Boris Johnson 's family has never completely escaped from insecurity. Their family was slaves for five generations, and their great-great-grandfather came from a blonde village in Anatolia Kalfat, Türkiye. This is why the Boris family has had blonde hair for generations.
Boris's great-grandfather Ali Kemal is a very story-professed man. He is a devout Turkish pro-British Muslim. He can recite the Quran skillfully from the age of 6. He lived during the Ottoman Empire and experienced a war. In 1888, 19-year-old Ali was arrested for establishing a student club and was later exiled for many years. After World War I, he formed an alliance with some British people to oppose the nationalist movement at the time under Kemal Ataturk. In May 1919, he was appointed Minister of the Interior of the Sudanese last government and was commented as a "puppet of puppet". Unfortunately, he was in the wrong team in the fierce political struggle. In 1922, Ataturk regained power. Ali was treated as a traitor and tortured with sticks, stones, and knives, and finally hanged.
(Boris's great-grandfather Ali Kemal)
This tragic story has educated generations of people from the Johnson family, including Boris, who understand very well how dangerous it is to admit the truth and confront the head-on. This is also one of the reasons why Boris rarely had openly confronted anyone in politics later, and he was more inclined to gradually weaken his opponents in a smooth and effective way.
Ali's son is Osman. His mother died of puerperal fever shortly after giving birth to him. Osman and her sister Selma had to live with their grandmother who was far away in the UK since childhood, and followed her grandmother's British surname Johnson. Based on Osman's growth experience, it is not difficult to imagine how much he longed for love and security, so he loved Britain that allowed him to have a stable life. In addition, the Turks were discriminated against in the UK at that time, so he asked others to call his more British name Johnny and deliberately concealed his Turkish descent.
1936, Osman and Irene Williams got married. The generations of Irene's family were related to French nobles. Therefore, she was very attached to the glorious past of her family and was very eager to keep the surname de Pfeffel, which symbolized her origin and from her mother, in the family. Therefore, this name was also found in Boris' full name (Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson).
She has high expectations for her son, Boris' father Stanley, and Stanley is also very ambitious and feels that she can build her own political and media empire alone. He has a cold personality and even admits that he is a little cold. When he was 8 years old, he left home to go to boarding school for the first time. At night, he heard a boy in the same room crying because he missed home. He just said calmly, "I miss my mother too, but I won't cry." Many people who have known him for decades have never even heard him mention that he has siblings.
Stanley's personality has several very obvious characteristics. Some of these characteristics were directly passed on to Boris, while others influence Boris' personality from the side. The first characteristic is that it has a high self-esteem but limited ability. In fact, Stanley is a smart student. He received the Stapledon scholarship at the age of 19 and was admitted to the Oxford University . He was very energetic and set three goals for his college career: one is to win the rugby award, the second is to become the president of the student union, and the third is to win the first place in his studies. But in fact, none of these three goals were achieved, and the only highlight of my student career was the Newdigate Award. But this did not hit Stanley's narcissistic mind at all, in his later published personal biography "Stanley I Presume?" In 》, he spent a lot of time to list in detail all the awards he won in school, high-scoring subjects, outstanding performance in sports competitions, etc.
The second characteristic is to joke regardless of occasions, or even dirty jokes. For example, when one of his elementary school classmates painfully recalled the past when he was sexually abused by the principal when he was a child, Stanley said very rashly, "He has never harassed me"; and the books he published are also full of countless pornographic jokes.Stanley himself admits that he has a little difficulty in grasping the standards in interpersonal relationships and lacks empathy and empathy.
The third feature is that it is fickle and family-conscious. In 1963, Stanley, who was only 22 years old, got married with his 21-year-old classmate Charlotte Fawcett (Boris's mother). Charlotte comes from a famous family. His father is Sir James Fawcett, and his mother Beatrice is the daughter of the outstanding paleogeologist Professor Elias Lowe. The famous feminist organization Fawcett Association was founded by the ancestors of the Fawcett family. The family has many aristocratic connections and are very enthusiastic about the human rights movement. The whole family is left-wing. Therefore, they were very surprised when they learned that Charlotte and Stanley, who supported the Conservative Party, were together.
After the two got married, Stanley won the Harkness scholarship and went to Iowa State University to study for one year. Charlotte interrupted his studies and came to the United States to accompany him and soon became pregnant. At that time, Stanley found that his winning poems in the UK had received mediocre responses in the United States, so in order to relax, he decided to take his pregnant newlywed wife to travel to Mexico. They were lucky enough to meet Stanley's classmate's father, Boris Litwin, to entertain them. To express their gratitude, Stanley promised to name Boris Boris if the child was a boy. This is the origin of Boris' name.
64 was born on June 19, 1964. Because Stanley has never liked to spend money, Charlotte gave birth to a baby is a small clinic that local poor people in New York often go to. Boris was very quiet since childhood, and until he was 8 years old, he had hearing impairment known as "gel ears". This condition can cause severe pain and infection, so Boris had to stay in bed all the time. Until now, Boris attributes the side of his personality that he likes to avoid to hearing impairment when he was a child because he was very afraid that he would say the wrong thing. It was not until the disease was completely cured in adolescence, and it was from that time that Boris's true character began to slowly emerge.
Old friends of the Johnson family are still surprised by Boris' public image, because in their memory, the teenage Boris was a very quiet, studious and hardworking boy, and he could not see any ambition at all. In the eyes of others, he was a serious boy who liked to be alone at that time.
