Boris Johnson: Trending quotes (page 3)

“It was a stellar performance. I may as well give up now and make way for an older man.”

Boris Johnson

Hickey, The Express, 12 May 2004.
On his father Stanley's appearance on Have I Got News For You.
2000s, 2004

Way

“If Amsterdam or Leningrad vie for the title of Venice of the North, then Venice - what compliment is high enough? Venice, with all her civilisation and ancient beauty, Venice with her addiction to curious aquatic means of transport, yes, my friends, Venice is the Henley of the South.”

Boris Johnson

"Paying through the Doge for Europe", Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2004, p. 22.
2000s, 2004

Beauty

“Old Man Howard, that Old Man Howard, he just keeps rolling, just keeps rolling.”

Boris Johnson

Andrew Pierce, "Boris on a roll", The Times, 29 April 2005, p. 40.
When asked by The Oxford Student whether he sees anyone amongst his younger colleagues who would one day replace Howard.
2000s, 2005

“I don't see why he's any less of a candidate for the than Barack Obama.”

Boris Johnson

Source: Boris Johnson: Why Trump could deserve Nobel Peace Prize http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-44034266/boris-johnson-why-trump-could-deserve-nobel-peace-prize (7 May 2018)

“The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative”

Boris Johnson

BBC News Interview http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8668036.stm with Jeremy Paxman, BBC News, 7 May 2010
Johnson on the possibility of a coalition after the United Kingdom general election, May 2010.
Johnson: Whatever type of Wall's sausage is contrived by this great experiment, the dominant ingredient has got to be conservatism. The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative, I would say. With plenty of bread and other bits and pieces.
Paxman: The question is whether it's a chipolata or a Cumberland sausage, I suppose, is it?
Johnson: This is fantastic to listen to. Enough of this gastronomic metaphor!
Paxman: You started it!
Johnson: Well, I've had enough of it!
Paxman: Haven't you got a city to run?
Johnson: I have got a city to run and that's exactly the point! The government of London will carry on irrespective of the temporary difficulties in providing a national government. Thank you.
Paxman: Bye bye, Boris!
2010s, 2010

“I forgot that to rely on a train, in Blair's Britain, is to engage in a crapshoot with the devil.”

Boris Johnson

"A horse is a safer bet than the trains", Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2003, p. 22.
2000s, 2003

Training

“I can't remember what my line on drugs is. What's my line on drugs?”

Boris Johnson

"The Genelection Game", Sunday Mirror, 24 April 2005, p. 19.
During the campaign trail of the 2005 general election.
2000s, 2005

“I would like to thank first the vast multitudes who voted against me - and I have met quite a few in the last nine months, not all of them entirely polite.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“Nothing excites compassion, in friend and foe alike, as much as the sight of you ker-splonked on the Tarmac with your propeller buried six feet under.”

Boris Johnson

" Trust me, being sacked isn't all bad http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/12/02/do0202.xml", Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2004, p. 26.
On being sacked from the Tory front bench.
2000s, 2004

“Any seat would be mad not to take him. He's a terrific chap.”

Boris Johnson

"Keeping it in the family", Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2004, p. 29.
On his father, Stanley Johnson's plans to become an MP.
2000s, 2004

Madness

“Not even Mr Blair has been able to erode the unions conviction that we all have a “right” to a minimum wage… Both the minimum wage and the Social Charter would palpably destroy jobs.”

Boris Johnson book Lend Me Your Ears

Lend Me Your Ears, p387
2000s, 2003

“Nor do I propose to defend the right to talk on a mobile while driving a car, though I don't believe that is necessarily any more dangerous than the many other risky things that people do with their free hands while driving - nose-picking, reading the paper, studying the A-Z, beating the children, and so on.”

Boris Johnson

"To the lady who berated me, I say: on your bike", Daily Telegraph, 1 August 2002, p. 21.
2000s, 2002

Children , People , Cars , Study

“Now can I ask you a question," "Why is it that we're lucky to have so many Chinese students? Is it because of the weather? Is it because we have so many French restaurants? Is it because we have so many communist bicycles?"”

Boris Johnson

2010s, 2013

Question , Weather

“Putin’s proxy army was almost certainly guilty of killing the passengers on the Malaysia Airlines jet that came down in eastern Ukraine. He has questions to answer about the death of Alexander Litvinenko, pitilessly poisoned in a London restaurant. As for his reign in Moscow, he is allegedly the linchpin of a vast post-Soviet gangster kleptocracy, and is personally said to be the richest man on the planet. Journalists who oppose him get shot. His rivals find themselves locked up. Despite looking a bit like Dobby the House Elf, he is a ruthless and manipulative tyrant.”

Boris Johnson

"Let’s deal with the Devil: we should work with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad in Syria" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12036184/Lets-deal-with-the-Devil-we-should-work-with-Vladimir-Putin-and-Bashar-al-Assad-in-Syria.html, The Telegraph (05 Dec 2015)
2010s, 2015

Death , Question , Housing , Personality

“I’m very attracted to it. I may be diverting from Tory party policy here, but I don’t care.”

Boris Johnson

Andrew Pierce, The Times, 30 April 2005, p. 42.
When asked about the 24 hour drinking legislation.
2000s, 2005

“They are like glistening wet otters frolicking.”

Boris Johnson

Telegraph column, 31 July 2012
On woman's beach volleyball at the 2012 Olympic Games.
2010s, 2012

“Look the point is … er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it.”

Boris Johnson

Toby Helm, "Boris Johnson named shadow arts minister", Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2004, p. 12.
On being appointed Shadow Arts Minister.
2000s, 2004

“There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.”

Boris Johnson

"Face it: it's all your own fat fault", Daily Telegraph, 27 May 2004, p. 24.
On the dangers of obesity.
2000s, 2004

Night

“Something mysterious happened when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office in 2009. Something vanished from that room, and no one could quite explain why. It was a bust of Winston Churchill – the great British war time leader. It was a fine goggle-eyed object, done by the brilliant sculptor Jacob Epstein, and it had sat there for almost ten years. But on day one of the Obama administration it was returned, without ceremony, to the British embassy in Washington. No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision. Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender. Some said that perhaps Churchill was seen as less important than he once was. Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date. Well, if that’s why Churchill was banished from the Oval Office, they could not have been more wrong.”

Boris Johnson

In a column for The Sun newspaper http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/7095695/UK-and-America-can-better-friends-than-ever-Mr-Obama-if-we-LEAVE-the-EU-says-Boris-Johnson.html, 22 April 2016.
2010s, 2016

War , Idea , Fashion , Decision

“I could not fail to disagree with you less.”

Boris Johnson

2004 winner of the Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign, for his comment on the 12 December 2003 edition of Have I Got News For You http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/footinmouth.html
2000s, 2003