Someone called King James I “the wisest fool in Christendom” because he was said to be "learned yet ridiculous, clumsy, clownish, awkward, feeble and blustering". So it is with our prime minister. I have had conversations with people, members of the Conservative party who voted for Johnson, where they told me he was 'very clever'. I do not believe this for a second and I've always been clear about it. In my opinion Johnson is a very stupid man - albeit he is fluently stupid in several languages. More proof that I am right came yesterday when he showed he didn't even understand how the tax and NI system in this country actually works.
For a 55 year old semi-sentient human being who has earned his living in this country for most of his adult life and is also First Lord of The Treasury, it really is something. He was interviewed on a visit to North Yorkshire, the subject of this report on the BBC website titled: Has Boris Johnson got National Insurance cut confused?
Earlier he had accidentally blurted out that the government intended to raise the threshold at which National Insurance contributions are paid and he told the BBC that this would put £500 "into the pockets of everybody". This was completely and obviously wrong. Later ITV interviewed the PM which the BBC report as follows:
In a separate interview with ITV News, Mr Johnson talked about the benefit from raising the threshold to £9,500 saying: "It's about £500 a year." The reporter challenged him saying: "That's not what you are guaranteeing. You are guaranteeing about £100 next year and there's an ambition for £500."
But Mr Johnson was adamant: "You are not right there. We are going to £9,500 threshold initially and then the ambition is to get to the £12,500 threshold. But the initial cut that we are making does offer a £500 cut for every working person."
The NI threshold now (the point at which you begin paying) is £166 per week or £8632 per year. Raising it to £9500 increases it by £868. Essentially you are shifting £868 out of the earnings on which NI is paid into earnings on which NI is not paid. Simple. This is how PAYE works too, everybody and his dog in the country knows this - except the prime minister apparently. The RATE of NI is 12%. Hence the increase is worth 12% of £868 or about £104.16 NOT £500. The IFS take future inflation into account and they calculate it at just £85.
Using the sort of mental arithmetic taught in junior schools in the 1950s anyone over the age of about 60 could have worked this out roughly in a flash. The expensively educated Johnson couldn't do it.
Even when the reporter pointed it out to him he pushed back, insisting that he was right and the reporter wrong, when the reverse was true.
What does this tell us about him apart from being a dim as a Toc-H lamp? I think he is a bit of a megalomaniac. He thinks because words come out of his mouth they must be true and accurate. He has delusions of divine infallibility. Most people faced with someone challenging their figures, suggesting they were out by a factor of 5, would mentally check they hadn't made a mistake. But Johnson? No, he is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and therefore cannot err.
Because he speaks like a minor Royal - even Princes William and Harry sound more Estuary English than him - people think he must be clever. It is the deferential side of the British after centuries of hearing people speak. George Bernard Shaw (an Irishman) once said, "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him." This is probably true but we certainly defer to someone with a cut-glass accent. The upper classes are people accustomed to being obeyed. They assume superiority. It is after all how we managed to rule India and other places for so long. Even the occupied thought we were born to it. You can do a lot with arrogance.
I always mistrust people like Johnson - the example I've given is a crystal clear one that doesn't even need checking but there are many times when he talks rubbish about more complicated issues that he does not understand. The Irish border is a recent example. Details are for minions. Johnson is not even a broad brush man but he is a very dangerous one simply because people think he's right.
As the election campaign hots up watch out for more gaffes. Soon they will be coming at us like snowflakes in a blizzard.