Back to Stanley, he often was not at home after marriage. In 1965, he and Charlotte left Oxford. After several twists and turns, Stanley entered the World Bank to work. After Charlotte worked hard alone, he worked hard to sort, pack and move. This young family, who had been struggling, finally settled in Washington smoothly. With their first house, they also began to make friends with their own social circles in Washington, including the famous BBC reporter Charles Wheeler (a foreshadowing here, who later played an important role in Boris' life).
(Charles Wheeler)
But this kind of calm life that Charlotte yearns for has not passed for a few years. On April 1, 1968, Stanley made a very exaggerated April Fools' Day joke: He submitted a formal application of $100 million to his boss, hoping to invest the loan in the construction of three new pyramids and a Sphinx. His then-boss, Robert McNamara, obviously didn't think the joke was funny and fired Stanley.
Although Stanley soon found a new job, the family had to move again because of his job location in New York. The situation in the United States was turbulent at that time. Celebrities such as Martin Luther King, John Kennedy , Robert Kennedy and other celebrities were assassinated one after another, which made Charlotte, who needed to take care of his children, very uneasy, but Stanley had no intention of understanding his wife at all. His new job - the project director with a small national population control policy - allowed him to travel 35,000 miles in a year, which completely satisfied his playful personality. A year later, the work report was completed, and in the summer of 1969, the family finally returned to the UK.
Johnson's family focuses on art and literature for their children, and TV is hardly allowed to watch it. Boris had a bit of painting talent when he was young and still loves painting. Stanley has strong expectations for the children, which also makes several brothers and sisters compete. For example, Boris is still worried about his younger sister Rachel's ability to read earlier than he did. But this competition did not affect their relationship, because they had been moving in their early years, and it was really difficult for them to make other friends except for their siblings. At that time, Boris developed a habit of keeping a certain distance from his same sex: he was only close to women, always a little politely alienated from men, and had no special loyal friends.
Because of work, Johnson's family moved again in 1973 and arrived in Brussels. The Charles Wheeler family mentioned above, which was also there, which allowed Boris to "recontinue his relationship" with Charles' daughter, the quiet and straightforward Marina Wheeler, whom he met as a child. They were in the same school and Marina was not interested in Boris, but Boris worked very hard to attract Marina.
During the entire marriage between Stanley and Charlotte, Stanley cheated countless times and basically ignored his family. Charlotte suffered tremendous mental pressure as a result. In 1974, he collapsed to hospital. Until 1979, Charlotte, who could not bear it, finally divorced. During this period, Stanley sent Boris and his sister Rachel to boarding school without Charlotte's permission. The two adolescent children grew up in an environment where they lack maternal love and had to rely on unreliable fathers. Boris also became the emotional pillar of his mother, which made him become a man who was particularly good at listening to women's worries (ironically, although he witnessed his mother suffering during his growth, Boris repeated his father's old path when he grew up).
Not only is the mess in the family, Boris was bullied at school because of his Turkish descent. All of this strong sense of insecurity made him form a unique self-protection system: he is unkempt on the outside, but in fact he is well-read and very diligent, and his grades in Greek and Latin far exceed those of his peers. Boris received a King's Scholarship at Aston Preparatory Boarding School and was able to enter Eton School, the most famous aristocratic middle school in the UK.
Eaton is the top aristocratic middle school in the UK, and most of the students are the descendants of the top powerful people in the UK. Here, Boris received standard elite baptism. His eagerness to learn far exceeded that of other classmates, but he did not have top subjects and was closer to a generalist. His teacher David Guilford said: "Although he had taught hundreds of very smart students in Eaton, Boris is still one of the best. I also taught Cameron (i.e., former British Prime Minister David Cameron), but I had no impression of him at that time. (compared to Boris) Cameron is a more orderly student."
Boris's "personality" was also gradually formed at this stage. He was a sensible figure in school: although he was very unruly on the outside, as a high IQ student, his funny behavior did not attract ridicule from his classmates, but instead made others laugh with him. Since then, he has learned to use humor and self-deprecating to cover up his ambitions. He was also keenly aware that if he wanted to make a name for himself, he could not be a rebel, so he actively learned and integrated into all Eaton's traditions, and in the process inspired an elite consciousness in himself trying to lead others.
(Boris in the Eaton era)
But as mentioned in the previous article, although he is popular, he keeps a certain distance from everyone and is not particularly familiar with anyone. He has only two close friends: Charles Spencer (Princess Diana's younger brother) and Darius Guppy. Because of their close relationship, the three are called the Iron Triangle.
(left: Darius Guppy, right: Charles Spencer)
Boris' interest in journalism was also revealed during this period. He won the editorial work of the school newspaper "Chronicle". His personal charm and intelligence were shown through this position, and thus improved his status in his circle and formed connections with his aristocratic classmates who came from far beyond his background.
1981, Boris joined Eaton's POP club. This club is a private club that is only open to Eaton's top and most popular group of people. Usually only the richest, smartest or most popular people can join, and the school does not interfere with the specific operation of the club. In order to join this club, Boris only deals with the top students from the school. But the more valuable aspect of Boris's character is that although he worked hard to manage aristocratic connections in order to enter the core circle, he would also be friendly to other ordinary classmates. For example, he could treat and get along with black classmates who were very rare at that time, and he did not have the condescending attitude of the white elites in that era to outsiders.
