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Sleazy Boris?

It’s been an unusually turbulent few weeks for Boris Johnson, Britain’s larger-than-life Conservative prime minister: the latest controversy about his honesty is who exactly paid for the refurbishment of the apartment he shares above 11 Downing Street with his fiancée Carrie Symonds and the mother of their baby.
Johnson himself has denied doing anything wrong – insisting he forked out “personally” for the redecoration, which mainly involved expensive gold-crested wallpaper. But the Electoral Commission, charged with maintaining standards in public life, announced an investigation into allegations that he acted improperly. That made him look uncharacteristically stressed.
Johnson’s line is that the British public is not remotely interested in who paid for the improvement of his residence, which is next door to No 10. He relentlessly emphasizes the importance of the easing of covid lockdown restrictions in the wake of the highly successful rollout of the vaccination programme - which has now seen over half of the UK’s adult population get their first jabs and over 14 million their second.
But Boris, as the prime minister is widely known, does look rattled. At question time in the House of Commons last Wednesday, he seemed angered by Keir Starmer, the normally uninspiring leader of the Labour opposition, who pressed him on who had made the initial payment for the work on his flat. Starmer also branded him “Major Sleaze” – in retaliation for Boris calling him “Captain Hindsight.”
Starmer said that voters would be screaming at their televisions in exasperation at Johnson refusing to directly answer his questions, adding that the Conservatives had been revealed to be handing out “dodgy contracts”, “jobs for their mates” and “cash for access”. The Labour leader was later filmed inspecting wallpaper in John Lewis, a well-known department store: one newspaper headlined a critical column: “Décor without Decorum”.
But that is not the only issue Boris is grappling with. Even worse, arguably, are multiple media reports that last autumn, when internal government arguments were raging about the urgent need for a new England-wide lockdown, the prime minister said: “Let the bodies pile high in their thousands.” Opposition spokesmen condemned Johnson’s alleged remarks as “sickening, disgusting, crass, and wrong.”
It is widely suspected that one of the sources of this damaging quote is Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to the prime minister, who wrote on his blog (about the Downing Street refurbishment) that “plans to have donors secretly pay for the renovation were unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules”.
Cummings, himself no stranger to controversy, is due to appear later this month before a House of Commons panel examining the government’s handling of the pandemic. Officials fear more revelations from Boris’s onetime ally, who has promised to answer questions “for as long as MPs want.”
Johnson and the Conservatives are also facing wider allegations of cronyism following months of revelations about the lobbying of ministers by the now insolvent lender Greensill Capital, aided by former Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, an adviser to the firm.
And Boris himself, more recently was accused of promising to “fix it” for the billionaire vacuum-maker Sir James Dyson, who texted the prime minister over tax rates for his employees working on ventilators urgently needed to cope with coronavirus last year. Questions then were asked about exactly who had Johnson’s personal phone number: the answer, as it turned out, was that it was publicly available!
Most opinion polls still give the Tories a significant advantage over Labour, but there is no doubt that the recent spate of negative news stories has distracted attention from the UK government’s belated vaccine success – after registering Europe’s (and one of the world’s) highest covid death toll.
Johnson continues to benefit from his large majority in the 2019 general election, in which he campaigned famously to “get Brexit done.” But there is starting to be serious unease about his habit of generating scandals that would have ended the career of other politicians, especially regarding the broader relationship between government and business.
Max Hastings, who was the editor of the Daily Telegraph, when the young Boris was the newspaper’s Brussels correspondent, lambasted the prime minister in an article published shortly before he succeeded Theresa May as party leader: “There is room for debate about whether he is a scoundrel or mere rogue, but not much about his moral bankruptcy, rooted in a contempt for truth,” he wrote. Hastings memorably characterised Boris as a “cavorting charlatan”.
Some people worry that criticism of Johnson over these recent rows serves to mask the damage that Brexit has done: making the UK poorer by leaving the EU – the world’s most successful single market - while exaggerating the weight of what he calls “Global Britain”; promoting Scottish independence and Welsh nationalism and endangering peace in Northern Ireland.
Clearly there are large sections of the British public who don’t really care about allegations of Boris’s sleaze and his sense of arrogant entitlement. If so maybe he will get off the hook and survive the latest crisis over the redecoration of his flat. But the Brexit disaster will remain his enduring legacy.
by: IAN BLACK
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BENEFIT Sponsors BuildHer...
- April 23, 2025
BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, commented: “Our support for this educational hackathon reflects our long-term strategic vision to nurture the talents of emerging national youth and empower the next generation of accomplished female leaders in technology. By fostering creativity and innovation, we aim to contribute meaningfully to Bahrain’s comprehensive development goals and align with the aspirations outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030—an ambition in which BENEFIT plays a central role.”
Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager, PR & Communication at BENEFIT, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with RUW in supporting this remarkable technology-focused event. It highlights our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital and innovation capabilities of young Bahraini women and foster their ability to harness technological tools in the service of a smarter, more sustainable future.”
For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”
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