the most interesting thing about the way that it's dated, both for good and ill. Certain elements of Boris's public persona are the same as they were in 2013, and others have changed quite radically.

I think one thing that was true at the time which informs the book quite strongly was just how much Boris wanted to be liked. That old idea of 'Classic Boris!', the knowing clown winking at the public no longer quite rings precisely true.

I mean, elements of that persona remain- look at the Love, Actually ad in the campaign- but I think that one thing that the authors (and, in fairness, pretty much everyone else) failed to predict is that Johnson would quite happily embrace the hard, nativist right of the party rather than trying to circumvent them. One thing the book gets bang on the money is the role of shows like Have I Got Tired Jokes For You in normalising the man, but when it came down to it the Boris we have is perfectly happy to intimidate and attack the media rather than seek its approval.

Also, the book absolutely called that Labour was about to spend years in opposition as ineffectual, ideologically bankrupt incompetents. It just got the nature of that incompetence wrong.
 
I just reread this as part of an ebook binge on the long journey back from Melbourne to London.

I'd forgotten the quiet nastiness of the story- the rot disguised by the buffoonery. I think that's perhaps the most interesting thing about the way that it's dated, both for good and ill. Certain elements of Boris's public persona are the same as they were in 2013, and others have changed quite radically.

I think one thing that was true at the time which informs the book quite strongly was just how much Boris wanted to be liked. That old idea of 'Classic Boris!', the knowing clown winking at the public no longer quite rings precisely true.

I mean, elements of that persona remain- look at the Love, Actually ad in the campaign- but I think that one thing that the authors (and, in fairness, pretty much everyone else) failed to predict is that Johnson would quite happily embrace the hard, nativist right of the party rather than trying to circumvent them. One thing the book gets bang on the money is the role of shows like Have I Got Tired Jokes For You in normalising the man, but when it came down to it the Boris we have is perfectly happy to intimidate and attack the media rather than seek its approval.

Also, the book absolutely called that Labour was about to spend years in opposition as ineffectual, ideologically bankrupt incompetents. It just got the nature of that incompetence wrong.
Just one author on this one, @Lord Roem and I do occasionally write things separately ;)
 
In my defence, when I say 'just reread this' I mean that jetlag has given me a hangover that's normally only inflicted on city boys after a stag night in Prague.
 
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