(Boris is Boris at the far right)
Another important achievement that Boris completed in Eaton was to join the debate club and become the president. Emma Jenks, who had debated with him at the time, said: "At that time, we all prepared the speech in advance. Only Boris wrote it on the spot and wrote it very well, but I'm not sure if he was really not prepared or just pretending not prepared. I prefer the latter."
's overall performance of Boris during the Eaton period can be learned from some bystanders' evaluations. Sir Brian Jenks, the father of Emma Jenks mentioned in the previous paragraph, predicted that Boris would become the British Prime Minister in the future because he had extraordinary appeal. Tim Connor, a historian who has served as a judge in a Boris debate competition, believes that Boris' debate style is relaxed and witty and likes to denounce the opponent's debaters. Sir Eric Anderson said Boris was undoubtedly the most interesting student he had ever taught at Eaton, and said that no one would forget him if he had been with Boris for an hour. But some people say that although Boris is very charming, his personality is superficial and he cannot handle serious matters.
Later, Boris was admitted to with a full scholarship to study classical literature with a full scholarship. During the interval year (meaning a one-year trip/internship and other social practice before formally enrolling in school), he chose to teach English and Latin at the top private school in Australia, rather than teaching in backward areas such as Africa like other classmates. This choice is very characteristic of the Johnson family's value orientation.
(Geelong Grammer School)
When he arrived in Oxford, Boris was still like a fish in water. He continued the humorous, funny and unkempt character of the Eaton era, and was also a sensation among a group of classmates from the upper class. Oxford students have always been instilled with the idea of becoming leaders and superiors, and they are all very sure that they will become celebrities or rulers (in fact, it is true). Boris's list of classmates includes former British Prime Minister David Cameron, and even Boris himself recalls it with joy and pride. Many of these Oxford students were also Boris's classmates at Eaton, and they established an indestructible internal circle. The iron triangle circle established by Boris during the Eaton period continued to Oxford. Mark Carnegie, who competed with Boris for Oxford University's debate committee chairman, said Boris was very closed and did not open up to anyone except the Iron Triangle.
Just like when Eaton was in school, Boris also joined a famous elite club in Oxford - Brington Club . The members are either rich or noble, and the main activity is very indulgent play and play.Many people who attended the Brington Club at the same time as Boris said that Boris did not often appear in the club's indulgent club activities because he did not like the feeling of losing control after drinking and almost didn't smoke.
When Boris was in college, he talked about his first formal girlfriend: Allegra Mostyn-Owen, a nobleman. Allegra is a famous beauty in the school. She has appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine. She has many suitors and is very popular. Most students are very nervous and restrained when they get along with Allegra, but Boris is very relaxed and does not hesitate to write to her that she reminds him of his mother. After a period of ambiguous period, Boris issued an ultimatum: If Allegra doesn't date him, they won't even have friends in the future. The two then formally determined their relationship, and Boris proposed to her, but was seen through by the experienced woman's father Willie at first sight. He said that Boris was too greedy and his untidy appearance was also deliberately made.
(Allegra Mostyn-Owen)
Boris' interest in the debate club has also continued to Oxford. He has run twice for the chairman of the famous debate club in Oxford. In his first election, he lacked experience and did not cast a wide net like other candidates. Instead, he focused his efforts to win over the elites in the old Eaton network, and there was no technical content in terms of means. Boris lost without any suspense, but this also taught him an important lesson: no one can succeed by relying solely on himself in politics. It is far from enough to rely on Eaton's connections alone. He must create a loud personal brand image.
The second campaign has become smart. He downplayed his personal political stance, highlighted his humorous personality, and was not stingy with self-deprecating his appearance. In order to downplay his old Eton's elite aura, he showed his appearance of being alienated from old friends such as Darius Guppy. Although he still looks like a joke, Boris is very professional this time. He even formed a professional team. Team leader Anthony Frieze said they extended their tentacles to many places that were not considered before the university club campaign. Since the debate clubs do not allow open campaigns, they secretly made a lot of preparations and made a list of countless voters to win over, completely surpassing the level of ordinary campus campaigns. The efforts paid off. On November 28, 1985, Boris's campaign speech received rave reviews and finally won the election with a score of 809 to 466.
After becoming the chairman of the Oxford Debate, the couple he and Allegra became more famous and were nicknamed the "beauty and beast" combination. The chairman of the debate club has always been very popular among girls, and Boris is no exception. He has a lot of female fans and a large number of girls take the initiative to throw themselves into their arms. However, his performance after becoming the chairman of the debate club has mixed opinions. Some people think that he always avoids many things carefully and has no principles, and many people have seen through the essence of his shrewd heart with his messy appearance.
(Boris and Allegra Mostyn-Owen)
Like his father Stanley, Boris has set three goals for his college life: one is to become the chairman of the debate club, the second is to find a wife, and the third is to be the best in his studies. The first one is achieved, and the second one is basically a chance, but the third goal is far away. First, this cannot be achieved by intelligence alone, and requires great concentration and hard work. Second, he is biased towards subjects, has good grades in classical literature and philosophy, and has relatively ordinary grades in other subjects. The teachers' evaluation of him was also polarized, either like him very much or dislike him very much.
1987 Boris graduated from Oxford, and in the same year he and Allegra held a wedding. The era when Boris graduated coincided with the rise of management consulting companies, which attracted a large number of graduates from prestigious universities with high salaries, and in comparison, civil servants seemed outdated. Boris also joined the wave of the times and found a job at LEK consulting company with an annual salary of £18,000.But not long after, Boris found that he was not suitable for work as a consultant, so he became an intern at the Times at the end of 1987 based on the connections accumulated by the school and his mother's background. The first task after joining the company is to go on a business trip to Wolverhampton to wait for three months to complete a special interview. At that time, Allegra was also in a period of career transformation and was preparing to get the litigation lawyer qualification. This long-term separation has made their already unstable young marriage even worse.
Boris's work experience in the Times is really hard to say, and his casual appearance did not leave a good impression on the leaders. It is very depressing for people like Boris who are used to being a striking figure in school for a long time. Perhaps in order to break this lifeless situation, once when writing an article related to Edward II, in order to increase viewability, Boris added a very sensational description in the article and quoted a passage from Boris' godfather, Colin Lucas, Ph.D., who in fact, Lucas did not say this passage. Lucas was naturally very angry after knowing this because it seriously affected his professionalism as a scholar. Boris' newspaper leaders learned about the situation and decided to fire Boris.
Later Boris found a new job in " Daily Telegraph ". The atmosphere of this newspaper is more suitable for Boris, who can tolerate a smart weirdo like him. His colleague Quentin Lets commented on Boris: "Although he was not well-known when he came, he was not interested in socializing with others. He worked extremely hard and looked at the world differently from regular journalists. He was not a journalist by nature, and he always tried to find opportunities to participate in public affairs."
After more than a year of ordinary life, Boris' career ushered in a turning point. A vacancies appeared in the Brussels branch of the Daily Telegraph. Boris actively fought for this opportunity and went to Brussels in March 1989. The significance of this job opportunity needs to be combined with the background of the times: in 1988, Mrs. Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, delivered a speech on Bruges. At the end of 1989, the Berlin Wall was pushed down. These world-class events made European and European affairs the focus of the world's attention. As a journalist, Boris' choice was equivalent to landing himself in a perfect storm center.
Facts proved that Boris bet right. Within a few years after coming to Brussels, he created a brand new model of writing and was followed by other media. He is humorous in writing and is good at expressing his position that he could not have been put on the table in a funny way. For example, he would write "The Italian rubber industry violated the EU principle because the condoms made are too small."
Boris's true genius is that he is keenly aware that he must sing the opposite tune with mainstream views to become famous. So he became a famous Eurosceptic, a view that was rare at that time, but it became the mainstream view about five years later, and Boris became the only media person who resonated emotionally among the people through this position. Boris likens this situation to the stock market: "This is a free market, so there will always be people who will sing opposites to the public and be ready to buy at a low price (support a different view). If someone can seize this opportunity and provide other stocks (providing different views from the mainstream), then a trigger point will appear. Suddenly everyone will start buying this stock (support this view) instead of selling stocks."
After work, his "unruly" appearance and personality are the same as before, and have not changed at all. He would hide his strength, never show his clever side, and would deliberately imitate his poor French accent to make everyone laugh, but in fact he spoke very well in French.In Brussels, where everyone is well-dressed, he wears dirty clothes without hesitation.
Boris will also criticize political leaders like other media people, but he is by no means a sloppy young man who attacks others casually. Those criticized by him are carefully considered and screened. For example, at that time, he had long criticized Douglas Hurd, then the British Foreign Minister, which made Hurd unbearable, saying that every time he read the article written by Boris, he felt that he was throwing grenades at him. Hurd also set up a "Boris Department" in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study how to refute Boris' critical remarks. At that time, an official called Boris angrily and asked him why he wrote these words. Boris vaguely perfunctorily said that those were just his personal opinions.
(Douglas Hurd)
but the form is stronger than that of humans. Despite the controversy, Boris’ luck is that his career has evolved with the development of the EU. In 1990, with Mrs. Thatcher's step down, the issue of European integration became more acute. Brussels, the headquarters of the EU, was stationed by major media for a long time. However, even among this group of people, Boris was still the "king of the opposite tune". Taking advantage of this east wind, he became a household name, and the influence and weight of the article became increasingly heavy.
But there are also some people who have seen his problems. Sir Richard Stagg, who was then the press secretary of the British government, said that the biggest difference between Boris and other media people is that his articles are not objective and are full of his own judgment and political purposes; Hurd and Charles Gran mentioned above both believe that Boris is actually a pro-European in his bones, and Peter Guilford believes that Boris' writing articles in this way can not only improve recognition, but also pave the way for his future career. Of course, Boris is not a fuel-efficient lamp. David Gardner of the Financial Times once published an article criticizing a new EU policy. Boris was very angry when he saw it, so he frantically sent an email to Gardner's office until the fax machine was out of paper.
(David Gardner)
that time Boris's most explosive article was written in May 1992. At that time, the European Foreign Ministers' Meeting was held in Guimaraes, Portugal. Some member states needed to vote on the Maastricht Treaty under discussion. Denmark's vote was crucial, so it was necessary to vote in Denmark's domestic referendum. At this time, Boris wrote an article titled "Delor Plans to Rule Europe", saying that the then President of the European Community, Jacques Delor decided to abolish the rotating system of the EU presidency and instead concentrate power in Brussels. The report was exploited by the Denmark's domestic parties and promoted it vigorously in Denmark. In the end, Denmark voted against the Maastricht Treaty under pressure. Boris's behavior caused a lot of controversy without surprise, and even some of his supporters turned against him, but it was obvious that Boris himself did not think so: until ten years later, when Boris talked about the matter, he was still very proud.
