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Have I Got Views For You by Boris Johnson
Unique, eccentric, brilliant - this selection of the best of Boris so far covers such wide and wildly varied subjects as the mutation of the lefties, the Blair Presidency, Yuppies, the death of Yassar Arafat, the end of culture, the best way to cure Islamaphobia, Bush's re-election, the tsunami, the July 7th bombings, the war in Iraq, and, of course, the joys of being Boris.Parts of this book were previously published in "Lend Me Your Ears"
- GenresNonfictionPoliticsHumor
Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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140 people want to read
About the author
Boris Johnson
37 books240 followersBoris Johnson is a British politician in the Conservative Party and the former Prime Minister of United Kingdom as well as the former Mayor of London. Due to his public school, blustering, comedic style, he is generally either loved or loathed by members of the British public.
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July 17, 2019"Brussels recruits sniffers to ensure that euro-manure smells the same"
Barack Obama: Brexit would put UK 'back of the queue' for trade talks
in: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2...
Newly-appointed foreign minister Boris Johnson says US will be 'front of the queue'
in:http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0713/8022...
Updates
(Before US election)
Boris Johnson: 'The only reason I wouldn't visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump'
(after US election)
Boris Johnson: “Congratulations to Donald Trump and much looking forward to working with his administration on global stability and prosperity. “I believe passionately in the importance of the UK – US relationship and am confident we can take it forward together.”
10th Nov 2016
Barack Obama: Brexit would put UK 'back of the queue' for trade talks
in: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2...
Newly-appointed foreign minister Boris Johnson says US will be 'front of the queue'
in:http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0713/8022...
Updates
(Before US election)
Boris Johnson: 'The only reason I wouldn't visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump'
(after US election)
Boris Johnson: “Congratulations to Donald Trump and much looking forward to working with his administration on global stability and prosperity. “I believe passionately in the importance of the UK – US relationship and am confident we can take it forward together.”
10th Nov 2016
June 9, 2020
The best of Boris Johnson's newspaper commentaries from The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Guardian and GQ magazine. Lots of thought provoking commentaries on British politics from the Thatcher years through to the Blair years, the Serb-Croat-Bosnian-Kosovo wars, Islamophobia, racism, Palestine and Israel, immigration, education, the European Union etc. What fascinated me was his interviews with the likes of Frank Bruno, Jenny Agutter, Silvio Berlusconi, Martin McGuinness and more! Very interesting and sometimes funny read. 7 out of 12.
June 19, 2022
An interesting and well-written book, with some humourous anecdotes and observations. He holds some objectionable opinions, but is more irksome when he veers into strange dog-whistling (When listing qualities of potential Conservative leaders, he adds that they 'have children' which I can only assume is a reassurance that they aren't gay).
February 5, 2017
I have no idea why I gave this book a good score when I read it in 2008. In 2008, clearly I was a moron. In 2008, Boris Johnson was vile. In 2017, he's ****ing vile and risible to boot.
I remember the whole thing was full of mildly amusing trite commentary, which sounds about right. Johnson is the kind of person who coasts on a half-assed mediocre classical education, plays up to that and lets everyone else interpret the scantest wit he can throw together as the height of culture.
The guy is a scumbag, screw him.
I remember the whole thing was full of mildly amusing trite commentary, which sounds about right. Johnson is the kind of person who coasts on a half-assed mediocre classical education, plays up to that and lets everyone else interpret the scantest wit he can throw together as the height of culture.
The guy is a scumbag, screw him.
July 27, 2011
This book started out great, and I do really enjoy Boris' writing. But he just can't help getting all right-wing and ideological and then he just turns into a prick. Sorry Boris but I just couldn't bring myself to finish this.
November 25, 2014
I don't agree with a lot of Boris's views: people are against hunting because they loathe cruelty, Boris, not because of class prejudice! However, that said, Boris is a gifted, amusing writer, and I found this a fascinating read, and he comes across as affable, we'll-meaning, very human (if not humane), and someone who thinks for himself, which for a politician is a breath of fresh air.
June 17, 2015
I can't help but admire what I perceive as being the honesty of Boris Johnson. He seems not at all afraid of making his views known to the world and by and large they seem to be progressive and humanistic.
This collection of writings ranges from the early nineties to the mid noughties and as such seem quite dated; and yet I don't perceive Boris' views to have changed at all since those days. Indeed, he seems to have become even more like himself.
If he were the leader of the conservative party I would probably vote for him. I'm not really into politics; instead I'm much more into engaging personalities when it comes to my voting habits. That said, there are some policies I would avoid like the proverbial...
But I digress.
This is like a history book in that it collects newspaper and magazine articles from yesteryear and could only therefore be of interest to people who like to save newspapers and read them years later for the nostalgia of it all, or those that like the writing style of one Boris Johnson, or those that are into politics.
