Re: Boris Johnson - Pericles or Alcibiades?

Danny Blanchflower, Dartmouth College economist (unrelated I think to the
football star) tweets today:

Danny Blanchflower
@D_Blanchflower
·

GBP [British pound sterling] was $4.86 when UK went back on Gold Standard
in 1926.  devalued from 2.80 to 2.40 in 1967.  Was $2.09 in 2007, $1.50
just before the referendum and now at $1.21 and dropping.  It's lowest
level ever - am I right?


But, no one can now dictate our banana shapes.  Free at last...

Dan


On Sat, Jul 27, 2019 at 9:04 AM DANIEL P. Tompkins <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Thanks, Mark
>
> Dan
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Jul 27, 2019, at 6:02 AM, Mark Davidson <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >
> > Apparently Boris Johnson's great hero is Pericles. Simon Jenkins argues
> > that Alcibiades would be more appropriate:
> >
> > "Johnson’s real model is not Pericles but his ward and brief successor as
> > Athenian leader, Alcibiades. A talented, handsome and vain playboy, he
> > could never kick the vices of his youth or rise to the tasks later
> > entrusted to him. His political loyalties were as unpredictable as his
> sex
> > drive, the latter embracing both his teacher Socrates and his putative
> > stepmother, Aspasia. When Athens tired of him, he defected to its enemy,
> > Sparta.
> >
> > "He then defected to Sparta’s enemy Persia, and when this gambit ran its
> > course Alcibiades relied on charm, guile and “a silken tongue” to return
> to
> > Athens, where the mob welcomed his relentless optimism. “Strike first to
> > avert attack,” was his motto. He duly led the Athenians to military
> defeat
> > and eventual ruin. In exile he was soon murdered, either by his political
> > enemies or by relatives of a girl he had just seduced."
> >
> >
> https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2019%2Fjul%2F27%2Fboris-johnson-no-10-pericles-greek-hero&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7Cbc39f4fa467d4f7d141d08d716eb2c3e%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637003071627066042&amp;sdata=prJqVZ8F33hD3rhwpiYjGPhdHkQkgDJZwIzZZrtRfPU%3D&amp;reserved=0
> >
> >
> > At one time I had a reasonably positive view of Johnson, but that changed
> > some years ago, and now my opinion of him couldn't be lower.
> >
> > His cabinet of hard-right extremists says it all.
> >
> > Underneath his pleasant public persona, Johnson is cold, arrogant,
> amoral,
> > devious, utterly self-centred, and incompetent. He bears grudges for many
> > years, and pays them back. It seems that the people who know him best are
> > those who like him least.
> >
> > "He is a far more ruthless, and frankly nastier, figure than the public
> > appreciates."
> > — Max Hastings
> >
> > Mark D.
>