LONDON (Bywire News) - You know how sometimes a TV show produces a twist that absolutely everyone knew was coming? Well, that’s the kind of show the life of Boris Johnson would be as Jennifer Arcuri revealed to the Mirror that she did indeed sleep with British Prime Minister, over a four-year affair.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Arcuri reveals the full sordid and at times stomach churning details of their ‘relationship’.
It includes the electric first date when he arrived wearing a bike helmet and asked to borrow money, the furtive exchanges of explicit photos and one sexual encounter so wild in its animalistic passion that at one point he lost a sock.
Much of what was revealed we already know. They met at an event in 2011 while she was a business student. She campaigned for him in the 2012 mayoral election, and the pair began exchanging text messages. She saved his name in her phone as ‘Alex the Great’. He spoke at her tech events before romping to victory in the 2012 mayoral election and they began seeing each other more often.
She describes an instant attraction. She, for example, was wowed by his dishevelled hair and he was attracted by a union jack bow in her hair (not the last time he would get over excited about a flag). By the time of the Paralympics their affair was in full bloom.
They had sex for the first time hours before he stood alongside his wife and the Princess Royal at the opening ceremony. For the next four years they continued the relationship before she broke things off to start a relationship with her current husband.
Why it matters
So far, so what. True, this is the first time either of them has explicitly admitted the affair, but let’s face it, if you’re still one of those people who think nothing went on, you’re also probably one of the people who gets excited by an email from a Nigerian prince.
But this story matters. It’s the first time Arcuri has been able to tell her side of the story. Plenty of people, not least Number 10 have been happy to tell it for her. She’s been portrayed as the money grabbing scarlet woman who latched onto a powerful man who she hoped could help her business.
Instead, as we see, he pursued her, even ‘begging’ for explicit photos by phone.
There is only one villain in this story and it’s Johnson. You can tell a lot about a person by what those closest to him have to say and the verdict from his former lovers is a resounding thumbs down.
Let’s look at his track record. This is a man with an indeterminate number of children from more than one affair, who left his ex-wife Marina Wheeler while she was battling cancer.
What a guy.
He treats those around him with contempt, never once stopping to think about the impact of his actions. If that’s what he’s like with those nearest to him, imagine what he’d be like if he ever got his hands on a position of power?
Most of all this should inform the ongoing investigation by the city of London into whether Johnson broke the code. We know from Arcuri’s interviews that he knew the relationship could be seen as a conflict of interests. She agrees he should have revealed the connection.
Although an investigation revealed he did nothing illegal, it did suggest that those making the decision were aware of the relationship and might have based their decision accordingly.
Staff tend to work in a way which they hope will please their bosses. Clearly, they felt that letting their boss’ mistress onto an official trade trip would be a good way to score brownie points, and they were probably right.
There is a culture of cronyism in this incarnation of the Conservative party. Jobs for friends, business contacts, local pub landlords or mistresses are all part and parcel of doing business. As we’ve seen with the unfolding scandal of the PPE procurement scandal, getting your feet under the table with the Tories is good for business. When they see a crisis coming along their first thought is how they and their friends can make a quick buck.
Not that any of this will matter. There was a time when politicians lived in fear of the kiss and tell stories, but that was a time when character and integrity mattered. Not anymore. Johnson will continue on regardless. People who can find rage at people fighting for their democratic rights, or the flying of flags are mysteriously blasé about a serial adulterer with a track record of dodgy deals.
The likes of Jacob Reese Mogg are always quick to highlight their religious beliefs. One has to ask how they square that with the behaviour of their bosses, or whether they are simply concerned with those passages in the bible which allow them to hate gay people or make sure rape victims have the babies of their abusers.
No matter what he does, no matter how badly he behaves the Conservative party looks the other way. It’s a party of hypocrites led by a charlatan. And that explains the mess the country is in today.