I suppose I'm in the 2nd of the above categories but that said I probably don't need to read another book by the same author.
In conclusion - easy to read, easy to give away afterwards.
This collection of writings ranges from the early nineties to the mid noughties and as such seem quite dated; and yet I don't perceive Boris' views to have changed at all since those days. Indeed, he seems to have become even more like himself.
If he were the leader of the conservative party I would probably vote for him. I'm not really into politics; instead I'm much more into engaging personalities when it comes to my voting habits. That said, there are some policies I would avoid like the proverbial...
But I digress.
This is like a history book in that it collects newspaper and magazine articles from yesteryear and could only therefore be of interest to people who like to save newspapers and read them years later for the nostalgia of it all, or those that like the writing style of one Boris Johnson, or those that are into politics.
I suppose I'm in the 2nd of the above categories but that said I probably don't need to read another book by the same author.
In conclusion - easy to read, easy to give away afterwards.
November 2, 2019
"Crumbs, I thought. Crumbs was the word."
Boris Johnson. A man initially only made famous by appearing on a TV game show and being a womaniser and is now in charge of the country. Wait, doesn't that sound like anyone familiar to you?
HAVE I GOT VIEWS FOR YOU is Our Dear leader's 2006 Clarkson-esque cash grab collection of articles from the numerous publications he gets to write for. Firstly, there is an annoying and inconsistent, erratic timeline at the heart of this book and the dates the articles are written are only noted in the back. I found myself often confused at which period we were in. Johnson's editor clearly had one too many glasses of Moet that day.
Anyway, we join BoJo in the mid to late '90s itching to go and do reportage in a war zone. Any war zone, it seems. Whether it's the Gulf or Kosovo or Bosnia, he seems hungry for some sort of adventure. But the foreign desks of all the jobs he has (that only required one phonecall to the right person to get, incidentally), the response was a general,
"No you're ok Boris. You'll just take the terrorists to lunch..." Which to be fair, is probably what would have happened.
His constant propensity and insistence to ramble in Latin and comapring everything to a classic Greek myth for no apparent reason, leans towards the grating pretty much throughout. It's incredibly gossipy and often reads more like the soceity pages in Tatler than anything that can be described as journalism and when he does veer onto the literary track, he's often boisterous, petulant and borderline xenophobic.
Come on, what did you expect me to say?
Is Boris a racist? I would say NO, not intentionally anyway. Just that he happens to be Britain's most well educated, cloth-headed simpleton,who just happens to have the unfortunate platform to often spout rage-inducing claptrap and watered down bigotry.
There are some really good insights and countering arguments about racism, in general and immigration, a lot of which I found myself agreeing with him on. To a point. It's just a shame that he tends to fall on the side of ruthlessness at times. Just don't get him on devolution of the fair kingdom, we will be here all day. And the countryside issues, of course. The polarising issue of fox hunting, for example. Oh, those dastardly foxes!
It's a wonderfully telling read and with the benefit of hindsight, really does shine a light on why some would say he is so disliked by those within politics. Just, I imagine, with how he covered them in the national press before he became an MP himself.
When you think about it (and read here some of the evidence as to why that could have been seen as a bad idea at the time), he shows some balls. Not courage, just that textbook arrogance and bravado, which I have witnessed more than my share of dealing with the members of the Johnson family in the past.
I found many things in the book amusing, reading them after all of this time. Like in '95, when he devalues New Labour's new stance that the future of economic stability will have a lot to do with this new-fangled 'information superhighway' idea. He wasn't much of a progressive then, it seems.
He gets to do some cool stuff (flying in an F15 jet fighter, for example) and meet some incredible people (some that will go on to change the world), but all he does is whinge about Europe for the most part. Or the disappearence of British tradition. The threat to dear old Blighty and suchlike.
Granted, as an MEP stationed in Brussels for five years, he would have born witness to all the good and bad. The beuracrasies, hypocrasies and frustrating elements of the Union he so desired to no longer be a part of, even back in the mid 90s. But to be fair, he did have to live in Belgium. I mean, who on earth did he piss off?
It's a relief to hear how so generally anti-war Boris is in this book. But you must be having seen war zones first hand, right? I think that's part of the deal. But do I trust this man? Do I fuck. And neither should you now he has the keys (for the time being) to Number 10.
Surprisingly, he sings all of the greatest hits here too. Who can forget PICANINNIES, LETTERBOXES or the classic TOWELHEADS. Oh yes, he treats us to them all. All for the bargain price of £7.99!