("Delor Plan to Rule Europe")
work smoothly, but the cracks in family life can no longer be concealed. At that time, Boris and Allegra's marriage had reached an unsustainable point. Boris was addicted to work and was unwilling to take care of his family. Sometimes Allegra even needed to call Boris' newspaper to know where he was. In October 1990, Allegra, who could not bear it, returned to London alone with her luggage and separated from Boris for two years. Boris, who was unwilling to be lonely, and Marina Wheeler, who was also working in Brussels at the time, rekindled his old love.
Marina graduated from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. After graduation, she became a lawyer. She has a firm will, a successful career, and is very strong inside. She is completely different from Allegra, who is sensitive.Under Boris' crazy pursuit, Marina also agreed to be with Boris. This three-person relationship completely annoyed Allegra, who moved all her belongings from her home in Brussels in early 1992. In October 1992, Marina and Boris got engaged and became pregnant with his child. In April 1993, Boris completed the divorce procedures, and in May, he and Marina held a wedding. On June 12, Marina gave birth to her and Boris' first child, Lara.
(This suffocating timeline...)
(The girl in pink in the middle is Boris's big baby Lara)
1994, Boris left Brussels with various controversies and returned to his hometown in London. He and Marina settled in north London, and the family was managed in an orderly manner by Marina. In 1995, 1997 and 1999, they had their own three other children, namely Milo, Cassia, and Theodore. Readers who have read this series of articles can probably guess that in Boris's macho style, of course he will not take care of his children. Marina and the nanny take care of all the housework. Not only does Boris not help, he also blamed Marina because his socks are not worthy of it. The only thing he and his wife have in common in education is that compared with other parents in the elite class, they will not demand their children in order to realize their ambitions. Boris even looks down on parents who like to force their children. But Boris is very strict in two things: first, he requires children to be independent and motivated; second, he strictly prohibits children from playing any form of electronic games, and he believes that electronic games are the most serious drugs.
(Boris's second-ware Milo)
(Boris's third-ware Cassia)
(Boris's four-ware Theodore)
probably was taken care of by his wife so well that Boris lacked the ability to live outside. There is an anecdote to support it: Boris wrote a column for GQ magazine for a while, and Dylan Jones, the editor he contacted at the time, said that the magazine paid him the highest money in history, because in addition to the royalties, there were also fines for Boris to park cars everywhere. Boris said that the tickets were as numerous as snowflakes. Of course, Boris himself was unwilling to pay for this payment, so GQ magazine "payed".
(Dylan Jones)
Back to Boris's work. After returning to the UK, he still worked for the Daily Telegraph, and became an assistant editor-in-chief and chief political columnist at the age of only 30. Although he was promoted, the difficulties he faced did not decrease: as a political journalist, Boris lacked a real political stance. Every time he was forced to make a statement, it was always a cliché of anti-Europeanism and anti-death penalty, which made him very afraid that the outside world would be considered as a waste of his skills. John Major, then British Prime Minister, also felt unhappy when Boris said that his article was to fan the flames within the Conservative Party and caused internal strife. Even before Boris returned to London in 1993, Major had prevented him from running for the European Parliament.
(John Major)
However, all these inner anxiety did not change Boris' style of writing at all. His controversial remarks have increased and he does not take "political correctness" seriously at all. He wrote in an article published on June 25, 1997 that "the niggers from the hot Mato Grosso put the British in a dilemma", and later said that "the Queen of England fell in love with the Commonwealth because it allowed her to often enjoy the cheers of a group of niggers who were waving flags and shouting". His evaluation of women and feminism is also negative, saying, "We live in an era of feminism, we live in an era where we can win votes by pretending to be pitiful in public." But if you waver about your own views, Boris' attitude can also be reversed at any time. For example, he praised , Jr. in 2001, and in 2004, he said that Bush's ability to express his opinions on certain issues is not as good as his seven-year-old child.
1995, Boris encountered the worst crisis in his entire media career. Back in 1990, Darius Guppy, a close friend of Boris's school days mentioned in the second article in this series, was investigated by Stuart Collier, a reporter from the World News for suspected insurance fraud. The worried Guppy found Boris, hoping that he could provide Collier's home address and claiming to find someone to beat him up. Boris agreed to provide the address, but was afraid that things would make a big deal and would get himself involved, so he kept repeatedly confirming whether Guppy would beat people too hard. In 1993, Guppy was eventually sentenced to five years in prison. This matter was not exposed until June 1995, and the whistleblower was Peter Risdon, a partner who cheated insurance with Guppy. After the incident was exposed, Boris clarified that he did not provide the address at the time and had a long talk with his boss Max Hastings. The outside world is unknown what he talked about, but in the end Hastings unexpectedly did not fire Boris, but just condemned him. The image of "clown" that Boris has created for many years also played a role in the public relations of late crisis. After all, it is really difficult for people to associate such a person who likes to make jokes with the image of premeditated fights. Although that period was difficult, Boris finally landed smoothly.
As early as 1993, when Boris was still in Brussels, he had the idea of entering politics and expressed his desire to participate in the 1994 European Parliament elections as a Conservative candidate, but it failed to achieve it because he offended John Major, then the British Prime Minister. He later shifted his goal and instead obtained a seat in the House of Commons.
