Irish Examiner View: Boris Johnson is a liar and a cheat

The one constant in Boris Johnson’s professional life has been telling lies.

IN Keith Waterhouse’s 1959 novel Billy Liar, the main character spends his time indulging in fantasies and dreams of life in the big city as a writer. There was an Irish dramatised version of the book, Liam Liar, written by dramatist Hugh Leonard which tells the tale of a lazy, wildly inventive, daydreamer with an inability to tell the truth.

It is a pity Mr Leonard is no longer with us because he might have been tempted to write Boris Liar and relocate the drama to 10 Downing Street, the residence of the UK prime minister.

The one constant in Boris Johnson’s professional life has been telling lies. He began his career in journalism at The Times newspaper in 1987 as a trainee reporter but he was sacked within a year for fabricating a quote in an article he wrote. 

He then went on to work for various news organisations such as the Daily Telegraph during which he made up outlandish anti-EU stories.

His willingness to lie is matched only by his capacity for self-serving unilateral action, even if it breaches international obligations. The most recent example of this occurred yesterday when the Johnson government published a new bill governing post-Brexit trading arrangements within the UK that by its own admission violates its treaty with the EU.

It is shocking but not surprising that Johnson is playing politics with Northern Ireland on Brexit. Our Brexit negotiators need to keep that in mind when dealing with Boris Liar.