Kmflett's Blog

Johnson’s School Reports at Eton reveal the Politician of 2023

Sonia Purnell’s 2012 biography of Boris Johnson which is generally sympathetic to him was no doubt not written with the reality that 7 years later he would take the Tory Party into a General Election. I doubt she could have for seen then that he would also win it which makes her account of his Eton years even more interesting

It contains some interesting extracts from his school reports at Eton which suggest that he learnt what he could get away with there and has not changed since.

His personal tutor Andrew Hobson wrote a report which says in part ‘I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else’.

In a report of 5th April 1981 his Master in College Martin Hammond raises concerns about ‘lateness, non-appearance of work and a lack of organisation’.

In 1982 Hobson noted ‘Boris seems affronted when confronted with what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility’.

In July 1982 Hammond wrote, ‘Boris has something of a tendency to assume that success and honours will drop into his lap’. He went on to note that ‘efficiency and organisation have been constant problems’

None of the above of course prevented Boris Johnson from shining at Eton or, on occasion, since, but the juggling trick between bluster and substance can’t work for ever, as Johnson found out on 15^th June 2023