(John Major)
1997, Boris's thoughts in politics were active again. After many attempts, he was eventually elected as a candidate for the South Kvid Party for the North Wales Labour Party’s safety seat, but in the 1997 general election, he lost to the Labour candidate with a large score of 9091 to 22,901. Boris' political career started with a bumpy start. His boss Max Hastings at the time was not optimistic about his political career. He thought that although he was smart, he had a funny personality and was not suitable to be a politician.
Nick Robinson once asked Boris privately why he was so prosperous as a reporter, but he was still so persistent in politics. Boris's answer is: When a reporter, he cannot change any status quo, and only those in parliament can make changes. So the unsuccessful election result did not change his mind, but with Boris' sleek character, he did not hang on a tree. In July 1999, he was appointed editor-in-chief of Observer, and the promotion of his leader Conrad Black made the appointment precisely because Boris promised to give up his idea of becoming a political leader.
(Conrad Black)
but in fact Boris did not change his mind at all: in May 2001, he was elected as a Conservative MP in the constituency of Henry on the Thames and officially entered the British political arena. This incident made Conrad Black angry and angrily accused Boris of being a speechless liar. Boris, who has a soft figure, apologized to Conrad in various ways, hoping to play both the media and political circles. Conrad finally agreed to the idea considering that Boris would also help newspaper exposure if he was a politician. The newspaper equipped him with two assistants, Stuart Reid and Ann Sindall, to help him manage all the work chores so that he can focus on his work.
Boris's former member of Henry Town Councillor Michael Heseltine is respected and in a strong contrast to Boris' usual public image. Therefore, when Boris first took office, he once caused a huge rebound in public opinion. Many people resigned and expressed their dissatisfaction, and also attracted some accusations about the shady election. BBC reporter Anna Ford commented: "How can a person like Boris be a good MP? He can't even take good care of himself." In addition, Boris' multiple identities as a MP, editor-in-chief, and columnist have also aroused dissatisfaction among his colleagues, after all, there are conflicts of interest in these tasks.In order to calm the public anger, Boris said in an interview in October 2001 that he had lowered his salary in Observer to offset his reduced hours of work, but his boss Dan Colson unceremoniously said: "I don't remember giving him any salary cuts. He always cried poor and was good at bargaining."
Boris's workload was very large. His then secretary Melissa Crawshay-Williams said that he had to handle at least 200 emails and 200 letters a day, which was far higher than others. It can be seen that Boris himself needs to handle. Because of his age and work pressure, Boris began to gain weight at that time. For the sake of health, he developed the habit of jogging and riding a bicycle, and made full use of these exercises, which became his way to shape his public image. He had to wear fancy shorts for reporters to take pictures every time he ran.
However, Boris' first term as a member of parliament had no highlights, ranking 525 in 659 members. Boris, who was indifferent, spent a lot of time on his side job outside of political work, and also published this book in 2002. This state of not being devoted to work has aroused other MPs, and their dissatisfaction with Boris reached its peak in March 2002: In one of his speeches, Labour MP Eleanor Hards threw a baguette into Boris' face. This incident sounded a wake-up call for Boris, who began to work harder to please the media and voters selected by Henry Town, and also specially opened a new column to please them. To facilitate work, he bought a house in Henry Town for £650,000 and moved his family over. It sounds like the family is united, but in fact, Boris's wife Marina doesn't like Henry Town at all, and her and Boris' political stance have always been different. As a successful lawyer, she had no interest in becoming a politician's appendage and rarely accompanied Boris to public events. Marina's uncompromising annoyed Boris.
Boris's first minor climax in his political career began in 2003. On October 29 that year, Michael Howard became the new party leader, which was not a good thing for Boris, because he wrote an article in "Observer" to scold Howard, who was then the Secretary of the Interior. However, after being promoted, Howard did not grudges and instead promoted Boris to the vice chairman of the Conservative Party. He also praised Boris as a valuable asset of the parliament and the Conservative Party. He opposed the opposition and reused Boris, and further promoted Boris to the shadow minister in the reorganization in May 2004. Boris himself was flattered and was surprised by this series of appointments in an interview.
(Michael Howard)
In the "Black-bellied Clown" series, the author mentions the character that Boris has gradually formed since his student days, and this character has become even more serious after Boris began his political career. Julie Kirkbride, who had briefly served as Boris' superior at the time, said Boris arranged everything in private in an orderly manner, was very smart, and had a strong sense of purpose. His unkempt appearance was just a smoke bomb that made outsiders relax their guard. Andy McSmith said that Boris had given word-of-mouth answers to two reporters' interview questions on similar content, which showed that his external behavior was rehearsed and prepared.
Almost all mentions his several extramarital affairs in the articles describing Boris on the Chinese Internet. This article no longer lists the names of mistresses, fourths and younger N. Boris' marriage model, which has the red flag and the colorful flags fluttering, was formed during this period. One of Boris's most famous extramarital affair partners was Petronella Wyatt, a famous socialite in London at that time. Petronella is from a wealthy family and has her own Dior skirt when she was three years old. When David Cameron (formerly British Prime Minister) was still married, the two of them were still married. Petronella's private life style is "bold". After entering the media circle, she has no shyness about the various people she comes into contact with at work. Denis Healey, a former British Defense Secretary who had been interviewed by her, even said directly after the interview, "I'm sorry I don't have time to play rumpy-pumpy with you this time."