A lot of this book. Well, so much of it is the guff and bluster you would expect from an out-of-touch, self-serving ninny. Johnson shows just how much when he is jolly well happy to chortle and bray and cheer for the hunters charging on their steeds following the pack of dogs tearing the flesh of other animals. He plays to typecast at a pheasant shoot as a bumbling, country buffoon. He strides straight out of a Wodehouse short story at a Scottish castle, the guest of landed gentry. Or when he complains of the hardships of flying home from his family ski trip, the poor thing. And when advocating speeding. That he thinks it's okay to refer to his fellow members of the house as gay gangsters or to call Jermyn Street tailors as 'tank-topped bumboys'. Indeed.
I shall leave you with this chillingly prophetic missive from The Telegraph in 2001:
"The experience of other countries' euro referendums is that the best way to acheive a NO is to ensure that the political establishment is in favour of a YES in which case the public has the exquisite pleasure of telling them all to go to hell."
And that's what happened in the UK in 2016, in a nutshell. He helped do just that and the SLIGHT majority duly did just that. Well done, Boris. You win the first prize rosette in the Under 12 electorate manipulation competition at the Market Snodsbury village fete.
The passage of time has not been kind to HAVE I GOT VIEWS FOR YOU and just paints the author as a pathetic curmudgeon whose eyes only light up when a pretty posh girl walks past for him to leer at.
And he is the one in charge now. Splendid.
Boris Johnson. A man initially only made famous by appearing on a TV game show and being a womaniser and is now in charge of the country. Wait, doesn't that sound like anyone familiar to you?
HAVE I GOT VIEWS FOR YOU is Our Dear leader's 2006 Clarkson-esque cash grab collection of articles from the numerous publications he gets to write for. Firstly, there is an annoying and inconsistent, erratic timeline at the heart of this book and the dates the articles are written are only noted in the back. I found myself often confused at which period we were in. Johnson's editor clearly had one too many glasses of Moet that day.
Anyway, we join BoJo in the mid to late '90s itching to go and do reportage in a war zone. Any war zone, it seems. Whether it's the Gulf or Kosovo or Bosnia, he seems hungry for some sort of adventure. But the foreign desks of all the jobs he has (that only required one phonecall to the right person to get, incidentally), the response was a general,
"No you're ok Boris. You'll just take the terrorists to lunch..." Which to be fair, is probably what would have happened.
His constant propensity and insistence to ramble in Latin and comapring everything to a classic Greek myth for no apparent reason, leans towards the grating pretty much throughout. It's incredibly gossipy and often reads more like the soceity pages in Tatler than anything that can be described as journalism and when he does veer onto the literary track, he's often boisterous, petulant and borderline xenophobic.
Come on, what did you expect me to say?
Is Boris a racist? I would say NO, not intentionally anyway. Just that he happens to be Britain's most well educated, cloth-headed simpleton,who just happens to have the unfortunate platform to often spout rage-inducing claptrap and watered down bigotry.
There are some really good insights and countering arguments about racism, in general and immigration, a lot of which I found myself agreeing with him on. To a point. It's just a shame that he tends to fall on the side of ruthlessness at times. Just don't get him on devolution of the fair kingdom, we will be here all day. And the countryside issues, of course. The polarising issue of fox hunting, for example. Oh, those dastardly foxes!
It's a wonderfully telling read and with the benefit of hindsight, really does shine a light on why some would say he is so disliked by those within politics. Just, I imagine, with how he covered them in the national press before he became an MP himself.
When you think about it (and read here some of the evidence as to why that could have been seen as a bad idea at the time), he shows some balls. Not courage, just that textbook arrogance and bravado, which I have witnessed more than my share of dealing with the members of the Johnson family in the past.
I found many things in the book amusing, reading them after all of this time. Like in '95, when he devalues New Labour's new stance that the future of economic stability will have a lot to do with this new-fangled 'information superhighway' idea. He wasn't much of a progressive then, it seems.
He gets to do some cool stuff (flying in an F15 jet fighter, for example) and meet some incredible people (some that will go on to change the world), but all he does is whinge about Europe for the most part. Or the disappearence of British tradition. The threat to dear old Blighty and suchlike.
Granted, as an MEP stationed in Brussels for five years, he would have born witness to all the good and bad. The beuracrasies, hypocrasies and frustrating elements of the Union he so desired to no longer be a part of, even back in the mid 90s. But to be fair, he did have to live in Belgium. I mean, who on earth did he piss off?
It's a relief to hear how so generally anti-war Boris is in this book. But you must be having seen war zones first hand, right? I think that's part of the deal. But do I trust this man? Do I fuck. And neither should you now he has the keys (for the time being) to Number 10.
Surprisingly, he sings all of the greatest hits here too. Who can forget PICANINNIES, LETTERBOXES or the classic TOWELHEADS. Oh yes, he treats us to them all. All for the bargain price of £7.99!
