Not 'Boring Johnson': The British PM's pyretic evocation of apocalypse will remain a UN rarity
Much of what the Tory leader said at the UN this week could have been easily communicated in a dull fashion.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
British PM Boris Johnson can be criticised for many things, but most certainly not for being Boring Johnson. The UN and other such august fora, on the other hand, have made sleep-inducing understatement and studious earnestness almost de rigueur.
Much of what the irrepressible Tory leader said at the UN this week could have been easily communicated in a dull, bromidic fashion as his theme was the opportunities and challenges of technology. But given the existing memes of Frankenfood and other evocations of science-gone-amuck prevalent in popular imagination, it was entirely appropriate that he chose instead to conjure up images of limbless chickens and “pink-eyed terminators sent back from the future to cull the human race”, not to mention mattresses monitoring nightmares and fridges beeping for more cheese. No one who has ever shuddered through a sci-fi horror movie (if not a typical UN speech) will remain unaffected by Johnson’s feverish imagery of scientific apocalypse.
Sadly, he is not likely to spark off a trend for such graphic prose among the usually sedulous heads of government who frequent the UN podium. But more such colourful speeches would definitely make the annual autumnal talkfest called the UN General Assembly session more interesting — for aficionados of prose if not of geopolitics.
Much of what the irrepressible Tory leader said at the UN this week could have been easily communicated in a dull, bromidic fashion as his theme was the opportunities and challenges of technology. But given the existing memes of Frankenfood and other evocations of science-gone-amuck prevalent in popular imagination, it was entirely appropriate that he chose instead to conjure up images of limbless chickens and “pink-eyed terminators sent back from the future to cull the human race”, not to mention mattresses monitoring nightmares and fridges beeping for more cheese. No one who has ever shuddered through a sci-fi horror movie (if not a typical UN speech) will remain unaffected by Johnson’s feverish imagery of scientific apocalypse.
Sadly, he is not likely to spark off a trend for such graphic prose among the usually sedulous heads of government who frequent the UN podium. But more such colourful speeches would definitely make the annual autumnal talkfest called the UN General Assembly session more interesting — for aficionados of prose if not of geopolitics.
Everyone must start somewhere, even the seemingly powerful. Here are a few world leaders who did humdrum jobs before taking on the mantle of head of state. (On the left is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and on the right is George Weah.)
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