Before Boris became the editor-in-chief of "Observer", Petronella served as deputy editor-in-chief of Frank Johnson, who was fired by the newspaper after Boris took office, but Boris opened a column for her as compensation. Not long after, the two got online, and their relationship became an open secret. " Daily Mail " also hinted in the article. After a long time, Petronella wanted to "turn a regular", but Boris did not agree. The relationship between the two lasted for 4 years. Marina knew it very well, but she only thought it was an insignificant episode. Petronella didn't think about ending this underground relationship. She also had an American lawyer boyfriend in the middle, but in the end she found that she was the happiest to be with Boris, so the underground relationship lasted.
Petronella has aborted Boris twice, and it was during the second abortion. It was October 18, 2004. Petronella's baby in her belly was 7 months old. She decided to abort, but Boris's idea kept changing: he said he could pay to raise the child, but he refused to admit that he was the father of the child. After the abortion, he finally didn't pay even the abortion fee of £1,500 because he felt it was too expensive.
2 weeks later, on November 7, 2004, media such as the Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express broke up this incident, and later several media followed up. Boris denied this matter very fiercely, and his mother-in-law also helped protect his son-in-law. Relevant persons in the parliament asked Boris to resign from the relevant position in the parliament, but Boris firmly disagreed. After all, he supported Clinton in the "zipper door" incident that year, so he didn't think it was a big deal at all, and even felt that he was just framed by his jealous colleagues. But because of the bad external influence, Michael Howard still dismissed him.
The two female protagonists in this extramarital affair reacted very differently: Petronalla was hit hard, and her mother even claimed that the Observer newspaper ruined her daughter's life; and Marina acted calmly in public. Although there were media people who mocked her that she was "dribbing the ball and getting on the position" back then and now she has suffered retribution, she acted as if nothing had happened. Marina is actually not as bitter and revenge as many Chinese media describes. She herself has had some gossips with actor Neil Pearson.
This sensational extramarital affair was even adapted into the title "Who's the daddy?" 》's stage play, the theater is just one mile from Boris's house. Boris' eldest daughter passes there every day when she goes to school and after school, and she feels troubled by her classmates asking about her father's extramarital affair every day.
And Boris' extramarital affair is just a prelude to the entire Observer serial sex scandal. After that, Rachel Royce, a member of the employee, revealed that when his ex-husband Liddle was working in "Observer", the newspaper especially liked to hold notorious parties, allowing a group of powerful middle-aged men to live in the same room with many young girls. The young girls Boris looked for include Ruzwana Bashir, the chairman of the Oxford Debate Club who was only 20 years old at the time. In addition, the extramarital affair between "Observer" publisher Kimberly Fortier and Home Secretary David Blunkett, which caused heated discussions in August 2004, the private life of "Observer" became the focus of attention in the entire UK. People named the newspaper "Sextator". Even the American magazine "Vanity Fair" on the other side was amazed by this situation, satirizing the chaos in the private life style of the British media circle and politics.
(Ruzwana Bashir)
, who fell to the trough, did not give up his yearning for politics. In May 2005, he was re-elected as a member of the Henry Town and returned to the battlefield. In addition, he saw the potential of his 38-year-old classmate David Cameron, and fully supported Cameron's campaign for Conservative Party leader at the time, and praised him in various articles.Although Cameron didn't seem to have a great chance of winning at the beginning and there were many ups and downs in the campaign, Boris bets on Cameron's hope of becoming a former member. Not only that, in order to show his determination to Cameron, he also firmly took the lead and expressed his opinion in various TV program interviews.
Boris won the bet. In 2005, Cameron became the leader of the Conservative Party, and Boris became the Minister of Education of the Conservative Party's Shadow Cabinet, and resigned from the position of editor-in-chief of "Observer" in December of the same year.
, who was unwilling to give up, not only expressed his loyalty to his old classmate Cameron, but also began to participate in the production of academic-oriented TV programs for the sake of restoring the public image. In 2006, he collaborated with director David Jeffcock to shoot the documentary "The Dream of Rome", in which David Jeffcock was responsible for the main writing work, and what Boris needed to do was to polish the content of the manuscript into Boris' style and show it to the audience.
But there have also been bad news in the process of making this documentary. The documentary was produced by Charles Brand's company Tiger Aspect. Boris secretly asked David Jeffcock to start a new production company to produce derivative works of the "The Dream of Rome" series, so that Boris can make more money. Charles Brand is certainly furious. Perhaps because of guilt, Boris, who rarely paid for it, took the initiative to invite Charles Brand to an Indian restaurant for dinner, and said bluntly that he did this because he was not sure about his political career, so he had to make more money by working on the TV station. Charles Brand later recalled that Boris's candidness left him speechless, but the two inevitably broke up since then.
The TV production company founded by Boris and David Jeffcock is called Finland Station, and later it has produced a series of programs with little influence. Boris was indeed short of money during that period in 2006. He and the Daily Telegraph took the initiative to increase his column price from £200,000 to £250,000 per year. In order to increase the reading volume of his articles, he liked to be a title party and wrote some things such as "Why is David Cameron a cunt?" 》 like titles to attract attention.