A lot of this book. Well, so much of it is the guff and bluster you would expect from an out-of-touch, self-serving ninny. Johnson shows just how much when he is jolly well happy to chortle and bray and cheer for the hunters charging on their steeds following the pack of dogs tearing the flesh of other animals. He plays to typecast at a pheasant shoot as a bumbling, country buffoon. He strides straight out of a Wodehouse short story at a Scottish castle, the guest of landed gentry. Or when he complains of the hardships of flying home from his family ski trip, the poor thing. And when advocating speeding. That he thinks it's okay to refer to his fellow members of the house as gay gangsters or to call Jermyn Street tailors as 'tank-topped bumboys'. Indeed.
I shall leave you with this chillingly prophetic missive from The Telegraph in 2001:
"The experience of other countries' euro referendums is that the best way to acheive a NO is to ensure that the political establishment is in favour of a YES in which case the public has the exquisite pleasure of telling them all to go to hell."
And that's what happened in the UK in 2016, in a nutshell. He helped do just that and the SLIGHT majority duly did just that. Well done, Boris. You win the first prize rosette in the Under 12 electorate manipulation competition at the Market Snodsbury village fete.
The passage of time has not been kind to HAVE I GOT VIEWS FOR YOU and just paints the author as a pathetic curmudgeon whose eyes only light up when a pretty posh girl walks past for him to leer at.
And he is the one in charge now. Splendid.
December 16, 2014
Boris Johnson is funny and his writing is good. This book is a little bit dated in parts and I don't agree with the majority of Boris's views- eg being pro fox hunting, but I still enjoyed the book none the less. This just goes to show that just because someone is very likeable and amusing it doesn't mean that you should vote for them!
July 18, 2008
A birthday gift from my sister, all the way from London. the thoughts of the new london mayor. So far, he's a great writer and very funny. His hobbies are: riding bikes without helmets to protest government meddling and making fun of Tony Blair.
January 21, 2009
I can't say I agree with Boris all the time, but in places he is very funny. I did not realise he as a correspondent in Kosovo and found his insights to be interesting. A much cleverer bloke than we give him credit for. Boris for Mayor!
April 28, 2017
Starts good, couldn't stop reading it, but half way through the second chapter it started getting boring, couldn't take in what I was reading and decided I'd rather be reading something I was more interested in, although in the amount I've read Boris does make a lot of sense.
October 15, 2024
I bought this book from a charity shop years ago, way before he became PM. Finally got round to reading it. The book is an amalgamation of the various articles he wrote for right-wing publications in the 90s/early 00s. Though he has quite a witty and endearing writing style, the book is fairly tedious and feels repetitive. For example, there are 3 different sections on how he went fox/stag hunting and how this somehow benefits rural communities and wildlife.
He makes some interesting political observations about how the left always want to blame the state for all social ills, which i somewhat would agree with.
Overall, this book was laborious and I really struggled to get it finished.
He makes some interesting political observations about how the left always want to blame the state for all social ills, which i somewhat would agree with.
Overall, this book was laborious and I really struggled to get it finished.
June 26, 2020
I should have liked the various articles to be proper dated and chronologial in the various sections, perhaps with a short introduction to each. As it is, things seem to fly to and from across three decades. As for the rest, its all familiar Boris, with the Euro-scepticism, the passion for biking, the fascination with foreign politics, etc. It's been interesting.
September 29, 2020
What a frood!! I just connected with Bojo so deeply!! Turns out this place America doesn't have all the Earth's greatest leaders...
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This Goodreads account was created solely for the purpose of parody (as covered under fair dealing in Australian copyright law)
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This Goodreads account was created solely for the purpose of parody (as covered under fair dealing in Australian copyright law)
January 1, 2023
A horrid and out of touch individual. Let's hope he doesn't get back into No 10.
Reading his books as penance for voting for him😞one more book to go and disliking more with each book.
As for sexualising dog noises? Honestly, I have no words.🙄
Reading his books as penance for voting for him😞one more book to go and disliking more with each book.
As for sexualising dog noises? Honestly, I have no words.🙄
October 6, 2023
Only read this because I wanted to see whether the passages they read out on HIGNFY were real and unfortunately they are... Other than that...didn't like it at all, but I didn't really expect anything else, even though I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
November 25, 2023
Some insightful political and social commentary.
April 30, 2025
I didn’t get very far as I realised we now know so much about his selfish uncaring ego that I found it was a waste of time reading this tripe.
March 29, 2024
I read this a few years ago whilst David Cameron (pig-f****r) was still the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and loved it back then... but then along came Boris to ruin the UK during the pandemic so, because of this, I've since downgraded my original rating, mainly due to him being a raging pillock, and I'm NOT sorry.
April 21, 2017
I did not like it a bit. Just a collection of short stories published earlier in newspapers and the like. It's advertised as witty, but that must be a joke in itself. I didn't finished the book, I just couldn't get into the book.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews