Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Boris Johnson Fails IQ Test Live On Air

Less than a week after Boris Johnson appeared to dismiss people with a low IQ, the inevitable has happened.

The mayor was faced with an impromptu intelligence test live on LBC on Tuesday morning - and flunked it.

"No-one said IQ is the only measure of ability", he spluttered after getting two questions wrong and refusing to answer a third.

Boris, whose Eton education was pointed out by a caller, said people were wilfully misconstruing what he had said, saying people at both ends of the spectrum needed to be helped.

"What I was saying is that there's too much inequality" he insisted.

David Cameron and George Osborne have distanced themselves from his comments, in the Margaret Thatcher lecture, when he noted that 16% of "our species" had an IQ below 85, and said more needed to be done for the 2% above 130.

And Nick Clegg accused him of "casual elitism" and talking about people "as if they are a breed of dogs".

Defending himself on LBC, he said: "What I was saying actually is there is too much inequality and my speech was actually a warning, as correctly reported by many newspapers, actually a warning against letting this thing go unchecked because if you look at what's happened in the last 20, 30 years there's been a widening in income between the rich and the poor, there's no question about that.

Boris also struggled to name the correct fare for a tube journey between Whitechapel and London Bridge, after TFL announced a fare increase.

There was silence on air as he appeared to rummage through paperwork before saying £6.70, which was wrong.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk
Author: The Huffington Post UK 

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