After unremitting efforts, he made a lot of money by writing columns, publishing books, making speeches, and doing TV programs, which also improved his public image, which had fallen to the bottom before. But the good times didn't last long. On April 2, 2006, Boris was caught by the media again with evidence of his marriage cheating. News of the World reported the entire process of his and 29-year-old Anna Fazackerley's tryst as a front page headline. Shortly after the incident broke out, Boris went to China on a business trip on his job and escaped. He felt sorry for Boris's wife Marina, who was surrounded by the media and intercepted her. She was so angry that she changed her wedding ring from her ring finger to her middle finger. The life of her new lover Anna Fazackerley was also turned upside down. She was fired by the company and blacklisted by the media industry and could not find a new job. To compensate Anna, Boris set up an advisory agency, Agora, and hired Anna as her only employee, giving her an annual salary of £27,250 a year.
Boris is so easy to attract media attention, in addition to his private life, it is also closely related to his exterior style that never knows how to restrain himself. For example, in September 2006, the famous British gourmet Jamie Oliver tried to promote his healthy lunch package in the UK, but was opposed by parents, who delivered lunch to their children through the school fence. In this case, Conservative leader Cameron just expressed his support for Jamie Oliver in a normal manner; on the other hand, Boris publicly opposed it fiercely: "Let the children eat what they want! Why can't parents deliver food to their children? If I were the manager, I'll let Oliver get out!" This clear-cut argument can win the hearts of parents in that situation, and Boris is born to be good at this.
As the influence expands, Boris also has new career ambitions.Since March 2007, he has discussed with several close friends the possibility of becoming mayor of London, and has explicitly hinted through various channels that Cameron has chosen him as the mayoral candidate for the Conservative Party. But I don’t know what Cameron has always ignored Boris for his mentality. Many of the candidates he considered ended in vain and had not decided on the right candidate until the middle of the year.
and Boris' situation is much trouble. In February 2007, a lump was found in Boris' neck. By June, it had worsened to the point where he needed half a year of treatment. He had no choice but to call Cameron and said he was going to withdraw from the July campaign. But these are just Boris's strategies, and he doesn't want Cameron to feel that he is too anxious and ambitious. Seeing that the last "spare tire" was almost gone, Cameron, who was desperate, had to decide to make Boris a candidate for London mayoral election for the Conservative Party.
Boris's campaign opponent is Ken Livingstone, a 62-year-old political player, who is considered to be the only successful left-wing politician in modern Britain. To undermine Boris' favorability among the people, Ken's team focused on criticizing Boris's past racial discourse, saying that people like Boris cannot become leaders of a multicultural city like London.
(Ken Livingstone)
However, even if Ken's team did not do any attacks, the public was generally not optimistic about Boris at that time. But Boris himself seemed to be unhappy. He even ran his side business when he was running for mayor of London: he filmed three different TV shows in six different countries, including "Have I got news for you", and he never stopped the column of the Daily Telegraph, and he promoted his poetry collection "The Perils of the Pushy Parents".
Boris's campaign team is also very young. The person in charge when it was first formed was Dan Ritterband, who was only 32 years old. Boris's original assistant Rachel Wolf was also pulled over to help, and there were also young people in their early twenties, Tom Dyke, Alex Crowley, etc. Although these people are excellent among their peers, they have no experience in such an important campaign. In the eyes of many people, these children are no match for dealing with political veterans like Ken.
(Dan Ritterband)
This young team has indeed made many mistakes and often releases information to the outside world without strategy. Boris in desperation brought Chris Cook to help, but after learning about the team's operation, Cook felt a mess and had no idea how to start.
At the critical moment, it was Boris's old classmate Cameron who played an important role. Cameron gave Borisla the "God of Wealth" Lord Jonathan Marland, who is very proficient in political fundraising and plans to raise £1.5 million for Boris' campaign. It is through these funds that have attracted more talents for Boris' team, the most important of which is Lynton Crosby. This person helped John Howard win the position of Australian Prime Minister.
(Lord Jonathan Marland)
Crosby's arrival has brought Boris' team operation level to several levels. He warned Boris from the beginning to be cheered up, that campaigning is a difficult job, requiring strict self-discipline, and especially to keep his private life clean, and “threatening” Boris said that if he loses, he will be crucified. "God of Wealth" Marland told Boris straightforwardly: "If you let us down, we will smash your knees!" It was the addition of these two strong and tough characters that made Boris really start to devote every minute of the campaign, and his media contact was strictly controlled.
(Lynton Crosby)
By observing the reactions of the people to Boris, Crosby was very keenly aware that Boris' competitors underestimated his personal charm: they either regarded Boris as a clown or as a black-bellied elite, but did not form an accurate and comprehensive understanding of him. Moreover, the more Ken's team portrays Boris like a fool, the more Boris wins the people's hearts, because as the old British saying goes, the British people like the underdog the most, especially the weak with self-deprecating wisdom. Crosby believes that the more the media mocks Boris, the more beneficial it is to him.
In short, after Crosby's careful trading, Boris's approval rating rose to 44% in January 2008. This is the first time that everyone realizes that Boris seems to be really likely to win. Boris's wife Marina also began to face the public rarely, publicly support her husband's career, and established a positive image for Boris in terms of feelings. By the end of February, Boris's approval rating had exceeded Ken by five percentage points, and by March, the lead had expanded to ten percentage points. At the same time, Ken himself was also revealed to have three illegitimate children with two mistresses, giving Boris a divine assist.
In the period before the official election, various survey data showed that Boris would win the election, and the final result was indeed the case: Boris defeated Ken Livingstone with 1,168,738 votes and became the new mayor of London.
