Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #198 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Jan 2021 › Segment 5 of 41
Why are British politicians so bad at interviews?
muftisAre the English bad at interviews? Boris Johnson's clumsiness and who profited from the pandemic
Watch the answer
Open on YouTube at 18:19The player starts at 18:19, where the answer begins.
This segment18:19 to 20:49 · 2 min 30 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenMufti Abu Layth says the English are not bad at interviews: Boris Johnson is very intelligent and plays up his clumsiness, and the elite grew richer in the pandemic.
In more detail
Asked why the English are so bad at handling interviews, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think they are, and that some politicians and spokespeople can be very good. He says Hancock is probably massively incompetent, but that Boris Johnson, though he may have a clumsy element to his personality, is actually very intelligent and plays into that clumsiness so that people forgive him, given his elite family and private education. He says nobody knew the best way to deal with COVID-19, but doubts the government's apologies and suspects things may have been allowed to happen. He wonders how many of the elite, the one percent, have benefited from what he calls the 'plandemic', saying their wealth grew significantly during the pandemic.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedWhy are the English so bad at handling interviews?
Position stated
Not yet double-checkedA summary of the view expressed is published here only after a second, independent review has found the sentence in the transcript where he says it. Until then, the transcript and the recording speak for themselves.
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine18:19 to 20:49 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
uh what's going on why are the English so bad at handling interviews I don't think the English are I think the English can be actually very good some politicians or even General spokespeople uh I think people like hanock Boris and you know okay I don't know about hanock he probably is massively incompetent you know Boris I think that he may have a clumsy element to his personality but I think he's actually very intelligent and I think he plays into that clumsiness
to have his um role more forgiving in the eyes of people because they kind of just think oh you know oh he's a [ __ ] you know oh he's stupid he's clumsy he whereas come on man all that I mean just being from who he is right from you know from a genetic dispos position from you know from his great-grandfather coming down Elite people playing you know key strategic roles in society to a um
affluent elitist private education come on these people ain't dumb I don't buy that they DB I think it's it is intentional whatever it is and and there is a there is a point of that they don't know as well sometimes like what is the best way to conquer let's say covid-19 now fair enough the whole world didn't know so I'm not saying that they had the answer but I don't think that this thing of oh you know sorry this happened that happened I I think they would have known and just either not kid or they may have allowed things
you know God knows how many people have benefited from this planemic seriously I wonder how many people have benefited and by people not just the the plebs on the ground they ain't benefited Jack I'm talking about the upper rather the high the elite echelons of society the the 1centers right so seriously uh you know they've made millions and Mill I mean their wealth has has significantly grown during the pandemic
Paragraphs overlapping 18:19 to 20:49. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2021-01-19-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/5/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, January 19). Why are British politicians so bad at interviews? [Video, segment 2021-01-19-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/5/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "Why are British politicians so bad at interviews?" Video, segment 2021-01-19-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded January 19, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/5/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2021-01-19-S05, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why are British politicians so bad at interviews?}}, year = {2021}, month = {1}, date = {2021-01-19}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/5/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/5/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2021-01-19-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.