Boris Johnson smashing up Ritz

[Blagsta]

This quote

We got drunk, trashed the Ritz & then walked down Piccadilly to loot a few items from Fortnums.” Boris Johnson, Bullingdon Club, 1986.

is doing the rounds on the net at the moment.

Can anyone confirm it's genuine?

 

[DotCommunist]

I've heard it long before the 26th- it was doing the rounds last time he was moaning about yobs and anti-social behavior.

 

[kyser_soze]

I don't doubt that it's a true quote, what I doubt is the veracity of the actual claims BJ appears to be making, which no-one seems to be providing evidence of.

 

[Blagsta]

It's whether it's a true quote is what I want to know. Anyone know the original source?

 

[stethoscope]

Not sure... it's not from the Boris Met Dave doc was it?

Well, whether it is or not, it shows up their hypocrisy.

http://www.youtube.com/show/whenborismetdave?s=1

 

[Blagsta]

I can't watch You Tube at work.

I see some people claiming it's from his autobiography. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[butchersapron]

I expect it's from that C4 doc/drama

edit: the one steph mentioned.

 

[Blagsta]

I'll have a look later when I'm at home, cheers.

 

[Crispy]

Yeah, it's a great quote, but I'm a little suspicious at just how great it is. Would be good to know the source

 

[Dan U]

I did a quick Google and just got it repeated on peoples twitters

 

[Blagsta]

I did a quick Google and just got it repeated on peoples twitters

Yeah, me too.

 

[Part 2]

Started watching. It starts with something about BJ throwing a potted plant through an 'upper class restaurant", not sure I can be arsed watching it all to find out the whole story and 4od doesn't like me trying to skim through.

 

[ohmyliver]

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/03/the-violence-of-boris-johnson/ is the closest to a non twitter-echo-chamber source I can find - it doesn't use that quote though.

which links to
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6860179.ece

"there is no dispute that Cameron had gone to bed and is in the clear but Johnson has written at length about his night in the cell.

He admits he was “plastered” but denies any involvement in window-smashing. “Some events took place that might charitably be described as high jinks,” he has written in an article.

“I remember something to do with a bicycle and dark deeds involving plastic cones. And letterboxes — though I wish to stress that nothing approaching criminal damage took place. It was all deeply pathetic.”

There are discrepancies in his version. He says: “The party ended up with a number of us crawling on all fours through the hedges of the Botanic Garden and trying to escape some police dogs.”"

 

[Brixton Hatter]

i'm slightly suspicious of this - the quote is 135 characters long, a perfect length for twitter, almost as if it had been written for the purpose.

but there's no doubt boris and the tory boys were happy to engage in some real 'mindless violence' and that's the point this quote is making - whether it's true or not.

 

[Blagsta]

Not sure... it's not from the Boris Met Dave doc was it?

Well, whether it is or not, it shows up their hypocrisy.

http://www.youtube.com/show/whenborismetdave?s=1

Dunno if I can be arsed to sit through 1 hour and 14 minutes!

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Apparently, a few of his 'Barclay's Bikes' were trashed on Saturday? Probably put to better use dropping cluster bombs round the East End.

 

[malice]

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/03/the-violence-of-boris-johnson/ is the closest to a non twitter-echo-chamber source I can find - it doesn't use that quote though.

which links to
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6860179.ece

"there is no dispute that Cameron had gone to bed and is in the clear but Johnson has written at length about his night in the cell.

He admits he was “plastered” but denies any involvement in window-smashing. “Some events took place that might charitably be described as high jinks,” he has written in an article.

“I remember something to do with a bicycle and dark deeds involving plastic cones. And letterboxes — though I wish to stress that nothing approaching criminal damage took place. It was all deeply pathetic.”

There are discrepancies in his version. He says: “The party ended up with a number of us crawling on all fours through the hedges of the Botanic Garden and trying to escape some police dogs.”"

Can't be the same incident [if the twitter quote is true at all] as presumably this is in Oxford not London (unless they were very busy that night)

 

[The39thStep]

surely no one is taken in by this?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

We can make it true.

 

[stethoscope]

Dunno if I can be arsed to sit through 1 hour and 14 minutes!

I watched quite a bit of it earlier, there's nothing directly quotable from there - just a few ex Bullingdon/Oxford acquaintances talking about their champagne-fuelled exploits of trashing local restaurants.

As others have said, it looks like someone has just taken some of the Bullingdon past and mixed it up with recent events for some entertainment value.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

We can make it true.

Innit lol

 

[Pickman's model]

surely no one is taken in by this?

no, they're twittering it everywhere to show they've not been taken in.

 

[stethoscope]

We can make it true.

 

[Pickman's model]

give it a couple of months and boris will be barred from fortnums for his youthful yobbery

 

[Jeff Robinson]

We can make it true.

To paraphrase Stewart Lee: the quote might not be true, but what it says about Boris Johnson is true.

 

[Open Sauce]

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/03/the-violence-of-boris-johnson/ is the closest to a non twitter-echo-chamber source I can find - it doesn't use that quote though.

which links to
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6860179.ece


"there is no dispute that Cameron had gone to bed and is in the clear but Johnson has written at length about his night in the cell.

He admits he was “plastered” but denies any involvement in window-smashing. “Some events took place that might charitably be described as high jinks,” he has written in an article.

“I remember something to do with a bicycle and dark deeds involving plastic cones. And letterboxes — though I wish to stress that nothing approaching criminal damage took place. It was all deeply pathetic.”

There are discrepancies in his version. He says: “The party ended up with a number of us crawling on all fours through the hedges of the Botanic Garden and trying to escape some police dogs.”"

It is being kind to the then future PM to say he was in bed, a story ridiculed elsewhere

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/201...nd-the-bullingdon-night-of-the-broken-window/

 

[gosub]

We can make it true.

Sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth!