Please can we stop calling Boris ‘Mr Johnson’?

Boris Johnson has undergone a makeover and no, it’s got nothing to do with his tidier hair and vanishing paunch. While Boris’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds has been busy transforming his appearance, journalists are now doing their bit to rebrand Boris too. I’m talking of course about Boris becoming Mr Johnson.

A ‘request’ from Channel 4’s Louisa Compton is doing the rounds telling reporters to ‘STOP referring to Boris Johnson as just ‘Boris’. She says:

‘He’s a politician – we shouldn’t use first names for politicians – doing so is over-familiar and gives the impression they’re our mates, or much loved comedy characters’.

Leaving aside that to some Boris is a comedy character, it is clear that a lot of the media has taken this advice to heart. There is now a conscious effort to ditch Boris and call him only Mr Johnson.